Baltimore this weekend

[sevmom]

Very sad to see this chaos. Police and firefighters are risking their lives because of this. Businesses destroyed. I truly don’t know what the answer is but this can’t be it.

[BunsenBurner]

D texted me a photo taken from her apartment window: it looks like something burning really badly downtown Baltimore.

Possibly the senior center as this article says?

http://touch.baltimoresun.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-83397636/

[lje62]

Because burning down the businesses that serve your community is an excellent choice to bring about positive change…this makes me sick

[rockvillemom]

I am literally in tears watching this. How could the police/mayor/governor not stepped in sooner to calm things down before nightfall? They could have brought the National Guard in hours ago. The family of Freddy Gray specifically requested no protests today. This is just beyond awful.

[sevmom]

We have family in Baltimore. This really is disturbing. Those of you with kids in schools there , hope all is okay with them.

[eyemamom]

I don’t get why the curfew starts tomorrow and not tonight.

[interesteddad]

The governor said that they mobilized the National Guard within 2 seconds of the Mayor’s request. Said that they had been trying to reach the Mayor for hours.

[sevmom]

The CNN interview with Robert Valentine is very powerful. A regular guy just making a lot of sense.

[rockvillemom]

The mayor of Baltimore has really mishandled this.

[patsmom]

^^ That’s the understatement of the year.

[NoVADad99]

The local TV station anchors and reporters in DC (most of them African American) were especially critical of her handling or lack of handling of the situation.

[interesteddad]

A failure of government officials at many levels for many years.

[Spudcommando]

Apparently the excuse the Mayor’s officer gave for the curfew was that they needed to give residents “reasonable” notice before they could actually impose a curfew…

I mean really? It’s not like we’re restricted to using telegrams and word of mouth, in this world of social media and 24 hour news coverage, the curfew could’ve been implemented tonight.

[romanigypsyeyes]

I was watching this with my dad tonight. He lived in Detroit during the 60s race riots and he said the images took him right back to those riots.

People in this country riot and loot after their football teams win games. I’m not sure why anyone is surprised by this.

I truly, truly hope this is dissolved without further injuries and destruction. This is the result of a few rogue people on both sides of the aisle and the people who are screwed over the worst are the ones who want change, but in this way- from both the police and protesters’ sides.

Stay safe, everyone.

[sevmom]

Wow, I am certainly surprised that rioting and looting would ever be considered commonplace. It’s just not okay. Period.

[Finnlet]

I can’t come up with any situation where rioting, let alone rioting of this extent, is justifiable. I’m disgusted when students riot on campus after a big sports game. I’m disgusted when people riot over injustice. Injustice and rioting are both wrong, no matter how common they may be.

[interesteddad]

They couldn’t use bullhorns to announce a curfew tonight because it might have violated OSHA noise standards…

[electronblue]

Is the mayor sedated? Seriously, it’s like she’s discussing something that happened somewhere else, years ago.

[greenwitch]

It’s worth sharing the words of John Angelos, son of Peter Angelos the owner of the Orioles:
(even more impressive, he said this in a series of many, many tweets!)

Brett, speaking only for myself, I agree with your point that the principle of peaceful, non-violent protest and the observance of the rule of law is of utmost importance in any society. MLK, Gandhi, Mandela and all great opposition leaders throughout history have always preached this precept. Further, it is critical that in any democracy, investigation must be completed and due process must be honored before any government or police members are judged responsible.

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.

The innocent working families of all backgrounds whose lives and dreams have been cut short by excessive violence, surveillance, and other abuses of the Bill of Rights by government pay the true price, and ultimate price, and one that far exceeds the importances of any kids’ game played tonight, or ever, at Camden Yards. We need to keep in mind people are suffering and dying around the U.S., and while we are thankful no one was injured at Camden Yards, there is a far bigger picture for poor Americans in Baltimore and everywhere who don’t have jobs and are losing economic civil and legal rights, and this makes inconvenience at a ballgame irrelevant in light of the needless suffering government is inflicting upon ordinary Americans.

[GMTplus7]

I have family in Baltimore. Been watching in dismay from asia the BBC News international broadcasts of baltimore.

The NYT has a good annotated street map showing the path of the turmoil, along w a timeline of the events.