Baltimore Riots & The Death of Freddie Gray

[mmm]

Judging by my use of the word "more," you can tell that I am more concerned with with larger civil rights issue at stake. I would also like some evidence in this situation that indicates how exactly burning down a CVS and preventing the fire department from extinguishing the flames.

Rioting polarizes people, it doesn't bring them together. And unity is necessary to solve these issues of minority abuse (think external monitors, how popular opinion will disseminate knowledge of the abuse to others, VOTES). George Takei always mentions how important it is that the LGBT community has support from their straight allies. And with most of our politicians generally being older white men, we need to present the Black Lives Matter movement in a peaceful manner that they can agree with.

[Shadowstar1922]

Judging by my use of the word "more," you can tell that I am more concerned with with larger civil rights issue at stake. I would also like some evidence in this situation that indicates how exactly burning down a CVS and preventing the fire department from extinguishing the flames.

Rioting polarizes people, it doesn't bring them together. And unity is necessary to solve these issues of minority abuse (think external monitors, how popular opinion will disseminate knowledge of the abuse to others, VOTES). George Takei always mentions how important it is that the LGBT community has support from their straight allies. And with most of our politicians generally being older white men, we need to present the Black Lives Matter movement in a peaceful manner that they can agree with.

A peaceful protest can only happen when the government isn't actively trying to persecute and abuse them.

Via ThinkProgress: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/0 ... umstances/
Kevin Moore, the man who filmed police arresting Freddie Gray and dragging him on the ground was arrested on Thursday night, along with two other cop watchers from Ferguson.
“The man who recorded one of two videos showing Baltimore cops dragging a screaming Freddie Gray into the back of a police van was arrested Thursday night, two days after voicing concerns that police were trying to intimidate him by plastering his photo all over the news, saying they wanted to interview him,” reads a We CopWatch Facebook post. After the incident occurred, We CopWatch tweeted that a gun was pointed at Moore.
Shortly after his release, Moore detailed the events leading up to his arrest, in a webcast discussion with Photography Is Not a Crime’s Carlos Miller. Moore says he was protesting with Ferguson cop watchers on North Avenue, shouting obscenities and wearing an Anonymous mask. Once the group left, officers arrested them without issuing a citation or explaining what the charges were. He was released later that night.
During the webcast, Moore also said that he’s faced police intimidation since filming Gray’s arrest. Although the cop watcher handed over the video footage to the Police Department’s Office of Internal Oversight, officers allegedly told the public that he was wanted for questioning. Moore told the Baltimore Sun that officers were trying to intimidate him by circulating his photo and asking people who he was. “For the police to post that picture and say you don’t know who I am, that’s B.S. You know who I am,” he said.
“I don’t know how close I can work with these guys, if they still won’t even say how they feel. They there was something wrong there; they know it was foul play all the way around,” Moore told Miller. “They treat terrorists better than they treat us.”
Watch the video:

This isn’t the first time a person who recorded officers using excessive force was arrested. Weeks after filming the chokehold death of Eric Garner, Ramsey Orta was arrested for two counts of criminal possession of a semiautomatic handgun and trying to give the firearm to a teenager on the street. Orta denies that he was in possession of a gun when the NYPD arrested him. “When they searched me, they didn’t find nothing on me. And the same cop that searched me, he told me clearly himself, that karma’s a bitch, what goes around comes around,” he told SILive.com. “I had nothing to do with this. I would be stupid to walk around with a gun after me being in the spotlight.”

[Shadowstar1922]

Another article about protesters being jailed for days without medical attention or food.
Via ThinkProgress: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/0 ... l-booking/
In Baltimore’s Central Booking, protesters and rioters are being withheld food for up to 18 hours, denied medical attention and detained for extended periods of time with up to 20 people in small cells intended to hold many less, two Baltimore public defenders told ThinkProgress.
Deputy District Public Defender Natalie Finegar said she spoke with her clients Wednesday night as they were being released from detention. Many spoke about the inhumane conditions and overcrowding and questioned why they were being held unlawfully.
“One [story] I heard described was that folks went 18 hours without food at one point and that when they were given food, it was a series of slices of bread with a small slice of cheese,” Finegar said.
The facility is facing a higher arrest rate than it’s capable of handling due to the influx of arrests following the riots that occurred on the streets of Baltimore over the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray.
“In cells that were designed for 8 people, they had 15 to 20 people,” she said. She also described one person who had an open wound and was worried he wasn’t getting the necessary medical attention to check for infections.
The stories Finegar heard corroborate the information shared by another Baltimore public defender, Marci Tarrant-Johnson, who posted on her personal Facebook Thursday about the conditions she observed. Her post, which described hearing that people saved their bread slices to use as pillows, quickly went viral.
“They were very upset,” Tarrant-Johnson told ThinkProgress about the women she spoke with, many of whom had been held for days without speaking to any officials. “We were dealing with a particular group of people who hadn’t even been charged with anything, so they were very confused about what the process was, why they hadn’t been seen, why nobody had talked to them.”
Some of the women were from out of town and had friends, family members and employers wondering where they were and why they had been missing for days, she said.
“The purpose of that booking process is all supposed to happen in a matter of hours,” Finegar said. “Under the Maryland rules, you should either be committed or be released… and certainly within 24 hours. So this process is not supposed to be taking days and folks should not be spending that much time on the booking floor in the cell.”
Close to 100 people were released on Wednesday with no charges filed against them, according to the Guardian. Because of an executive order signed by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), law enforcement was given the right to hold people for 48 hours before they were presented to district court officials for booking.
“As a lawyer representing these individuals that were subject to his proposed order, we believe he didn’t actually have the authority to grant that order,” Finegar said.
Even when those arrested are being committed and offered bond, people are being assigned widely varying bond amounts, some reaching up to $750,000, according to the Pretrial Justice Institute. While Tarrant-Johnson said the Baltimore detention system has systematic problems and not all of the issues are new, it’s unusual for people to be held so long without charges.
“I’ve been a lawyer at the public defender’s office for 20 years and I’ve never seen anything quite like this.”

[mmm]

So the streets aren't filled with thousands of peacefully demonstrating protestors? I find it hard to believe that those arrested belonged to the responsible group of citizens who protest peacefully and within the curfew allowances.

[Shadowstar1922]

So the streets aren't filled with thousands of peacefully demonstrating protestors? I find it hard to believe that those arrested belonged to the responsible group of citizens who protest peacefully and within the curfew allowances.

They were, mmm. The series of events point towards it.

The BPD with a horrible record of abusing its citizens, does not all of a sudden turn into moral crusaders doing the right thing to keep stability when its people begin to protest, that doesn't happen. You're obviously ignoring Baltimore's history by focusing your complaints on the people.

[mmm]

So the streets aren't filled with thousands of peacefully demonstrating protestors? I find it hard to believe that those arrested belonged to the responsible group of citizens who protest peacefully and within the curfew allowances.

They were, mmm. The series of events point towards it.

The BPD with a horrible record of abusing its citizens, does not all of a sudden turn into moral crusaders doing the right thing to keep stability when its people begin to protest, that doesn't happen. You're obviously ignoring Baltimore's history by focusing your complaints on the people.

This is so far from what I'm trying to say. I'm not sure if you're 1) Lumping me with racists and arguing against them 2) Taking massive amounts of hallucinagens or 3) Choosing not to listen to what I am saying

I'm on your team. I believe black lives matter. I believe the city has shown poor and corrupt decision making when it comes to how they treat their citizens. I also believe that the riots are alienating those who would otherwise support the movement.

If you cannot accept that last premise as the fact it is, you are sick with the belief that everything is black and white and you are on the white side; no movements you believe in can do any modicum of harm.

[Shadowstar1922]

So the streets aren't filled with thousands of peacefully demonstrating protestors? I find it hard to believe that those arrested belonged to the responsible group of citizens who protest peacefully and within the curfew allowances.

They were, mmm. The series of events point towards it.

The BPD with a horrible record of abusing its citizens, does not all of a sudden turn into moral crusaders doing the right thing to keep stability when its people begin to protest, that doesn't happen. You're obviously ignoring Baltimore's history by focusing your complaints on the people.

This is so far from what I'm trying to say. I'm not sure if you're 1) Lumping me with racists and arguing against them 2) Taking massive amounts of hallucinagens or 3) Choosing not to listen to what I am saying

I'm on your team. I believe black lives matter. I believe the city has shown poor and corrupt decision making when it comes to how they treat their citizens. I also believe that the riots are alienating those who would otherwise support the movement.

If you cannot accept that last premise as the fact it is, you are sick with the belief that everything is black and white and you are on the white side; no movements you believe in can do any modicum of harm.

I also agree that the riots are negative when it comes to joining the movement, it's just there's a bigger picture here and I wish people would focus on the bigger picture.

[mmm]

So the streets aren't filled with thousands of peacefully demonstrating protestors? I find it hard to believe that those arrested belonged to the responsible group of citizens who protest peacefully and within the curfew allowances.

They were, mmm. The series of events point towards it.

The BPD with a horrible record of abusing its citizens, does not all of a sudden turn into moral crusaders doing the right thing to keep stability when its people begin to protest, that doesn't happen. You're obviously ignoring Baltimore's history by focusing your complaints on the people.

This is so far from what I'm trying to say. I'm not sure if you're 1) Lumping me with racists and arguing against them 2) Taking massive amounts of hallucinagens or 3) Choosing not to listen to what I am saying

I'm on your team. I believe black lives matter. I believe the city has shown poor and corrupt decision making when it comes to how they treat their citizens. I also believe that the riots are alienating those who would otherwise support the movement.

If you cannot accept that last premise as the fact it is, you are sick with the belief that everything is black and white and you are on the white side; no movements you believe in can do any modicum of harm.

I also agree that the riots are negative when it comes to joining the movement, it's just there's a bigger picture here and I wish people would focus on the bigger picture.

Thank you XD
Sure there is a bigger picture. I was just surprised at the popularity of the point of view I mentioned.

[Foopzheart]

Riots solve no problems, and never have. That's all I'm going to say.

[Shadowstar1922]

Riots solve no problems, and never have. That's all I'm going to say.

hold on a minute buddy but i think u need to pick up a history book, specifically on revolutions, both armed and political.

In the United States alone, riots for socio-economic justice sparked landmarks in the expansion of both civil and economic rights.

The Haymarket Riot of 1886 gave us the 8 hour work day, freeing the American proletariat from harsh, exhausting, stressing, and sometimes fatal work.

The 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain sparked the awareness of the horrid conditions coal miners were forced to go through. This lead legislation being passed in various parts of the US to expand workers rights and environmental protections, and quite possibly, sparked every further movement to expand the rights and protections of the common American worker.

The Stonewall Riots of 1969 sparked the Gay Rights Movement, and over the space of 50 years have lead to crucial studies on homosexuality, bisexuality, and the overall tolerance and acceptance of those not of heterosexuality. As of now, the US is close to passing gay marriage nation wide, as well as over 20 states granting full and complete economic protection in the workplace for the LGBTQ community.

The Civil Rights Movements of the 60's saw many riots, before, during and after MLK's various peaceful marches and speeches. This movement undoubtedly marked American politics to continuously discuss the race topic. This has prompted numerous local and state governments to begin aid to bring the African American community out of the ghettos they originally put them in. It even prompted the US National government to begin a program to repair the ghettos nation wide (this was defunded during the Vietnam War and was never continued again, becoming the reason why ghettos exist in the United States and the continued class struggle of the poor against socio-economic injustice)

Riots in the late 1700s in France sparked the French Revolution. The importance of the first socialist revolution in history was critical to the formation and popularization of democratic, republican governments abandoning the monarchical theme and shifting to governments to serve the people. Along with the American and Polish Revolutions of the 1700s, the French is most notable for its more radical opinions and revolutionized theories on the government permanently. Many economists, sociologists, psychologists, political scientists, and those who study government can link their professions and founders to the French Revolution. Though the French Revolution failed, as did its protest, its burn on human civilization never ended, and its questions it asked and further caused, still have us discussing today and questioning the government.

The riots in Hungary in the 1950's prompted a short lived civil war fighting for democratic socialism in the fascist authoritarian grip of the Soviet Union. The Hungarian riots and its armed revolutionaries sparked government dissent of the Soviet Bloc against the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic, which lead up to Poland becoming the founding father of transrights with their Warsaw Circuit Act of 1967 (correct this year idk if its 67) that expanded trans rights.

The factory protests of 1908 in St. Petersburg, Russia, was an eyeopener to the Russian nation that the Imperial Government was a failure and that the Russian proletariat was being harshly discriminated and exploited to fund a failed, unproductive imperialistic expansion into Eastern Europe. The protests evolved into riots when the Russian Army began to open fire, which lead to many defects of the Russian Army and eventually, the Russian Civil War (aka the Socialist Revolution, or the October Revolution) Though the Russian Civil War failed in its efforts to establish a Marxist Republic with the death of Lenin and the rise of the fascist, Josef Stalin, leaders of the revolution inspired countless freedom fighters throughout the world in demanding economic protections and the empowerment of the proletariat and the disenfranchized. Revolutionary leaders throughout history can link their efforts to the Russian Civil War, such as Nelson Mandela, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Mohammad Mossadegh, MLK, Ghandi, and many more.

I can honestly go on, but I think these key moments in history can tell you and everyone else that Riots do accomplish things, great things.