Sup with Baltimore???

Go ahead. Talk about it.
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Doreen Peri
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Re: Sup with Baltimore???

Post by Doreen Peri » April 28th, 2015, 3:35 pm

Crazy shit! ... Not that I support looting and lighting police cars on fire and throwing bricks and rocks, but what the hell do the police expect when they continue to murder unarmed, innocent people? No reaction at all?

This country's in deep shit!

Hey there, Steve (saw)... Dan (irishsea) .... Wireman (you still have friends there) ... how close was this all happening to Sowebo? I heard on the news it was in West Baltimore.

We have some other Baltimore members, too, right? What's going on up there? Y'all OK?

Wowser indeed. Whoa!

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Doreen Peri
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Re: Sup with Baltimore???

Post by Doreen Peri » April 29th, 2015, 12:10 am


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Artguy
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Re: Sup with Baltimore???

Post by Artguy » April 29th, 2015, 7:33 am

"I had a dream..."

saw
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Re: Sup with Baltimore???

Post by saw » April 29th, 2015, 9:35 am

though ostensibly the unrest here was about the death of a young man named Freddie Gray who died while in police custody, the rioting was the culmination of decades of Freddie Grays........ most police no longer live in Baltimore, they commute from the counties, some as far away as Pa.
So instead of having kids enrolled in Baltimore city schools, and paying taxes here, they are really no different than an occupying army. Under the former mayor a zero tolerance policy was instituted, similar to NY's Stop & Frisk, so you have this segment of young black males that grow up knowing only harassment from the police.....and beatings....and death

These young people live in profoundly depressed , de-funded areas where the unemployment rate for black males is over 30 %....they have little hope of altering their position, as they watch a huge casino get built in the inner harbor area where tourism reigns...there are 2 Baltimores for them...one of abject poverty and one of opulent in your face wealth....when you mix in police violence you end up with a volatile situation...

Largely the protests about answers in the Freddie Gray case have been peaceful, but youth with all their pent up hormonal angst chose a different way to vent....you could almost feel it coming....as they obviously have watched one cop killing after another across the country shown over and over again on social media...a fever was building...

Our mayor and police chief are black, yet chose to use the racially infused term "thugs" to describe them....so perhaps a place to start would be to define the term thug....does it mean you are a gang member.....does it mean you are black....does it mean you are a lawbreaker.....because I never heard the white cop that without being threatened, casually shot a black man in the back called a thug....he will go on trial for murder....but he will never be called a thug

I think we all need to have a discussion about the prison industrial complex which we all should understand in this day and age is a business...to run a business you need natural resources...or in this case i would call them unnatural resources...black males....to populate these massive institutions of incarceration....police forces are complicit in seeing that the prisons have a steady flow of bodies....and now with organizations like the Innocence Project we see a lot of african american males being released for crimes they never committed....some have spent their entire life on death row because prosecutors, police, and even judges in some cases ,made sure someone would go to jail

until we put an end to allowing police brutality, overhaul a legal system in cahoots with big business, and provide good jobs for this segment of the population just on the news, we will continue to see retaliatory violence....and no citizens will be safe
If you do not change your direction
you may end up where you are heading

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Arcadia
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Re: Sup with Baltimore???

Post by Arcadia » April 29th, 2015, 5:50 pm

gracias saw for sharing your ideas with us!
I´ve been reading counterpunch, still agreeing with Baraka´s explicative logic but at the same time fearing and not wanting violence (in Baltimore or elsewhere, an old sort of personal dilema...)

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/29/ ... istance-2/

I found intersting Jackson´s evocation/explanation of the situation through the "two cities" image and the Nina Simone song:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/29/ ... baltimore/



I hope a more compasive & comprehensive attitude arise soon and the actions you mentioned as posible solutions may be put in action.

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