And here goes... We now have windows broken and they trying set a car on fire
I'm at Camden Yards right now. We just witnessed a mini riot of people throwing barricades at a bar right outside the stadium. Not really sure what was going on. Police Twitter says things are being thrown. At least one highway entrance is closed.
We picked quite a day for our first ever trip to Baltimore.
Post by matildasun on Apr 25, 2015 17:53:26 GMT -5
The helicopter traffic is really loud right now. I was feeling guilty about not joining the peaceful protest earlier, but am glad to not be downtown or stuck on the highway right now.
The helicopter traffic is really loud right now. I was feeling guilty about not joining the peaceful protest earlier, but am glad to not be downtown or stuck on the highway right now.
I kinda feel the same way. H was down there and kinda wanted to stay for support. But was concerned chaos would break out.
Post by cookiemdough on Apr 25, 2015 18:03:08 GMT -5
Well it is starting to rain, so that may slow things down a bit. Sou the link of live coverage is making me a little angry. The reporters are pissing me off.
Post by orangeblossom on Apr 25, 2015 18:09:40 GMT -5
Not that I wasn't sad and upset with Ferguson, but to see it happening in a place you know, loved and called home for many years is making me cry for my city.
"Not gonna lie; I kind of keep expecting you to post one day that you threw down on someone who clearly had no idea that today was NOT THEIR DAY." ~dontcallmeshirley
Post by tacosforlife on Apr 25, 2015 20:36:16 GMT -5
We made it back to our car without incident. We're trying to get to the highway to get out of town, and we were just rear ended. Gah. I just want to go home.
This is getting ugly There seems to be a bunch of peaceful folks at Pratt & Light (I think), but then a bunch of folks at Pratt & Howard ran off. Jumping on cars, breaking windows, etc. We are pretty sure one place H has been working on has had its windows broken. Definitely the business next door, they have been talking about it. The one he was working on was due to open in about a week
We made it back to our car without incident. We're trying to get to the highway to get out of town, and we were just rear ended. Gah. I just want to go home.
Oh no!! Text me if you need help. I can't come get you (beer....) but if your car is drive able I can help you get around the situation.
We are fine. Back on the road.
Glad we left after the 7th inning. Friend texted that they aren't letting people leave the park right now.
We live in the city but are away this weekend. I hate reading all the tweets and updates and not knowing what's going on. It seems like it started out so peacefully.
We live in the city but are away this weekend. I hate reading all the tweets and updates and not knowing what's going on. It seems like it started out so peacefully.
I'm in the same boat. MH is texting me but I don't even think this house has tv. FB comments from local friends are pretty mixed.
I'm feeling disconnected and wish I had a better idea what was happening. I'm glad he's home tonight.
We live in the city but are away this weekend. I hate reading all the tweets and updates and not knowing what's going on. It seems like it started out so peacefully.
I'm feeling disconnected and wish I had a better idea what was happening. I'm glad he's home tonight.
Just checking my FB from being out all night.. A lot of friends from Harford county and the burbs shaking heads and whatnot "at these crazy people protesting". I think this demonstrates the sentiment of the baltimore metro.
I follow a really popular vegan blogger on FB and she was at the game. She mentioned something about how they wouldn't let people leave the stadium, and she hoped to make her flight (she has a major appearance in MA today) and she was praying for peace.
This elicited... a lot of varying discussions. From the people who were correcting the #blacklivesmatter people with the #alllivesmatter hashtag (huge fucking eyeroll, there), people who were pissed off by protesters, you know, protesting and possibly inconveniencing anyone, people who were complaining about a vegan FB page getting "political" (because vegans are never political?), and people who were all, "what is going on? Who is Freddie Gray?"
Of course, she deleted posts relating to it that had possible "controversial" comments, instead not referencing what happened, but posting something talking about MLK and how you can't banish darkness with more darkness. And will delete any comments talking about privilege or perhaps disagreeing with that overly Mayberry-type of sentiment.
And I'm so pissed off. Yes, it's her page. It's how she makes money. It's not *about* politics or social justice. But I know so many people (including one who follows her page) who are so ignorant of what is happening in this country. And you CAN compartmentalize your life and stay in a bubble in which you don't have to "deal" with that (assuming you have the privilege to do so). I don't see why our broken law enforcement and justice system should be something that you can only discuss in arenas which either talk about political things or if you're a POC. Everyone needs to pay attention!
Post by iammalcolmx on Apr 26, 2015 8:05:21 GMT -5
MLK 's actions were pretty gutsy back then and people were mad at him for it as well. I don't have a general issue with the police and appreciate the perspective of those connected to Law Enforcement on this board. I also have had good experiences with my local officer's. That said we have a fucking problem here. I shouldn't have to hear black male cops saying they are stopped twice a week for no reason other than being black. This entire situation is dangerous for everyone.
Post by cookiemdough on Apr 26, 2015 8:09:35 GMT -5
I was very frustrated with the reporting last night. Basically it spent the whole time congratulating police for exercising such restraint and recognizing the rights of those who want to protest. Yes I am so happy that it was not another Ferguson, but the actions of a few on the police force that were allowed to remain unchecked have terrorized a community and led to these frustrations in the first place. They have a right to be angry. Yet the whole time the concern was omg people can't get home from a baseball game? what if they had kids in the car? lol, what about parents who can't be sure their children come home after a "ride" with police. The perspective is really disheartening and makes me think all of this will lead yet again to no change.
I was very frustrated with the reporting last night. Basically it spent the whole time congratulating police for exercising such restraint and recognizing the rights of those who want to protest. Yes I am so happy that it was not another Ferguson, but the actions of a few on the police force that were allowed to remain unchecked have terrorized a community and led to these frustrations in the first place. They have a right to be angry. Yet the whole time the concern was omg people can't get home from a baseball game? what if they had kids in the car? lol, what about parents who can't be sure their children come home after a "ride" with police. The perspective is really disheartening and makes me think all of this will lead yet again to no change.
The only two people who are pissing me f on fb right now are friends that are local bmore "news" people.
cosmowife - Freddie's service is today, funeral tomorrow. They are asking for no protests to respect the mourners.
cookiemdough - thank you for that. I saw a lot of comments on Twitter last night about the coverage, but no one put into words why they were upset by it.
Post by matildasun on Apr 26, 2015 12:27:55 GMT -5
A friend shared this piece from the Baltimore Sun. I thought it was appropriate to put here. Why Freddie Gray Ran
We don't need four investigations to answer what may be the most consequential questions posed by the events leading up to Freddie Gray's death: Why did police approach him on April 12, why did he run, and why did they chase him? The outcome of that encounter was a tragic injustice of the sort that sends thousands of people into the streets to protest. But the forces that led up to it are the kind of tragic injustice that is too easy to ignore. Protesters continued to gather this weekend, nearly a week after the death of Freddie Gray and two weeks after his arrest near Gilmor Homes.
By no account — not even that of the officers who arrested him — was Gray doing anything wrong that morning when police arrived. It turns out he had a switchblade in his pocket according to police, but he wasn't brandishing it or threatening anyone. According to a police report, all that happened was that an officer made eye contact with him and another man. Gray and his companion ran, and the officers pursued him.
Why did Gray run? He had been arrested a number of times in the past on relatively minor drug charges and other piddling offenses, like having "gaming cards, dice." Did that make him a bad person, a shady character? His friends and neighbors say no. What it makes him is all too typical in a neighborhood where generations of crushing poverty and the war on drugs combine to rob countless young people like him of meaningful opportunities.
The neighborhood where he lived, Sandtown-Winchester, recently made news as the census tract that is home to more inmates in the Maryland correctional system than any other. But that is not the only way in which it is exceptional. Four years ago, the Baltimore Health Department issued a community profile of that neighborhood and even in a city where poverty is widespread, it stands out. The unemployment rate there is about double the citywide average, and so is the poverty rate. Similarly, there are about twice as many liquor stores and tobacco outlets per capita in Sandtown-Winchester as in the city as a whole. Fully a quarter of juveniles in that neighborhood had been arrested between 2005 and 2009. It had the worst domestic violence rate of any of the neighborhoods the health department analyzed and among the worst rates for non-fatal shootings and homicides. A quarter of the buildings are vacant, and the lead paint violation rate is triple the city average. (Gray and his sisters suffered from lead paint poisoning as children.) The only metric the health department analyzed in which Sandtown-Winchester was the best in the city was in the density of fast food restaurants. Perhaps it's too poor to have any.
If all that doesn't amount to an excuse for Freddie Gray's apparently small-scale, non-violent participation in the drug trade, it certainly should qualify as an explanation.
And what of the police? The Supreme Court ruled long ago that fleeing from officers is not, in itself, probable cause to make an arrest. Department policy calls for suspects to be buckled into seat belts when they are transported in police vans and for officers to get medical attention for suspects when they request it, but neither happened in this case. Whatever role they may or may not have played in the injuries the caused Gray's death, their actions can only be explained by the corrosive effects of a drug war that has turned entire communities into criminal suspects.
The per capita arrest rate for African Americans in Baltimore is more than three times that for other races, and it's not just a matter of blacks committing more crimes. Things people get away with in nice neighborhoods are the subject of heavy enforcement in places like Sandtown-Winchester. For example, though whites and blacks smoke marijuana at about the same rate, the per capita marijuana possession arrest rate for blacks in Baltimore was 5.6 times higher than that for whites in 2010, according to an analysis by the ACLU. The marijuana possession arrest rate declined by 20 percent in the five years after the peak of O'Malley-era zero-tolerance policing, but the arrest rate for blacks increased by 20 percent. The Sun's Justin Fenton this week reported on a man's arrest for jaywalking near a Freddie Gray protest.
Baltimore police officers are not bad people, but they are put in an untenable position. They are sent to clean up communities like Sandtown-Winchester, where decades of social and economic devastation have left the drug trade as the only viable option for many, and their actions only make it more difficult for the people who live there to find legitimate jobs. The cycle self-perpetuates, and resentment builds until it blows over in a case like this one. It cannot continue. Thousands are now in the streets demanding justice for Freddie Gray, and we hope he gets it. But what's needed even more is for the city to deliver justice for the communities full of people like him.
I was very frustrated with the reporting last night. Basically it spent the whole time congratulating police for exercising such restraint and recognizing the rights of those who want to protest. Yes I am so happy that it was not another Ferguson, but the actions of a few on the police force that were allowed to remain unchecked have terrorized a community and led to these frustrations in the first place. They have a right to be angry. Yet the whole time the concern was omg people can't get home from a baseball game? what if they had kids in the car? lol, what about parents who can't be sure their children come home after a "ride" with police. The perspective is really disheartening and makes me think all of this will lead yet again to no change.
The helicopter captain on WBAL made a comment about how "there's just no need for this." I don't know if I would have had the perspective to pick up on that before, but after reading and doing my best to absorb all of the candid comments that people on this board have shared over the last several months, it really struck me to hear those types of comments during the coverage; and it didn't sit well.