Rioters Ruin Another Protest

[Greenday]

Today was the funeral of Freddie Gray. For those who don't know, Gray was arrested for possession of a switchblade (which is very illegal). Within an hour of being arrested, he went into a coma due to spinal injury. He died a week later. Police claim he was arrested without incident and that he developed a medical issue during transport. There's videos of the arrest, but unless there's one I haven't seen, they all take place after he's already in cuffs and they don't contain any police brutality.

Fact is, police had someone in their care and somehow he went from healthy to "80% severed neck section of his spine, three fractured vertebrae, and an injured larynx". The police commissioner has already admitted wrongdoing on the part of the officers for not getting him medical help in a timely matter and for not buckling him into his seat. The police haven't even accused Gray of becoming violent causing a confrontation. If ever was there a case to protest, this would be a simple one.

Of course I wouldn't be posting this if that were the case. Police are getting targeted by gangs (Not even just Baltimore PD). Protests tonight after the funeral turned violent resulting in multiple destroyed vehicles, looting, fifteen injured cops with two currently in the hospital (one reported as unresponsive). A pharmacy was burnt down. A public center being built for children and families was burnt down. The National Guard has been called in. Curfews are in effect.

So now when the side for justice against police brutality has a legit case and is making progress, these people have to go and ruin it. No one is going to remember Freddie Gray (If they've even heard of him). They'll just remember rioting in Baltimore and opportunists destroying their own neighborhoods. People are just going to use this against the movement for fair treatment from the police causing yet another large roadblock.

[Gravekeeper]

Baltimore police have one of the most horrific track records of police brutality and corruption of any police force in the country. Gray is actually the third person to get his spine snapped by one of their trademark rough rides where they don't buckle the person in then take him on a wild ride around the block for a while instead of taking him straight to the station.

Of course I wouldn't be posting this if that were the case. Police are getting targeted by gangs (Not even just Baltimore PD).

No, the gangs are actually calling for peace and calm. The thing about the police being targeted by gangs and Islamic terrorists or whatever was pure pre-emptive police bullshit.

I'm not going to defend the looting and burning or anything, but Baltimore has been a powderkeg waiting to happen for years. Their police force beats the ever living fuck out of people on a regular basis and they sweep it under the rug to hide it from city officials while blocking reforms. They pay out millions in brutality settlements every year but the settlements include a clause that says if the person that won the suit against them talks about it they get to take the money back. Effectively silencing everyone they beat the shit out of. They also admit no wrongdoing when they lose a lawsuit and they hide shit from city officials like officer abuse histories ( ie if an officer has had 5 lawsuits against him, they don't reveal that to the city ).

These people live in neighbourhoods that are basically third world countries while getting shit kicked by one of the nations most corrupt police forces day in and day out for decades. If anything its kind of surprising it took this long for shit to get real.

As for the Baltimore PDs riot response....eh, I'm kind of glad they're calling in the national guard. Their riot police seem incredibly inept, poorly coordinated and overly violent. Which is just throwing gas on the fire. Sending in the same abusive fuckers the people are already mad at to convince them to stop being mad is a poor plan.

[Tama]

This will end up being called the Gray riots, I'd be willing to bet money...

[Shangri-laschild]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/26/us/bal...-gray-protest/

And some protesters put themselves between police and enraged demonstrators to calm hot tempers. "Don't lose the message!" one of them called out again and again to the rowdier group.

Police Commissioner Anthony Batts thanked the peacemakers.

"Residents put themselves in between police officers and agitated crowd and asked for calm and asked for peace, which was very good to see," he said.

http://mic.com/articles/116524/outra...sses-the-point

While there is plenty that went wrong, there are bits of this that I think were handled very well. No matter how the police are, attacking them in the middle of the protest does not help the cause and the majority of the protesters seem to have handled this exactly how it should have been handled and it's a shame that a small group of protesters decided to handle things like this. I can understand frustration, but it does not help the situation and attacking stores does not help matters. That's taking out your frustration on someone else who doesn't deserve it.

[Andara Bledin]

I want to know, after several cases like this, why there aren't cameras in transport vans. They don't even have to have sound.

There is no legitimate reason to not have them and many, many reasons why they should be there.

[Aragarthiel]

I'm tired of riots. I'm just... tired of them. There's no good reason to break things, steal things, blow things up, vandalize things, or hurt other people.

[the_std]

Riots don't start because someone says "let's go light fires and steal things". The looting and pillaging is never intended, it's more of a side effect.

I can imagine that, when you're someone who has been abused by the system that you're told is there to serve you, you might just boil over and start the protest. Things can happen quickly, and get out of control just as quickly, as soon as you start to add more people. These people might have less moral inclination to be nice to cops, or feel that throwing bricks at cop vans is okay, or may just be more angry than you are. Mix it all together with the tension of facing the authorities who have been the source of your abuse, and bam. You have a riot.

[Gravekeeper]

These people might have less moral inclination to be nice to cops, or feel that throwing bricks at cop vans is okay, or may just be more angry than you are. Mix it all together with the tension of facing the authorities who have been the source of your abuse, and bam. You have a riot.

and then the cops start throwing bricks back at you. >.>

I'm seeing more and more stories ( from school teachers no less ) that the riot police were specifically waiting for the kids when they got out of school and blocking off their transit hub so they couldn't get home. Basically setting up the entire powder keg from the get go. Never mind the cops that were throwing rocks/bricks back at them. You do not shut down the the one way people have of getting out of the area then act surprised when they don't disperse.

Then there's the preemptive "All the gangs are teaming up with the Nation of Islam to target cops" thing that the police put out but could not provide any source for. When it turns out the gangs were putting aside their differences and calling for peace. At a church. Its pretty bad when members of the Bloods and Cripes have to go on national tv together, from a church, to refute a press release from the police.

Same shit, different day for America's police. They created their own excuse to crack down and now they've successfully turned all of the attention away from that whole murdering people in their custody thing to "See how bad black people are?". And, as usual, the major news networks just roll with it.

Meanwhile, on the white side of Baltimore, and this is an actual quote:

“This guy,” said the man in the gray sweatshirt. “His spine was broken before the cops picked him up. I talked to doctors at Johns Hopkins. But his spine was already broken.”

>.>

[Greenday]

So much stupidity brought out by these events.

First major quote of the night from Baltimore's mayor: "It's a very delicate balancing act because while we try to make sure that they were protected from the cars and the other things that were going on, we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well, and we work very hard to keep that balance and to put ourselves in the best position to de-escalate."

Later that night, talking about the media, "It is very unfortunate that members of your industry decided to mischaracterize my words and try to use it as a way to say that we were inciting violence."

So instead of admitting she misspoke and said something INSANELY stupid, she tries to blame the media for making stuff up even though there's multiple videos of her first statement.

But by FAR the best part of the night (And I use that term loosely as no part of a riot is good): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRlmCf1Kj2o

Mom finds out her son has joined the riots so she goes out, finds him, and starts smacking the hell out of him and forces him to go home. And i's caught on live TV. Mother of the year.

[Tama]

I always say no one can whoop your ass like an angry black mother. It's their own epic brand.

[lordlundar]

You know the old joke of a gangbanger being flippant to police but suddenly begging for forgiveness when he found out his mom was called in? There's a reason that joke is still around.

[NecCat]

Riots don't start because someone says "let's go light fires and steal things". The looting and pillaging is never intended, it's more of a side effect.

I'd have to disagree with that one, the Vancouver riot in 2011 was planned, in advance, by the media across Canada, and for most of the people showing up the intent was to loot, pillage and destroy.

That aside I don't think this riot was started that way, but it's an inevitable result when the people being protested against are the ones told to go shut it down. I don't understand why anyone else wasn't called in to police the protests. Is there not state or federal level police forces in USA?

[Kheldarson]

That aside I don't think this riot was started that way, but it's an inevitable result when the people being protested against are the ones told to go shut it down. I don't understand why anyone else wasn't called in to police the protests. Is there not state or federal level police forces in USA?

There are state police and then the National Guard, which is basically the state militia kinda. After that, you've got the army.

And bureaucracy is a pain in getting any of them short notice.

[Greenday]

There are state police and then the National Guard, which is basically the state militia kinda. After that, you've got the army.

And bureaucracy is a pain in getting any of them short notice.

The governor was ready to send in the national guard all day long but the mayor waited until it was too late to admit she needed extra help. Given recent current events, the odds of riots happening were extremely likely. If people can plan to take advantage of protests in a small town like Ferguson, you can bet it'll happen in a major city where being anonymous is even easier.

[mjr]

But by FAR the best part of the night (And I use that term loosely as no part of a riot is good): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRlmCf1Kj2o

Mom finds out her son has joined the riots so she goes out, finds him, and starts smacking the hell out of him and forces him to go home. And i's caught on live TV. Mother of the year.

My friend told me about that at lunch yesterday. She wasn't really "beating" him, but she was definitely berating him.

Reminds me of that Eddie Murphy thing..."I had one of those mothers that would throw a shoe at you at the drop of a dime...and f**k you up wherever she was aiming."

NSFW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJdVpprCr_o