Can you understand the anger behind the recent riots in Baltimore?

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  1. chef-de-jour profile image96
    chef-de-jourposted 8 years ago

    Can you understand the anger behind the recent riots in Baltimore?

    Yet another young black victim of police brutality it seems. Little wonder the black communities and others are so angry - nothing seems to change and no-one is brought to justice. What will it take to end this cycle of police custody death and public riot. Do we start with apologies from the police?

  2. SilentMagenta profile image77
    SilentMagentaposted 8 years ago

    I can understand the anger completely. However I think we should organize it so we can be heard for once. Honestly, I am curious to see what will come of this situation. The cycle will end when police treat us with equality. There was a riot in Kentucky recently over something little and no guard was called nor fbi. However, when the riot of black youth comes the FBI and national guard becomes involved. We are sick of being hunted. The law does nothing but protected those that harm us. Its BS. Honestly, I don't know about other black individual but I will feel a little disrespected if all we get is a "im sorry" for 5-6 deaths in a row to unarmed black men. We forgave a little for our history being wiped out almost completely and being given a month in exchange. Now its time for some jail time, or something more than a dry apology.

    1. chef-de-jour profile image96
      chef-de-jourposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, I agree. Murder is murder and those guilty individuals should have the full force of law applied to them.

  3. SOBF profile image61
    SOBFposted 8 years ago

    We start by reforming police practices and holding them responsible for their actions. I have a very simple solution to the problem. Force police to carry personal liability insurance in order to maintain employment. If they are unable to get insurance or it becomes too expensive for them to maintain they will be forced to find employment elsewhere. Good cops will have low premiums, bad cops will have claims and high premiums or dropped policies. This will also protect the tax payers who repeatedly have to pay law suit after law suit for police abuses.

    1. chef-de-jour profile image96
      chef-de-jourposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Interesting idea. Reform of some kind is needed if these terrible tragedies are to be stopped. Seems to be a kind of ' clan gang' mentality that takes over these cops when dealing with black youths.

  4. adagio4639 profile image59
    adagio4639posted 8 years ago

    I understand the anger and frustration that is going on in Baltimore, and North Charleston, and Ferguson, and Staten Island. This crap seems to be an every week; happening. That doesn't excuse the rioters and looters who are only damaging their cause for justice. It makes no sense to torch and loot a business in the community. It's terribly hard to keep a lid on things when mob violence takes over. This stuff does nothing to serve the memory of Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, or Trayvon Martin. The murder of Trayvon, and lets face it, that's what it was, seems to have ignited everything. There is a way to protest this, and a way to totally undermine the cause for the protest. What is maddening is that Freddie Gray was killed in police custody over a week ago, and they still aren't telling people what happened. That kind of crap isn't going to sit well with the community in a city that has already paid out $5 Million in damages related to police brutality. I don't even know what he was arrested for, much less how he could have died. I think that it starts with indictments. These grand juries are being led by prosecutors that don't want to get an indictment against the police. So nothing happens, and another incident in another city will happen again, and probably caught on camera. But of course, don't believe your "lyin eyes".

    1. chef-de-jour profile image96
      chef-de-jourposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      The police should make a public apology, why don't they? Then there should be legal action against those perpetrators.No-one is above the law. Simple. Honesty and transparency would go a long way to ending suspicion and anger.

  5. aguasilver profile image70
    aguasilverposted 8 years ago

    First we need to understand that the police are no longer protecting the populace, they are now protecting the state, from the populace.

    A populace deeply disturbed by the semi facist system that has been invoked since 9/11 gave those who control the power to seek ultimate power and control over a worker population created to serve their masters.

    The riots are a byproduct of the black street frustration, which itself is a inescapable result of years of treating blacks as a different section of society.

    In effect America has a disguised form of apartheit, enforced by equal rights acts that encourage blacks to feel that they deserve special attention and rights, whilst depriving them of true equality found only in stable faily relationships that encourage educational aspirations and hard work as a prerequisite to economic prosperity and social status.

    The black vote can change these things, if they will stop voting for whoever panders to them or offers the biggest bribes.

    1. chef-de-jour profile image96
      chef-de-jourposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      You have a serious point - the apartheid question needs to be answered or at least acknowledged. The immediate issue of murder by police gangs is more pressing however. Black people are being killed in cowardly ways -authorities need to acknowledge.

  6. Kylyssa profile image92
    Kylyssaposted 8 years ago

    Rioting isn't the right response but I both understand the anger and feel anger over the injustices perpetrated by American police officers. I also understand how people get caught up in rioting; the police have created a condition of lawlessness by committing murders for which they are not held accountable and then physically attacking the people protesting the murders. How can people feel the law has any meaning when they can be murdered out of hand by those who supposedly enforce the law?

    The entire problem comes directly from unequal application of the law. Only some people can expect protection from criminals and safety in the presence of police. An entire class of people and those they employ are above the law.

    It is historically proven that any system of justice in which laws are applied unevenly is doomed to fail and create bloodshed. Always. In every single case and without exception, creating protected classes of people who are above the law, whether through hereditary privilege, specialized employment, or monetary status, results in widespread disrespect of the law and frontier-style justice. When privileged people and those they employ (the police) are not held accountable for their crimes the leviathan of the law that maintains peace and prosperity will crumble. There are always abuses within such a system, if such a small word as abuses can be applied to legalized racist murder.

    The only fix for this problem is to hold ALL people accountable for their crimes no matter how much money they have or how much money their employers have.

    1. chef-de-jour profile image96
      chef-de-jourposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      True.The law should ride head and shoulders above everyone but seldom does in practice. Death in police custody should always be a public affair, inquests in the public domain so names are shamed and justice served.

    2. Kylyssa profile image92
      Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      All around our country, police are killing and grievously injuring people who are black, brown, mentally ill, physically disabled, or learning disabled at terrifying rates. The uniform-wearing criminals need to be brought to justice.

  7. profile image0
    Stargrrlposted 8 years ago

    No, I cannot see the anger behind the recent riots in Baltimore.  There is probably more to this story than we know.  As far as the rioters are concerned, they are only mad because the deceased is black.  We don't know the exact events leading up to the cause of his death.  For all we know, it could have been that the deceased attacked another and it was self-defense.  Only the people who were there when the attack happened can say for sure.  I don't condone police brutality, but I respect the police and all that they do.  Rioting is just making things way worse.  I'd be pretty pissed off (and scared) if I lived in Baltimore and someone damaged my property. 

    BTW, didn't the deceased have a bad record of crimes?  That does not mean he deserved to die, but he wasn't exactly a good, innocent guy.

    1. adagio4639 profile image59
      adagio4639posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      " For all we know, it could have been that the deceased attacked another and it was self-defense" - right, except that he was handcuffed and his legs were shackled.

    2. chef-de-jour profile image96
      chef-de-jourposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      If this was a one off incident it would be bad enough but there have been several recently, all black, all killed by gangs of white policemen? There should be some public apology and serious legal action taken against the perpetrators.

  8. R K Beran profile image60
    R K Beranposted 8 years ago

    Frankly, I think the police should take a citywide sabbatical. If these rioting lunatics hate cops so much, then surely they could survive a day (or two, or ten) without them. That is, unless they have zero confidence in the structural integrity of their anarchic mob-rule.

    After a few days of completely unchecked violence, looting, destruction of property, and public defecation (all in the name of "justice"), I'm sure they'll come to their senses.

    Funny how you don't see whites rioting like a barbarian horde when whites are killed by blacks...even when it's been *demonstrated* that in some cases the crimes are racially motivated. Case in point: Christopher Lane. And when a white guy is killed by a black cop? No uproar. In fact, most are quick to assume the white guy's fault--hence the media silence. Case in point: Dillon Taylor.

    1. chef-de-jour profile image96
      chef-de-jourposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      ALL police crime should be out in the public regardless of colour or race. The one issue that's missing in your answer is the awful history - from slavery to aprtheid - that goes before all of the recent black deaths in police custody.

    2. R K Beran profile image60
      R K Beranposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      The point is that we're currently holding a double-standard. All police crime should be called out. But since when does the skin color of the deceased somehow justify crime sprees? Nobody riots for white victims of police brutality.

  9. feenix profile image59
    feenixposted 8 years ago

    Take it from someone who knows all about rioting -- because I was around in the turbulent 50s, 60s and 70s and was involved in a couple of riots myself.

    Anyway, the vast majority of the black rioters in Baltimore were not rioting because they were angry. They were rioting because the upheaval  provided them with a golden opportunity to get their hands on a lot of free stuff.

    1. chef-de-jour profile image96
      chef-de-jourposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      There will always be those who take advantage and undermine what is a pure right to protest about the recent murders of black people whilst in police custody. The same law should apply - anger in peaceful protest is fine, looting is not.

  10. Marie Flint profile image74
    Marie Flintposted 8 years ago

    I'm finally catching up on some of my HubPages notifications, Andrew.

    First of all, I don't follow the news much, as I'm too busy praying for world peace and helping my daughter with her newborn, my grandson.

    In general, I don't accept anger and look forward to the day when the job of a police officer has become extinct because people will care enough about each other to unconditionally support one another.

    People who engage in activities of rioting, looting, and the like only reflect their immature state of development. In truth, we are to share the glory and abundance that is around us, but of which we so unwittingly deprive ourselves.

    Peace be with you.

 
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