"It's Our Moment It's Our Time"
Posted on 05/02/2015 11:58:35 PM PDT by Uhhh
Over the past 24 hours, the Internet has exploded with commentary and armchair analysis on the riots in Baltimore. The civil unrest started just hours after the funeral of Freddie Gray, a citizen whose spinal cord was injured “mysteriously” while in the back of a police van.
Gray, an African American, died on April 19.
At a press conference on Friday, BPD Commissioner Anthony Batts admitted at least one glaring failure of his department: that Gray did not get the medical care he ought to have received while in police custody.
Batts, a self-described reformist, forcefully asserted that he’s doing his best to work against a police culture in a city rife with problems. Even Baltimore’s mayor has called interactions between residents and police a “broken relationship.” Despite calls for his resignation, Batts insisted that he was staying. He was there to change things, because things desperately need to be changed.
Late last year, the The Baltimore Sun reported that the police department there had settled $5.7 million worth of claims since 2011 in cases involving over 100 people who alleged excessive force or brutality at the hands of police. Many of the cops involved faced no real consequences: “Department officials said some officers were exonerated in internal force investigations,” writes Mark Puente, “even though jurors and the city awarded thousands of dollars to battered residents in those incidents.”
In other words, there is a serious problem in Baltimore, and it’s an example of the problems endemic in American policing overall. Endemic is the right word, too. Based upon the evidence available to us, these aren’t isolated incidents. Over the past year alone, we’ve seen or read about: a man, who later died, being strangled by police on camera; a man being shot to death in the back by a police officer; a teenager being shot to death by a police officer; and, now, Freddie Gray, a man who suffered a fatal spinal cord injury while in police custody.
All of those men were unarmed. They were all people of color, too. They’re not the only ones, either: People of color are disproportionately, and regularly, killed by police. And The Nation explains that, thanks to the way the system is set up, it’s basically “impossible” to indict a cop for killing someone.
It’s clear that there exists a problem between American police and people of color specifically. That remains true even when people of color are in authority. Here in Philadelphia, we currently have a black mayor and police commissioner, just like Baltimore. Before marijuana decriminalization late last year, though, we Philadelphians were arresting people of color at a rate four to five times that of whites for the same crimes.
Philadelphia isn’t an outlier. Following the Ferguson protests last year, USA Today looked into arrest data nationwide. “At least 70 departments scattered from Connecticut to California,” writes Brad Heath, “arrested black people at a rate 10 times higher than people who are not black.” Overall, a “staggering disparity” exists between whites and blacks in terms of custodial arrests.
Now, some white people are going to say that this data exists because black people commit more crime. But The Washington Post reported in December that whites typically overestimate and inflate the percentage of crime committed by African Americans. In fact, part of the reason whites do think this way is likely attributable to those institutional arrest disparities in the first place, explains The New York Times‘ Charles Blow.
So: Legal and civil means for dealing with this situation have not satisfactorily resolved the problem. Why are we surprised when people who fear for their lives get angry and interfere with social order? Even America’s patron saint of peaceful resistance, Martin Luther King, Jr., talked specifically about rioting and disruptions as an understandable component of social change. When the terms of how to “acceptably” change things are dictated by people who are the root cause of the problem — people in authority — then the “acceptable” or “legal” or “civil” ways to change things are, in fact, frequently oppressive.
It’s the same reason LGBT people rioted repeatedly in the 20th century, often in response to police brutality or failures of the legal system rooted in homophobia and bigotry.
Which brings us to the point of this post.
Over the past 24 hours, I have witnessed a wide array of responses to the rioting that took place in Baltimore following Gray’s funeral. Many white people responding to the riots in Baltimore are either ignorant or outright racist.
First, given all aforementioned issues surrounding arrest disparities, police brutality, and nothing being done to stop it, there is a reason for people to be angry. This is an issue that demands redress. Anyone claiming it is not an issue, that “black people should stop committing crimes,” is either ignorant of all the facts I just outlined, or they simply don’t care — and whether it’s ignorance or callousness that leads them to whimsically dismiss the concerns of people of color, that dismissal amounts to racism.
Second, I have seen many people bemoan the riots in Baltimore as their first foray into social commentary. Prior to this, many of them said nothing about Freddie Gray, his spinal cord being severed, or his untimely death immediately following being in police custody. In other words, only when people of color are behaving “badly” do these armchair analysts feel moved to opine about the state of American policing. If they said nothing about Freddie Gray yet are bloviating about the riots that happened in direct response to Gray’s death, then guess what: They are racist, whether consciously or not, looking for an excuse to characterize people of color as lazy criminals.
Third, many white people have been inclined to call people of color “animals” or “thugs” in the past day. But in fact, all human beings are human beings. The words “animals” and “thugs” are often used as code — as a dog whistle in place of arguably the most offensive word in American English. Even Questlove pointed this out on Twitter. Ironically, white people who chomp at the bit to call people of color “animals” say literally nothing whenever fellow white people riot, which happens frequently after sporting events or following pedophilia scandals.
Fourth, and lastly, a great many white liberals have clutched their pearls, first after demonstrations in Ferguson and now after the goings-on in Baltimore. Many have taken to Facebook to call for peace, saying that damaging property is a terrible thing. This is an unnecessary observation akin to “the sky is blue.” Yes, damaging property is bad. No, it does not require your observation. If you’re actually an “ally” to marginalized communities in America, don’t tell those communities how they should or should not act in response to society’s brutality or refusal to change.
We should care much more about all the innocent people getting killed by police than about property damage. Why is this confusing? We should care more about human life than about money.
If you value plate-glass windows more than you value the life of a person of color, you are being racist.
” from Connecticut to California,” writes Brad Heath, “arrested black people at a rate 10 times higher than people who are not black.” Overall, a “staggering disparity” exists between whites and blacks in terms of custodial arrests.
Now, some white people are going to say that this data exists because black people commit more crime. But The Washington Post reported in December that whites typically overestimate and inflate the percentage of crime committed by African Americans.”
Fool. Do a search for “brawl” on YouTube and you’ll realize it should be 20 to 1.
"It's Our Moment It's Our Time"
Per my last post - what gives one lawless ‘person of color’ the right to deprive a lawful ‘person of color’ of his livelihood and only means of support? How is the lawless’ lives worth more than the lawful?
Described as “an effeminate man-child” and “a radical homosexual activist” by critics, Josh Kruger is an award-winning commentator and writer in Philadelphia.The “critics” are not named.
Some of Josh’s work includes his candid, personal experiences with homelessness, HIV/AIDS, and drug addiction. In 2014, the Society of Professional Journalists called his work “mesmerizing. Not just an unusual point of view, but excellent writing, too.” …
I think we have to put this into the right prospective.
Baltimore, with the exception of a three-thousand foot circular area around the National Aquarium (includes the Orioles stadium)...it’s a virtual no-go town. The Greenmount Avenue area is a place you have to avoid at all costs....day or night. The northeast end of town (roughly 16 square miles) is where you go for drugs and homicide.
Cops in general with Baltimore...either have given up on town or simply doing a ‘show-and-tell’ game to convince the convention crowd that the harbor area is totally protected (that’s where they put the bulk of their resources) and they intend to make it their ‘final stand’.
Our guy Freddy? Toxicology reports have leaked and it shows Freddy had a heroin habit. You can survive for a long while on the drug, but your sense of survival will reach a point where you will do anything to get the money for a fix. Freddy was living off borrowed time, and while it’s a joke the way that he went (back of a cop van)...it could have easily been Freddy reported dead in some back alley with a needle still in his arm.
The cops in Baltimore? A public service job at best. They hustle thugs, pimps, hookers, druggies, etc...in, and a couple of hours later...the same folks get released via bail. Court meetings are just a game of sorts....the lawyers discuss some negotiation scheme...some judge stamps it....life goes on. There’s no success story for the cops to talk about.
Maybe Baltimore was significant and a worthwhile place...but that was 1970 when the Orioles put Boog Powell and Brooks Robinson at the corners and easily won the World Series. Baltimore was a fairly safe town in those days.
AFAIK, no shop in LA that had armed defenders was successfully looted after the arrival of the defenders.
Josh Kruger is BOTH ignorant and racist.
Not only that, he’s a precious little snowflake who mustn’t have his notions challenged.
White people and black people know this to be true. The statistics are well researched and staggering in their implications. If it weren’t for black law violators, we’d need 1/10th the prisons, we’d live in a society where violent crime was darned near non-existent, and our police departments could do all that’s needed with half their present numbers.
Josh Kruger agrees with the airhead Celine Dion on “let zem tuch nice tings” just so long as they aren’t touching his things.
Guaranteed that he’d be outraged if the mob bashed his door in and stole the little limp wrists possessions.
Outraged enough to, my word, call the police.
I say the plate glass windows are MORE valuable than the thuuuuugs that be throwin' rocks and tables.
I suspect not.
I love the smell of HARP Ozone generator in the morning. It smells like toasty liberal troll.
The author of this scribble cites a telephone survey in the Washington Post. I think I’ll go with the FBI stats.
If Lincoln had a peak into the future, he never would have signed the emancipation declaration. I am sure of it.
Oh great...another white liberal that’s available to tell everyone about racism. Oh boy.
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