Ah, America. The land of the free, home of the overly opinionated.
The majority of us want our personal standpoint to remain unchallenged. However, welcoming controversy with a respectable level of civility gets things done and builds moderate viewpoints. Analyzing our views allows us to truly defend our feelings rather than develop unfounded, radical opinions.
Sensationalized news have, since day one, polarized Americans. We see this once again with the Baltimore Riots.
“Meeting in the middle” can mitigate some of the most rampant issues in a land where we are fortunate enough to think past base needs and be truly cognitive. We should learn that there is not just his story and her story; we must put the entire world, as well as statistics, into perspective to even have a leg to stand on or be better off living within the philosophy that ignorance is bliss.
Let’s set aside our respective biases for just a moment so that we may understand conflict and the Baltimore Riots a bit better.
Police brutality and misconduct, the death of Freddie Gray, oppression and drastic measures in the form of an intensely violent riot have been the scene in Baltimore since April 25, following Gray’s funeral.
The initial flare up (outside of peaceful protesting) arose when police prevented students from Frederick Douglas High School from going home after a Purge-esque threat was found on social media by Baltimore PD, according to a Mother Jones article.
Local population claims this threat was invalid, however such a congregation of students lead to violence as the teenagers threw bricks and bottles at police. It is unclear if the resulting injury of an officer was planned or not, but things naturally escalated nonetheless, leading to further police injuries, looting, and countless arrests of those protesting.
Things had to mellow out as a 10 p.m. curfew was instated. But an interesting stride towards justice (in relation to the Baltimore Riots mission statement) occurred April 30 as the details of Freddie Gray’s death were released. According to a CNN news report as well as an NPR article, Gray was illegally arrested (why the police even stopped him is still unclear) and put into a police transport van in which “Gray suffered a severe and critical neck injury as a result of being handcuffed, shackled by his feet, and unrestrained inside of the BPD wagon.” He died a week after the initial arrest. Interestingly enough, Marilyn Mosby (recently elected state attorney for the region) has pressed a grossly long list of charges against the six officers involved in Gray’s illegal arrest.
Via: The Washington Times
Just because there has been some relative level of justice for Freddie Gray’s death does not mean this issue will disappear. Police brutality and racism are still issues in Baltimore as well as in the rest of the United States.
First and foremost, I am by no means against the police, I see the necessary position in society they fulfill, and my hat is off to them as they uphold their mission to serve and protect – but they are just a much a victim of circumstance as many of the rest of us. Especially in a place like Baltimore, Maryland.
Baltimore is 63.3 percent black/African American, compared to Maryland’s 30.1 percent, as a whole. The majority of Baltimore lives below or near the poverty line with a median income of $41,385 (not a lot at all when you consider the inflation of a large city). And according to the state of Maryland’s own statistics about Baltimore, of 185,422 crimes in 2013 (a 10-year low), a majority were theft. Violent crime constituted 15 percent.
It is interesting that Maryland’s crime spreadsheet does not have a “Drug-Related Arrest” column when The War on Drugs is still boiling. But this form of a population hub supports an “us versus them” mentality – either black against white, black against black and/or police against blacks. Michelle Alexander, author of “The New Jim Crow,” points out that “racial stigma today…has turned the black community against itself, destroyed networks of mutual support, and created a silence about the new caste system among many of the people most affected by it.” High-crime and poverty stricken communities face a perpetual imprisonment cycle.
Via: Conservbyte
It seems like a cruel joke, but the creed of the United States, found in the beginning of the Declaration of Independence, “All men are created equal,” was written during a time when African Americans, indigenous people and women were treated as anything but equal. In fact, the U.S. is the only Western country explicitly founded on racial oppression. Although we’ve progressed from full-blown racism — inherent in slavery, as well Jim Crow’s “separate but equal” — there is still underhanded (systemic) racism, which is prevalent today.
The best way to explain systemic racism is to recall the poll taxes of the late 1800s/early 1900s.
African Americans were legally allowed to vote during this time period however (if they got past the intimidation by white supremacists) they would often face poll taxes and IQ tests – these hurdles were “randomly” applied, and by randomly, I mean poll supervisors would very intentionally administer tests and taxes exclusively to African Americans, who, during this time, were egregiously oppressed.
Needless to say, we no longer see racism to that degree. But the way in which certain things are handled in society clearly leads to higher black/colored oppression, especially when rates of arrest are in discussion.
When something like the Baltimore Riots occurs, people rush to social media, and a sizable proportion of those people asserts that police brutality is not a “white versus black issue” — and they are right to some degree — but, fact is, the disproportionate number of arrests, specifically those drug-related, of black people is definitely an issue.
To say otherwise is bullshit.
African Americans comprise 13 percent of the US population, and 14 percent of the country’s monthly drug users, but they are 37 percent of the population arrested for drug offenses. Moreover, since 1970, drug arrests have gone from 320,000 to 1.6 million.Mandatory minimum sentences are utilized with — let’s face it — petty drug charges, and far too often, once someone is convicted of a felony, their entire lives are ruined and they face a vicious cycle. They are disenfranchised.
Via: The Washington Post
Although, from what we know, Gray’s arrest was not related to a drug crime, police brutality and the targeting of minorities does relate to the continuous War on Drugs. But looking past that and to the violence of the riots, I noticed a lot of shaming by the public, as well as President Obama, toward those who were rioting. In some sense, I agree with that sentiment. But sometimes, there is a point where you can no longer handle all the fucked up things going on around you.
Most of the cultural paradigm shifts have not been peaceful.
You have a handful of leaders who conduct themselves in a manner worthy of praise but there are still underground movements who have made strides — we just tend to ignore them or shame them. For example, the Black Panther Party started out as a form of the Boy Scouts for black children who weren’t allowed to become part of the actual Boy Scouts. Even the Crips and the Bloods did not start out the way they are today; it just shows how easily a situation may turn sour.
Via: NYU
Stare into the looking glass.
We are all flesh and blood and we all make mistakes. We all express ourselves differently. And we need progress. We need to no longer see black from white and not patronize others simply for being different.
This will not happen tomorrow.
In the case of the Baltimore Riots, we can only hope that there will be deeper analysis of police habits in that there is a conduct problem. In order to meet society in the middle we need to line up other recent crises, do our research, and be more empathetic as humans.
Featured photo courtesy of YouTube
