Update: Trevor Loudon (hat tip JD) refers to the Baltimore riots as “The American Spring”.
The illustration above shows a different Baltimore riot, one that occurred 154 years before the violence that is currently raging in various parts of the city. The photos of what’s happening now are too upsetting for me to format and post — check The Daily Mail, which as usual has the best photo coverage of the chaos.
I know Baltimore well. I have a personal connection with the city: during my young adulthood when I lived between Baltimore and D.C., I used to drive a taxi in the suburbs and visited downtown Baltimore fairly frequently. Sometimes I had to drive fares into the bus station late at night. It was a scary place back then; I assume it’s no less scary now, and for the same reasons.
There were parts of town that a white person was well-advised to stay out of at night. And in certain neighborhoods I was cautioned not to stop the car, and if I had to, to keep the doors locked and windows rolled up. The East Baltimore neighborhood that’s on fire right now was one of those.
I noticed yesterday that some news reports talked about “random” attacks on people by the rioters. However, none of the reporters was telling the whole truth: that the people being attacked may have been randomly chosen, but only from the pool of available white people.
Some of the photos and videos of burning police cars reminded me of the culturally enriched carbecues in the French suburbs.
It’s all very disturbing, and sad.
Below are excerpts from a selection of news stories, all sent in by Fjordman. The number of policemen injured is listed variously as six, seven, or eleven, depending on which source you read. The governor has declared a state of emergency, and the National Guard is being sent in.
First, from The Washington Times:
Chaos in Baltimore as dozens clash with riot police; multiple officers injured
Dozens of people sparred with police in riot gear outside a mall in northwest Baltimore, where police reported multiple officers had been injured.
Some threw rocks and bricks at the officers, who were wearing helmets and face shields.
One man held his arms up as the police moved toward him, an action that has been repeated throughout the rallies for Freddie Gray, who died of spinal injuries while in police custody.
From CNN:
Baltimore protests turn violent; police officers injured
(CNN) A riot erupted on the streets of Baltimore late Monday as protesters clashed with police, several of whom were injured.
“This afternoon, a group of outrageous criminals attacked our officers. Right now, we have seven officers that have serious injuries, including broken bones, and one officer who is unconscious,” Capt. Eric Kowalczyk told reporters.
He vowed to find the attackers and put them in jail.
Video showed police in riot gear taking cover behind an armored vehicle, as protesters pelted them with rocks.
At one point, it looked like officers used tear gas. The Baltimore Police Department said it had heard reports of protesters setting small items on fire, and footage showed a cruiser in flames.
From The Baltimore Sun:
Baltimore police arrest 35, 6 officers injured in protest
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and a coalition of two dozen interdenominational leaders issued a “call for peace” Sunday after 35 people were arrested and six police officers were injured in protests over the death of Freddie Gray.
The Police Department in the afternoon released a list of the names of the 31 adults arrested, omitting those of the four juveniles.
Rawings-Blake said “outside forces” took advantage of the community’s pain to incite violence. The out-of-towners’ presence was “reflected more than just in the arrest numbers but what we saw on the streets,” the mayor said.
“Many people who weren’t from our community were, in essence, trying to hijack the very raw emotions of some of those who live in Baltimore and were expressing anger over the death of Mr. Gray,” she said. “People from the outside were inciting some of the ‘shut this city down’ sort of messaging, and then just left.”
Multiple storefronts were vandalized and several police vehicles were damaged, police said. Other property damage was reported, but police did not immediately provide further information.
Finally, from The Daily Mail:
Violent clashes between Baltimore police and protestors turn city into ‘absolute war zone’ burning cop cars and looting stores after thousands mourn Freddie Gray in open casket funeral
Violent clashes have broken out across the streets of Baltimore following the funeral of Freddie Gray – turning the city into ‘an absolute war zone’.
More than 1,000 police officers are on their way to Baltimore and the Maryland National Guard is on standby as violence escalates in the city. Armored police vans are patrolling the streets as passers-by hurl rocks in their direction.
Rioters are looting gun stores, ripping off the doors and passing weapons to people on the streets. Others have stormed checking cash stores. Buildings, including a CVS pharmacy, are on fire.
You really have to wonder exactly who is behind this and why they are doing it:
http://dailycaller.com/2015/04/27/bloods-crips-team-up-to-take-out-baltimore-cops/
http://dailycaller.com/2015/04/27/nation-of-islam-and-gangs-to-embattled-cities-were-in-control/
There is some reason to question the facts behind the death of this particular man.
But isn’t this a case of engaging in stereotypical behavior to protest being stereotyped ?
Any excuse will do for the #CommunityDisorganizers.
The police don’t seem to have handled this well. But this is going to happen in every Dem-controlled city this year. Some injustice will happen, and the fires will start.Much of it is faux outrage – because setting fires and running around yelling is *fun* for boys of a certain age. Mayhem for the sake of a quick grab at a TV because something for nothing is the best kinda stuff to have . They have been sold a mess of grievance pottage and they traded freedom for “free food”. It’s sad beyond words, but that’s how their leaders operate: cash in on someone else’s pain.
It’s not boys of a certain age. It’s boys of a certain race. If we don’t start looking at Reality the way she is, and keep imposing our fears, psychoses, totems and taboos on her, she will keep punching us, harder and harder, maybe finally beyond repair.
I received today a daily bulletin from the financial publisher, Agora, located in Baltimore. Their editor, Peter Coyne, was describing the atmosphere of fear, evacuation at the University of Maryland, etc. But then he blamed it all on “severe economics decay,” and even quoted the race hustler-extorionist, Jesse Jackson, to adduce the reason for the rioting:
“When society is sick and mean, the innocent will be slain. Sixteen thousand abandoned or vacant homes, 25% unemployment — we don’t need more police, we need more jobs. Why can’t the west side get the same things downtown gets?”
As long as we keep evading or giving lying replies to Jackson’s question, things will keep going from bad to worse.
It occurs to me that these outbreaks of violence are practice runs for something bigger and more widespread. We had uncontrolled rioting a few years ago, here in the UK and reports suggested the police just stood and watched. Give people and inch and they’ll take a yard.
Agreed. The Left in this country wants ruin, and they will use the black people penned into urban ghettoes controlled by Democrat policies dating back to “The War on Poverty” to bring that about. The Communists won in America and black people were their pawns.
Creating chaos, to prepare for sharia, I’m afraid
– Are blacks just willing useful idiots in all of this?
I lived in Baltimore from 1971-1975. It was a nasty city then and is a nasty city now. I was threatened at knife point in the laundromat… The city took two derelict lots and built a park. The residents BURNED THE PARK DOWN! No kidding, they actually destroyed the park!
When I lived there the inner harbor, now a tourist attraction, was being raised from slums and the people relocated West of the city. The high rise welfare towers built for these people reminded me more of a penal colony than anything else. All this under 50 years of compassionate Democrat rule. They should have left the slums…
You know, after reading and looking at the internet pictures (Daily Mail, thank you Dymphna for the tip) I really was dumbstruck that they burned down the senior center, which — persumably where their own grandparents live? What is wrong with these people? And of course they burned down their own neighborhood. Stupid.
If they had any brains, they would have gone off and burned down some other neighborhood, right? It is like [evacuating one’s bowels] in your own nest.
Too bad they don’t look up to the smart black people (Dr. Carson comes to mind) and instead just sink to lowest common demonator.
It’s sad, but they are stupid. Loved the Mom who went out and tracked her kid down and beat him up for being there — if all the Moms were like that, maybe things would improve.
This makes more sense if you know that the senior center is a church project, and the churches represent a rival political faction to both the conventional gangs and the Nation of Islam gang.
What’s going on is not as random as it appears to be. There is localized factional warfare going on, and the police brutality stuff is just being used as a casus belli.
A journalist might be able to uncover what’s really going on if they could get anyone to take the risk of talking, but such a journalist would be likely to get assassinated as would anyone connected to them.
denominator is what I meant.
This book may be helpful in understanding what’s going on here, at least partially: http://www.amazon.com/Gang-Leader-Day-Sociologist-Streets/dp/014311493X
The gangs don’t necessarily operate the way you’d expect. I suspect that under normal conditions the gangs would actually prevent this sort of rioting because it’s bad for their business, especially with cops flooding the neighborhood. I also suspect that they aren’t preventing it because of the involvement of the Nation of Islam which is probably the real destabilizing influence here. They are making some sort of political play to gain more influence.
Also note that gangs are likely involved in elections (direct vote buying schemes).
When seconds count, the cops are only minutes away.
There is quite a story behind how America ever lost the heritage of relying on the militia, the armed body of the people, to enforce the laws and to make crime too dangerous an occupation. It’s too long and tragic a story to told here, but suffice to say that the introduction of full-time police in the pay of corrupt political bosses is a major part of it.
We are seeing a massive turf fight between rival criminal organizations…and the police are merely the easiest to identify. The law-abiding have been disarmed, and so the cycle of criminal aggression and retaliation among those who do not obey any laws other than deadly force grows ever more violent.
Colin Flaherty has been documenting black crime and the media’s refusal to report it for years. See http://www.frontpagemag.com/2015/jamie-glazov/dont-make-the-black-kids-angry/