Riot erupts in Baltimore after funeral for man injured in police custody

These riots do not help. They need to organize, and shut the city down peacefully.

scia

What makes you think economic and racial inequality are unrelated? In Baltimore. In the US.

Well it isn't an obvious racial issue. The Mayor of Baltimore is black. The police chief is black. The city council is majority black. Over half of the police force is black...It sounds like six cops broke his neck, but that’s no excuse for Baltimore thugs to do their thing.

Opportunists wanting free stuff. Or they think they deserve.

To say it's an economic inequality difference is inaccurate. It's much more than that. It is the free ride culture created. A dependence on free stuff! The lack of motivation. The education opportunities wasted. Substances used and abused from ancho to hard drugs. Violence used to solve differences as opposed to dialog. With a workforce embracining these culturural issues they can clean toilets and flip burgers at best. And race baiters, this goes for whites and Hispanics also.

High school kids are rioting! Maybe I'm a bit stern, they should shot the scumbags with beanbags when the violence starts. The coverage I see the police are in defense retreat mode only.

Thugs destroying Baltimore. What a spectacle for Abe & his entourage while they visit the US. Lovely.

Police are in a hot spot right now. Cause if they use "more force" on the these thugs,they will be scrutinized more. Who will draw the line?

You can't allow lawlessness. It only promotes more lawlessness. Yes, firing non- lethal beanbags will enfuriate them more, but where is the line drawn? How many more hospitalized police officers will it be? How many more burned buildings are the tipping point? The bums even burnt down a much needed Senior Center!

@ Lizz: You are correct. Mr. Gray was probably a "corner boy" a lookout for the local drug sellers. If he had nothing to hide, why run? My brother used to live in Batimore (we aer both Black) and he said the area where this occured, he wouldn't want to walk down the street in the middle of the day.

No excuse for burning your own neighborhood if you feel there is an injustice. Start by cleaning up your area to not give the police the reason to be there.

Yeah, I know. Ever since Ferguson, this issue intensifies. Guy gets shot in the back, next Gray dies in police custody. Somehow, these gangbangers think rioting and destrying the community is justified.

The businesses that are being destroyed hire Blacks who live in the area. If I owned a busines and it was burned and looted, I would not rebuild in the same area expecting things to change. I would take whatever money from the insurance that I have had to pay at exhorbitant high rates for being in a high crime area and cut my losses. All that would be left are the same people who are crying that they can't survive on minimum wage jobs, yet will not rise up and report these "corner bos" and others who are doing bad in the neighborhood and report them.

If the police did something wrong, then they should be put on trial. The cops in this case were most likely Black, so it is not a case of Black victim, White cop. Yes he was carrying a knife (Gray) and had an arrest record for drug possessions and was probably violating his parole for being out on the "corner." But still that is no need for him to be killed, and to a point, he should not have resisted if he was caught.

Riots will not serve any purpose and will only bring down the area.

Mr. Gray was probably a "corner boy" a lookout for the local drug sellers.

While possibly true, this still doesn't justify having one's spinal cord nearly severed in what has got to be one of the more egregious examples of police brutality in recent memory (assuming we justifiably upgrade the broad-daylight gunning down of Walter Lamer Scott as murder)

The lack of motivation. The education opportunities wasted. Substances used and abused from ancho to hard drugs. Violence used to solve differences as opposed to dialog. With a workforce embracining these culturural issues they can clean toilets and flip burgers at best. And race baiters, this goes for whites and Hispanics also.

It's fascinating how easily you can make your arguments as if they all occur in some sort of historical and cultural vacuum. What should blacks in these communities be motivated about precisely?

And exactly what glowing educational opportunities are you referring to? The ones where more affluent white families move out of predominantly black communities, bringing down tax revenues, resulting in decreased resources for the remaining decidedly non-while, non-wealthy students? Or the token Affirmative Action quotas that scarcely address the extant root educational and economic disparities that make any dreams of attending college a non-starter for the vast majority of urban black youths.

Drug use and drug sales, you say? What are the viable employment opportunities that exist for black urban youths that would provide a legal and far less socially corrosive avenue for earning a living? Cleaning toilets and flipping burgers? These jobs pay but a fraction of what drug dealing does, and they certainly won't lead to relatively cushy white collar positions that better educated, better funded, but supported whites accept as a matter of course.

Please be succinct in your list of actionable job opportunities that can lift the average black family from the despair and squalor of urban slums onto a plateau of economic parity with their white neighbors. Can’t wait for floodgate to open.

In the meantime, I find myself torn between laughing and crying at the absurdity of white people giving advice on how blacks could and should succeed in America, when the vast majority of these people truly and honestly have zero comprehension of what being a person of color in America actually entails, including the inconvenient truth that prejudice and bigotry are alive and well in the U.S.A. Clueless and myopic, these people, completely and utterly.

What’s even more astonishing is how many white people in the U.S. honestly believe that their perceived successes are the result of “motivation” or good ol’ fashioned gumption™. Bull puckey. Any given person’s success or failure in life is 50% dumb luck, and that’s the stark truth of it. Now imagine when that lucky outcome is pushed one way or another by a socio-economic system that tells it’s people of color, “Yeah, we treated you all like utter garbage for the better part of 200 years, but we’re past that now. Why can’t you just forget about it -- and the handicap you’re operating from -- and be more like us?”

Circumstances of birth are all that separate the wealthy from the poor in the U.S., and the wealthy would do well to come to terms with that truth, especially since they’re so vastly outnumbered now while a significantly large enough segment of the disenfranchised are becoming more and more willing to express their dissatisfaction and displeasure with the status quo through increasingly violent demonstration.

It's about time. Let's get this party started!

Bull puckey.

I will be stealing that. Good post LFR. As usual. Pretty damned consistent of you.

Land of the Free. Unless you are a 'hood black. Legalise drugs and won't be no corner boys. and hold the cops to account.

I agree to legal drugs Wakari, but there will always be a black market.

Think of all the tax revenues from the trillion dollar a year drug trade and what it could do for training policeman to learn to act like normal human beings in the US.

Well LFRAgain, what opportunities do they have? First of all take advantage of school, w/o reading or math skills your career potential becomes very limited. As parents do they push for education or skills in a trade? Public schools have the same curriculum statewide. If you choose to use or throw it away paves your future. Do parents even care?These are the baseline opportunities.

White collar jobs are attainable with secondary education. What attendance rate is it in those depressed areas? College is not necessary trades can pay nicely. How many trades are learned in those areas? What options in a career does one have with no skills and very basic education? Doesn't that become their choice?

When blacks become more affluent they leave the hood also. Don't paint it with color. Who in their right mind would willingly live in a depressed and unsecure neighborhood? Generations of the same remain in the same desperation. 50 years ago I would agree Blacks have limits in career opportunities. Not today! We've come a long way. Blacks choose to use efforts in law breaking. Use your efforts to better yourself. I've done it! When I grew up in a big city neighborhood it was us against the police. Many of my friends from those days are still doing the same things the did in high school. Living on handouts and occasional stints in jail. Pave your road and follow it to a better life!

Obama, Holder and Sharpton were no help with comments made before investigations were completed. They more or less gave the green light to protest(riot).

Again, police have a job to do. Are they perfect at it, no! What profession is perfect? Do arrested thugs get roughed up on occasion yes. Is it exclusive to blacks, no. Does the media puts the color agenda, YES!

How I want to see the end of these fruitless riots... I agree that the police have to change, but looting does nothing to address the root problem.

On a side note, my 'baby' cousin (18) almost got caught up in this just because she was wearing a Navy uniform. It is sad that a few bad apples make people distrust anyone wearing a uniform. I am sure there are a lot of people who just want to help in the police and military.

@LRFAgain: If there are no job opporunities, then why is the area full of poor illegal immigrants from third world countries as well as poor Blacks? My borther used to visit the area for his work when he lived there and he will tell you a different story.

Let me ask have you lived in these types of areas? Are you Black or White? Your posts sounds like the typical White liberal guilt that we have seen from time to time, and totally discount what Blacks (like me and many others) have done that come from areas like these to succeed.

Job opportunities? Let's start with the CVS store that was burned down. Do you know how much a manager of one of these stores makes? It would be enough to lift a person from poverty. As well as the workers there, maybe they would be making a little more than the minimum wage, but what else are they going to do now. So I guess you think that the local stores that have been destroyed by locals who built them didn't put the hard work into it, but just "lucky" as you suggest. If you don't think that those businesses that have gone up in smoke would not afford the owners a step into the middle class, then you will need to reevaluate your probably beliefs that fast food workers should get more than minimum wage since a majority of those stores are owned by small business owners who like those whose stores have gone up in smoke, are so tight with what they make in profit, that paying higher wages would result in a bad business model. But according to you, that work is not going to get them into the middle class so which is it?

My ancestors were slaves, share croppers and very poor, yet somehow they managed to get one generation into school and a little better off than the previous, and that cycle is trying to continue. Hate to say it, but just because you are born poor does not mean that you have to stay poor, nor does it mean that the only way to get better is to resort to a life of crime.

A history lesson for you: this part of West Baltimore used to be a thriving area with many stores for shopping and home to many Black owned businesses. Then in the wake of the assignation of Rev. Martin Luther King in 1968, and the resulting riots that occurred aft wards in the area, have in part set the course to what we have today. After the riots of 1968, the area never recovered.

Burning your own area is not going to solve anything.

Legalise drugs and won't be no corner boys. and hold the cops to account.

They will still be there. To sell drugs legally will mean you will have to get some type of license. And if you have a criminal record, one will probably not be able to work in such an industry. Also, if you are poor and have no job how do you suppose one would get the money to buy legalized drugs? The same way that they do now, stealing which causes the crime rate to go up. Junkies are the ones going around and comitting the petty crimes and nuciance crimes like stealig copper wire to sell illegally in order to make money to buy drugs, since once one gets too strung out on drugs, you loose the abilty to hold a steady job. The crime will remain, whether legal or not.

@justbcuzisay. Luckily your cousin wasn't harmed. Police in uniforms represent authority, law, cities & states.

Military uniforms (sort of) represent it all- the US Government. So when they get involved in the mix, they might get targeted. Sad but true.

After seeing what happens to black suspects by the cops, I'd be running too. Can't ask questions when you're 6 feet under.

And for all those saying the line has to be drawn, and that thuggery is no answer, should be telling that to the police.

And for all those saying the line has to be drawn, and that thuggery is no answer, should be telling that to the police.

We do. Every time there is hard evidence of police misconduct - almost always supplied by citizens - they've came down on the officers involved. The key is "hard evidence". I forget the details, but there was an officer on horseback who arrested an individual saying he had assaulted the horse, but video showed no such thing happened. The officer was charged with false arrest and filing a false report. Things as minor as that all the way up to the infamous murder of Walter Scott. When there is hard evidence of the police acting improperly, municipalities DO do the right thing.

Regarding that guy who died while in a "choke hold" - there was too much grey area for there to be "hard evidence" against the cop. First of all, the video everyone says "proves" the guy was killed by the police was edited - leaving a heck of a lot of things (including why the police suddenly move in on him) off the video. Second of all, the guy obviously was not being choked because if so he would not have been able to call out "I can't breathe". There certainly could be other reasons why he couldn't breathe (for instance, the weight of the officer on top of him was preventing his lungs from fully expanding), but being choked was not one of them. So like I said there was a lot more uncertainty in that incident than the general public realizes.

The dude in Ferguson who was reaching into the cop car for the officer's gun? Please! His parent's need to be sued by the city for not teaching their son that assaulting a police officer will probably get you shot. In that case the forensic and autopsy evidence supported the officer's version of the incident and raised huge questions about the "eyewitnesses" truthfulness. So yeah, lots of grey area in that incident as well.

but there was an officer on horseback who arrested an individual saying he had assaulted the horse, but video showed no such thing happened. The officer was charged with false arrest and filing a false report.

Recently ( 2 weeks ago) in San Bernadino in CA, a suspect was fleeing from the sheriffs and he actually stole a horse for part of the chase. It was caught live on news helocopters. After the deputies caught up with him, they pinned him on the ground and about 6 others came in and started beating and kicking him, while he was clearly on the ground and the news cameras were rolling. and was being chased by

The deputies were suspended, and the horse thief last week settled with the sheriff's deptartment for $650,000. So the system does work and when cops do bad things, they get caught and punished. By the way, the horse thief was again in the news for doing something bad and getting arrested again. His money will be spent on legal fees.

Lawlessness is hard to step away from. It's a lifestyle for some. The horse thrift had a lucky break with his award but blew it doing what he knows best.

@Wc626 Thank you for your kind words. I am fully aware that we were born to privilege just by the fact that our ancestors gave us white skin, but I am proud of my family that treats every one the same and the many of them that join the military did it for the reason of HELPING PEOPLE (rather than just to protect our country, subtle but important difference. IMHO)