Posted on 05/01/2015 8:30:13 AM PDT by Kaslin
The sad scenes playing out in Baltimore are made sadder by the fact that more such incidents are likely over the coming years.
That's because the problems in Baltimore did not begin with the arrest and death of Freddie Gray. Tensions have been building for a very long time. Other cities from coast to coast have similar tensions ready to boil over.
Some tensions are common to all cities -- pockets of economic devastation, laws that are enforced more strictly in some parts of town than others, bad apples among the police, thugs in the community and more.
Some are specific to each city. In Baltimore, the tensions became apparent more than a decade ago when the city inadvertently assumed a prominent role in the Stop Snitchin' movement. Before that, in 2002, a Baltimore woman and her entire family were murdered after alerting police to illegal activities in her neighborhood.
The good news is that there are people on all sides in this tough situation who want to heal their cities. The bad news is that most people -- and certainly most media coverage -- are focused on who to blame. In the blame game, people from different walks of life see what they want to see.
Some see oppressive and racist police. Others see criminal thugs looking to destroy and steal.
In one now-famous incident, a mom slapped her son and pushed him away from the protests. Watching it, I saw a woman who just wanted her only son to be safe. She wasn't thinking about politics or role models or the cameras. She knew her son was in danger and acted to protect him.
That didn't stop others from reading great symbolism into her actions.
Some people, including the police commissioner, dubbed her a "Hero Mom." On Huffington Post, however, Julia Craven pointed out that the mom was protecting her son from the police. One local resident said white America called this woman a hero simply because she was doing what white America wanted to do to all black Americans and their children.
How can people look at the same situation and come up with entirely different conclusions? In Creativity, Inc., Pixar founder Ed Catmull highlighted research showing that only 40 percent of what we see comes from our eyes. The rest is filled in with what our brains expect to see. On the issue of minorities and police departments, the expectations are wildly different, and we've stopped looking more closely at the reality.
That's why we're likely to see more cities burning in the coming years. The tensions exist, and sooner or later a police incident will ignite the fuse. The specifics of the incident won't matter nearly as much as the underlying anger. People will see 40 percent of the story with their eyes, and they'll fill in the rest with what they expect to see.
The only way to avoid such a dismal outcome is to change the other 60 percent of what we "see." Wise city leaders will get people to "see" the reality that the vast majority of both the police and the minority communities want to make things work. Only after that is a shared recognition can people begin to establish the trust needed to make the cities safer and fairer.
Unexpected
But, the liberals told us that Ferguson was due to a white majority police force, and white mayor/city council/power structure dominating a majority black town.
So when we see the same type of rioting in Baltimore, they can’t be intellectually honest and tell us the same causes of unrest. Baltimore has a black mayor, mostly black city council, black chief of police, and largely black police force.
The power structure of Baltimore is dominated by blacks, governing their mostly black city. So where is the racism in the case of Baltimore???
I have seen it suggested here on this forum that these are false flag events. Not so sure that I disagree with that idea.
Planned Events: #BlackSpring coming to your city. http://fergusonresponse.tumblr.com/
This is a “given”. It has been for quite a while. Any sane person not of a mind to become or stay an urban denizen should have realized this long ago.
If you live in or near an area that is served by mass transit, rail, or bus lines, you are going to eventually be in danger from the infestations of urban cities controlled by Democrats or minorities.
That won’t change. The prudent thing to do for those inclined is to move out into this vast country where those conditions don’t exist. From my perspective, I really could give a crap happens in these places.
yep, no one else to thank than that community agitator in the White House.
That Alien is using his bitterness to divide the nation. At some point, whitey will wake up and take it back.
You are right. As time passes: police get more nervous and trigger happy, police chiefs get more hesitant and circle the wagons, police protection dwindles, rioters get bolder and more damaging, white/black antagonism increases, and the specter of vigilantism rises, etc.
Obama's goal: National Marshall law prior to cancelling the next election.
Have we seen any rioting in major cities with republicans in charge of the city? Not that I’m aware of.
As for the riots; hey democrats! You built that!
There will also be more Baltimores and Fergusons because it facilitates the drive to Federalize police departments. The DOJ and the myriad of leftist front groups are in there stoking the fires for Obama so he can get his national police force, one riot at a time, until critical mass is reached and local autonomy is extinguished.
Also, it’s a lie from hell that whites want to, metaphorically or otherwise, slap a black person upside the head. For me and the whites I know and love, all we want is to stay the heck away from them. If it harms them that we want to stay away from them, then something is wrong with them, not us.
And then some people ask: why is it always a certain demographic involved with/causing all the commotion? The demographic that is at the top of the crime stats and the bottom of the achievement ladder.
Evil Whitey works in mysterious ways.
I wonder if they even notice that the Hispanics are sitting this one out?
Kind of you to do that.
The most likely places for another riot are: Camden, NJ, Atlantic City, NJ away from the casinos, Oakland, CA, south-central Los Angeles, CA, and possibly parts of Philadelphia, PA.
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