Baltimore Riots!

Timely, não é?  Incidentally, this isn’t the first time Baltimore has had riots.

1861.   Immediately after the Civil War broke out, CSA sympathizers rioted.  Union troops coming from Pennsylvania on their way south to defend Washington, DC, had to march through downtown Baltimore from the President Street Station, west down Pratt Street to the Camden Street Station.  It was along Pratt Street that white protesters, i.e. pro-CSA crackers, attacked the Union troops.  Toll: 4 soldiers, 12 civilians dead. 

1968.  From April 6 to 14, 1968, riots swelled across the country in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination in Memphis, Tennessee.  In Baltimore, Governor Spiro Agnew had to call out the Maryland National Guard, and then ask for Federal troops from President Johnson.  The toll wound up as 6 dead, 700 wounded, and $12m ($77.5 in 2015 dollars) of property damage.

By the way….

Fairfax, Virginia.  This shooting went completely off the radar:  in August 2013, Fairfax County Police Officer Torres shot and killed John Geer, who was standing in his front door, even though all the other cops at the scene insist that Geer had his hands up and was not threatening anyone.   Geer’s family brought a lawsuit, which was recently settled.  Remarkably, as of today, there have been NO charges filed against Torres.  None.  Not only that, he’s still on Fairfax’s payroll. 

Riots in Fairfax?  ZERO.   Outcry in Fairfax?  ZERO.   I only found out about this when I read that the case had been settled.  Perhaps Geer’s race is part of the reason: he was white. 

Update on the Michael Brown case in Missouri.  My prediction in my earlier blog notwithstanding, the US Dept of Justice has declined to bring any chargers against Officer Darren Wilson.  Hmm.  If there was a single shred of evidence, any possible chance of a conviction, I cannot imagine the DOJ not bringing charges against Wilson.  Unlike DA McCulloch, the Feds have no dog in this fight, and if anything, have an incentive to step in and fix things, if they do need to be fixed.  But their decision seems to vindicate Wilson.  The Feds had the luxury of plowing through the grand jury testimony and evidence and making a decision without having to worry about a riot erupting on them, so they could be more objective than the local DA.  

            Brown’s family has filed a civil wrongful death suit against the Ferguson PD, and with a lesser standard in a civil case (a preponderance of the evidence, vs. beyond a reasonable doubt) it’s possible that either a settlement or a judgment for the family will be forthcoming.  Stay tuned. 

Baltimore.  Now we have riots in Baltimore.  Naturally I’ll give my impression of that, too:  from a nucleus of peaceful protestors who honestly believe Freddie Gray was murdered by the police while in custody – which is not a fanciful assumption or belief – the opportunistic rioters latched on and made a mess of everything.  As I noted earlier, this unfortunately discredits what might otherwise be legitimate concerns of the black community of Baltimore and reinforces the polarity between those who mistrust the police and those who fall in step behind them no matter what the circumstances. 

Fact: there are criminals.   Dangerous criminals.  We depend on the police to protect us from them.

Fact: there are bad cops.  Dangerous bad cops.  And far too often, the police community closes ranks to protect them from public retribution (due credit for the FCPD cops who supported the Geer family’s position instead of lying to protect Torres).    

Bottom line: we should be safe from criminals – without accepting an unaccountable police state.