Chaos in Baltimore

[Raven]

Anyone watching/following this??

http://www.wbaltv.com/news/demonstra...imore/32595700

[EagleFan]

That is insane.

protest <> violence and looting

The family seems rather upset about this too.

[Raven]

Cars being set on fire. Stores being looted. This is spreading and isn't a single isolated area anymore. I need to leave work now because there's no telling what else is coming.

[frnk55]

Wow. Stay inside Raven! Ok maybe not don't stay inside. Get home safe!

[EagleFan]

Yes, please stay safe!

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by BillJasper

Seems like the relationship between the black community and the Baltimore PD is less than amicable and the broken neck represented the final straw.

...and a CVS, other stores, cabs, people driving past, etc... have what to do with that situation?

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

...and a CVS, other stores, cabs, people driving past, etc... have what to do with that situation?

Next month the community will complain that there are no jobs.

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

...and a CVS, other stores, cabs, people driving past, etc... have what to do with that situation?

Unfortunately that ends up being collateral damage. I don't approve of what they're doing but I do understand. Change usually doesn't come quietly and painlessly.

[frnk55]

Orioles game tonight? Hmmm. The hell if I would go.

[stevew]

They do know the Wizards only won their round 1 series, right?

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by BillJasper

Unfortunately that ends up being collateral damage. I don't approve of what they're doing but I do understand. Change usually doesn't come quietly and painlessly.

Give me a break.

The people doing this aren't doing it because of outrage over social injustice. They don't give a damn about the cause. They are criminals who saw an opportunity to create havoc and took it.

All they do is hurt the cause.

[Chief Rum]

They said it was for the black man
They said it was for the Mexican
And not for the white man
But if you look at the streets, it wasn't about Rodney King
In this fucked-up situation and these fucked-up police
It's about comin' up and stayin' on top
And screamin' 1-8-7 on a mother fuckin' cop
It's not in the paper, it's on the wall
National guard
Smoke from all around


(Stay safe, Raven)

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Give me a break.

The people doing this aren't doing it because of outrage over social injustice. They don't give a damn about the cause. They are criminals who saw an opportunity to create havoc and took it.

All they do is hurt the cause.

Everyone involved in criminal behavior should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. No doubt about it. But it is a by-product of what happened here. Without Freddy Gray, there is peace (relatively speaking) in Baltimore tonight.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by BillJasper

Everyone involved in criminal behavior should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. No doubt about it. But it is a by-product of what happened here. Without the rioters and looters, there is peace (relatively speaking) in Baltimore tonight.

fixed

[Raven]

Home safe. I work on the East side of the city, but luckily go through the tunnel so don't have to drive through this madness.

[JonInMiddleGA]

The amount of civic improvement that could be done with one simple airstrike is astonishing.

If not for the property damage anyhow.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

The amount of civic improvement that could be done with one simple airstrike is astonishing.

If not for the property damage anyhow.

Actually, when I was down there it was a matter of Hopkins (medical campus) eating up all of the areas where abandoned houses had been. Given enough time I think they'd end up owning a quarter of the city. Slower process of course. But some of those areas really weren't far off from post-air strike.

[CU Tiger]

Somehow I simultaneously wish the cops who brake checked and killed a young man could be hung in the street along side all of these idiots.

For many people the actions of the mob justify the actions of the cops post mortem.

[Raven]

State of Emergency declared

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I'm floored that anyone is shocked by what's happening in Baltimore. I lived there for two years in a nice neighborhood that was surrounded by bad neighborhoods. This is all opportunistic gang and drug activity and everyone in the city knows it. There's a good chunk of Baltimore where you shouldn't walk in no matter the time of day and people will drive 20 minutes out of the way to go around these areas. They're hiding behind the justification of this man's death, but they're just criminal opportunists and little else. Living in Baltimore will quickly teach you how lucky you are to live anywhere other than Baltimore (City).

[JonInMiddleGA]

March 20, 2015: Possession of a Controlled Dangerous Substance
March 13, 2015: Malicious destruction of property, second-degree assault
January 20, 2015: Fourth-degree burglary, trespassing
January 14, 2015: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance, possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute
December 31, 2014: Possession of narcotics with intent to distribute
December 14, 2014: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance
August 31, 2014: Illegal gambling, trespassing
January 25, 2014: Possession of marijuana
September 28, 2013: Distribution of narcotics, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance, second-degree assault, second-degree escape
April 13, 2012: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance, violation of probation
July 16, 2008: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance, possession with intent to distribute
March 28, 2008: Unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance
March 14, 2008: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to manufacture and distribute
February 11, 2008: Unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance, possession of a controlled dangerous substance
August 29, 2007: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute, violation of probation
August 28, 2007: Possession of marijuana
August 23, 2007: False statement to a peace officer, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance
July 16, 2007: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance (2 counts)

It truly - no hyperbole, quite literally - astonishes, confounds, and utterly mystifies me why ANYONE gives the slightest rat's ass that this guy is no longer an oxygen consumer.

[Suicane75]

This isn't going to end well. Baltimore, this thread, existence in general.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Suicane75

This isn't going to end well. Baltimore, this thread, existence in general.

It's life ... nobody gets out alive.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Crusader for social justice captures the moment for posterity

[NobodyHere]

When I saw the thread title my first thought was that the Kansas City Royals were playing the Orioles tonight.

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

It truly - no hyperbole, quite literally - astonishes, confounds, and utterly mystifies me why ANYONE gives the slightest rat's ass that this guy is no longer an oxygen consumer.

Due process would seem to be an important part of our legal system. Regardless of the character of the person being arrested.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

When I saw the thread title my first thought was that the Kansas City Royals were playing the Orioles tonight.

The White Sox are in town. Rumor is that Samardzija and Sale both entered the CVS and picked a fight with the cashier.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by BillJasper

Due process would seem to be an important part of our legal system. Regardless of the character of the person being arrested.

What is happening in Baltimore has absolutely no relevance to whether due process will occur in this situation.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

What is happening in Baltimore has absolutely no relevance to whether due process will occur in this situation.

But it has everything to due with what happened before this situation.

It truly - no hyperbole, quite literally - astonishes, confounds, and utterly mystifies me why ANYONE wouldn't give a rat's ass that someone taken into custody suffers a broken neck and crushed windpipe while in custody, and no one claims to have seen anything.

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

It truly - no hyperbole, quite literally - astonishes, confounds, and utterly mystifies me why ANYONE gives the slightest rat's ass that this guy is no longer an oxygen consumer.

See, e.g., the New Testament. It's not my place to judge the worthiness or lack thereof of another human being's life.

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

See, e.g., the New Testament. It's not my place to judge the worthiness or lack thereof of another human being's life.

For many people, they only care about the parts of the Bible or Constitution that they agree with it.

[CU Tiger]

Jon this is where I divert from you strongly philosophically.

If the law read that after X number of offenses criminals were hung in the street at high noon, I think the country would be a better place.

However for our entire government and justice system to function it depends on due process.

For a LEO to create aa new punishment and carry it out by brake checking a man and snapping his spinal cord while his hands were bound behind his back and he wasnt restrained in a seat belt, makes that cop a murdered. And for that the cop should swing in the street beside the drug dealer.

I dont want to live in a world where uneducated, minimally trained, poorly compensated people get to decide your fate based upon their mood at the moment.

[Lathum]

No one deserves to die that way.

That being said, every time we see this happen it makes me wonder more and more if young black men even care about furthering themselves as a group.

I get the anger, I get the outrage. I don't get the destruction, and every time it happens the message gets further diluted.

I can't help but think MLK would be rolling over in his grave.

Is that a thought I am allowed to have as an upper middle class white guy? Is that a dialogue we can have?

[cartman]

Orioles COO John Angelos offers eye-opening perspective on Baltimore protests | For The Win

[JPhillips]

That said, my greater source of personal concern, outrage and sympathy beyond this particular case is focused neither upon one night’s property damage nor upon the acts, but is focused rather upon the past four-decade period during which an American political elite have shipped middle class and working class jobs away from Baltimore and cities and towns around the U.S. to third-world dictatorships like China and others, plunged tens of millions of good, hard-working Americans into economic devastation, and then followed that action around the nation by diminishing every American’s civil rights protections in order to control an unfairly impoverished population living under an ever-declining standard of living and suffering at the butt end of an ever-more militarized and aggressive surveillance state.

This.

[nol]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I can't help but think MLK would be rolling over in his grave.

Is this some other MLK different from the one who wrote a famous letter from the Birmingham jail?

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by nol

Is this some other MLK different from the one who wrote a famous letter from the Birmingham jail?

Was he arrested for stealing toilet paper?

I can see attempting an actual dialog about this is pointless.

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by Lathum

No one deserves to die that way.

That being said, every time we see this happen it makes me wonder more and more if young black men even care about furthering themselves as a group.

I would guess there's a point where hopelessness sets in...

The Skin I’m In: I've been interrogated by police more than 50 times—all because I'm black

[cartman]

Originally Posted by nol

Is this some other MLK different from the one who wrote a famous letter from the Birmingham jail?

.

.

Originally Posted by MLK's letter from Birmingham Jail

“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Lathum

No one deserves to die that way.

Are you sure that is a majority opinion? Because while I agree with what you are saying, I am not sure that this is a majority opinion.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

See, e.g., the New Testament. It's not my place to judge the worthiness or lack thereof of another human being's life.

See, reality.

Animals will, by and large, behave as animals.

And the exact same thing is true if these were 4th generation pot growers (descending from moonshine runner) in the northeast Georgia mountains, dudes so white that they (literally) have never seen more than two black people in the same place. If they have the same rapsheet, I have exactly the conclusion: the world is fractionally better off if they're absent from it.

Race isn't the issue, behavior is.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I can't help but think MLK would be rolling over in his grave.

Is that a thought I am allowed to have as an upper middle class white guy? Is that a dialogue we can have?

Boondocks thought much the same and it airs on a rather white network. I think that makes it at least somewhat fair to mention, I mean you could have been exposed to it from a minority production rather than having such an unconscionable thought on your own.

You'll still be hung, drawn and quartered ... but it's not unreasonable.

[Raven]

Originally Posted by nol

Is this some other MLK different from the one who wrote a famous letter from the Birmingham jail?

Was that letter encouraging people to rob and loot local businesses, destroy others property, attack innocent people, set your city on fire, destroy the homes of your neighbors?

[nol]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

See, reality.

Animals will, by and large, behave as animals.

And the exact same thing is true if these were 4th generation pot growers (descending from moonshine runner) in the northeast Georgia mountains, dudes so white that they (literally) have never seen more than two black people in the same place. If they have the same rapsheet, I have exactly the conclusion: the world is fractionally better off if they're absent from it.

Race isn't the issue, behavior is.

You just equated rapsheet with behavior two paragraphs after playing the "reality" card.

"The world is better off without drug dealers" is a broad enough generalization that the majority of people everywhere from Baltimore to Bumfuck, Georgia would agree with - if it costs them nothing. In practice, someone from rural Georgia or suburbia decides that the benefit of ridding the world of everyone who sells drugs isn't worth the extra taxes and/or police surveillance.

[Edward64]

May have missed it but am surprised that we haven't heard from Al or Jesse yet? My guess we'll hear from Obama Tue.

I do believe there are some bad cops, some undertrained cops, some cops that shouldn't be cops. I'm all for camera's to keep them in check and also to protect them.

With that said, I think the majority of these rioters are bums and lost causes who will never be productive citizens, just looking for an excuse to riot, destroy and steal.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

Jon this is where I divert from you strongly philosophically.

If the law read that after X number of offenses criminals were hung in the street at high noon, I think the country would be a better place.

However for our entire government and justice system to function it depends on due process.

For a LEO to create aa new punishment and carry it out by brake checking a man and snapping his spinal cord while his hands were bound behind his back and he wasnt restrained in a seat belt, makes that cop a murdered. And for that the cop should swing in the street beside the drug dealer.

I dont want to live in a world where uneducated, minimally trained, poorly compensated people get to decide your fate based upon their mood at the moment.

This. I'm also disturbed by the lack of a direct response to this excellent point:

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

See, e.g., the New Testament. It's not my place to judge the worthiness or lack thereof of another human being's life.

To which I would, and in the Old Testament as well.

There's a good argument to be made that this kind of murder by those who are supposed to protect us is far worse than what the drug dealer did.

[Izulde]

"Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give that to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends."

[AENeuman]

Originally Posted by Lathum

That being said, every time we see this happen it makes me wonder more and more if young black men even care about furthering themselves as a group.

My experiences with young black men has mostly been entertaining ...and I guess this is no exception.

I'd like to do something about it, but they are just so darn exploitable.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by cartman

Orioles COO John Angelos offers eye-opening perspective on Baltimore protests | For The Win

I understand what he's saying, but the part about jobs is kind of silly when the same people are burning down businesses that actually produce jobs.

[RainMaker]

It definitely seems like the cops fucked up. There should be changes made. Probably people brought up on charges.

But I don't understand what you gain by burning down your community. If your goal is to keep businesses and anyone with money away, job well done. Don't expect sympathy from others though when your life is shit.