Ack autocorrect. Rioting not writing. The deliberate destruction of buildings and property - how does that help their community?
I don’t know anyone who isn’t extremely disturbed over the events ( and the lack of information ) that led to this event. I have heard some theories about what may have happened and it is terrible to imagine. I am also concerned about the media’s coverage when it comes to such events.
I think that the president’s comment today that this is nothing new was spot on…but it brings ratings with the 24 hour coverage.
Why am I not surprised that certain people seem gleefully, cynically, self-servingly, ax-grindingly quick to boil a complex set of social/political issues (rooted in long history) down to an indescriminant list of “leaders” who failed to cure a Ghordian knot of complex ills with a wave of their their magic negro wands? What? Do you really think no one has been trying to bring jobs, job training, and improved education to the inner city of Baltimore? When the American economy hits the skids, it is the most econimically vulnerable that take the biggest and most most sustained hit (whether they be in the rural heartland or the urban inner city), but these are never the prioritized target for relief and recovery by the monied and powerful.
BTW, Barack Obama is not a Leader of The African American Community (as if such a Borg-est entity actually exists). He is The President of the United States, and as such, has all the responsibilities incumbent upon a leader of global stature. Good job though, trying to limit the scope of his authority to fixing Baltimore. though, I’m certain that if he were to actually focus his Presidency upon perceived “black issues” he would be criticized for such even more so than when that very charge was leveled at him over The Affordable Care Act.
This thread is going to get locked …
The Abner Louima cop got 30 years. The Baltimore cops, if recent events are any indication, will likely get no punishment.
What I heard of the president’s speech was passionless, calculated political speech that I think will have zero impact on this situation. But listening to Ray Lewis (former NFL Ravens player) was powerful. THAT is what a leader sounds like. THAT is what someone who truly cares about his community sounds like.
The President never sounds “impassioned” about anything. He has long had been known for cool-headedness, and unflappability, coldness even. Of course, there’s no right way to address any issue when you’re POTUS. It’s almost always a matter of damned if you do/damned if you don’t. But Presidential politics really has no place in a thread about community reaction to law enforcement overreach, does it?
Bus driver, Ray Lewis can afford to speak as a member of “The Black Community”. The President of The United States? Not so much.
On the brighter side, many people spent the morning cleaning up the messes outside and the BSO is giving a free outdoor concert tomorrow, outside the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
From what I heard, Ray Lewis was speaking as a member of the Baltimore community. Not the black community. It sounded like he was pleading and speaking to the entire community.
The president is dispassionate about everything, sadly. Even if he’s talking about ISIS executing children and selling women into slavery, he’s emotionless. It sounds like he’s talking about theoretical situations, not actual human lives. I was using his speech as a comparison to Rays, it has nothing to do with politics. Ray Lewis’s speech is the type that might actually have some impact, as sounding like you care and that you mean it, makes all the difference in the world.
Actually, the charges of police abuse were found to be numerous, long-standing and institutionalized.
There were two civil rights investigations carried out by the U.S. Justice Dept. One focused specifically on the Darren Wilson-Michael Brown incident, which found evidence that Wilson had justification for shooting Brown, and therefore would not be prosecuted for violating Brown’s civil rights.
But the second investigation found evidence of systemic abuse by the Ferguson Police Dept and municipal courts.
Patterns of abuse over long periods of time are what fans the flames, imo.
I, for one, don’t expect Obama to pump his arms and passionately lecture the youth of Baltimore when he responds to a question asked at a press conference held jointly with the prime minister of Japan. A little perspective, please. He’s the President of the United States, not a local celebrity on youtube.
I heard on the radio some people spent the day picking up and hiding or removing rocks, pieces of metal, anything that could be thrown at the police. Good for them.
Actually jazzymom, at this point, I expect absolutely nothing. Ever. In any situation.
However, it is completely irrelevant.
I am heartened by listening to some of the people I see on television, who are supporting their community, doing everything they can to help others and stop the violence from continuing. Let’s hope their efforts are effective.
If there is a pattern of abuse in Baltimore, then residents should take it up with the elected officials there who have, apparently, failed the public for the last 48 year of single-party rule. There is literally nobody else to blame in Baltimore.
Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer enumerated the two most pressing causes of the breakdowns in inner city communities: single parent families and the “worst schools on the face of the earth”.
He opined that nobody has any idea what to do about the first, but that there are many ideas for fixing the schools, most of which are blocked by the teachers unions and the political leaders who put the teachers unions ahead of the kids in their own communities.
Failed schools are a glaring example of failed political leadership.
I agree with Charles, most particularly about his first point. The number one guarantee of poverty is to have a child when you are young, and single, no matter what color you are. Prevent that, and you can stop much of poverty in it’s tracks.
True…if the violence in Baltimore was only about Baltimore and its police but I suspect that it was not just about one city and one incident.
Did Charles the All Wise also posit that poverty leads directly to having one’s spinal cord severed while in police custody, or being shot in the back while running from the officer who stopped you for a busted tail light, being choked to death by police for selling loose cigarettes, or being a child whom police shoot dead while playing in a park with a toy gun because it saves time to shoot first and ascertain the extent of public threat afterward? Would he know the definition of False Equivalence, even if it bit him hard enough to sever the finger he shakes so vigorously at “those people”?
In terms of the President, are some of the people here really so clueless as to not grasp that he has to always avoid at all costs coming across as an Angry Black Man?
And those who think this all about Baltimore, where have you been for the past few decades (or forever)? The horrible violence by police, particularly against black males, just goes on and on and on and on and on. And they are virtually never punished for it - instead they get a paid vacation while an"investigation" occurs.