As you may know, a 25 year old Baltimore resident, Freddie Gray, was arrested by Baltimore City Police on April 12. At some point after his arrest, likely as he was being transported to jail in a ‘paddywagon,’ Gray suffered a spinal injury that eventually killed him seven days later. Six city police officers have been suspended pending an investigation into Gray’s death. A big protest in downtown Baltimore on Saturday turned a little violent in the evening hours.
A Baltimore sportscaster, Brett Hollander, took to Twitter to say that demonstrations that negatively impact the daily lives of fellow citizens are counter-productive. I have found that this is usually the position of those who oppose protests: “Hey, I am all for what they are doing, but they are inconveniencing me, and therefore they must be stopped.”
Orioles COO John Angelos, the son of owner Peter Angelos, responded on Twitter with a pretty amazing explanation and defense of why protests are happening. I mean, this is movement type stuff.
Brett, speaking only for myself, I agree with your point that the principle of peaceful, non-violent protest and the observance of the rule of law is of utmost importance in any society. MLK, Gandhi, Mandela and all great opposition leaders throughout history have always preached this precept. Further, it is critical that in any democracy, investigation must be completed and due process must be honored before any government or police members are judged responsible.
That said, my greater source of personal concern, outrage and sympathy beyond this particular case is focused neither upon one night’s property damage nor upon the acts, but is focused rather upon the past four-decade period during which an American political elite have shipped middle class and working class jobs away from Baltimore and cities and towns around the U.S. to third-world dictatorships like China and others, plunged tens of millions of good, hard-working Americans into economic devastation, and then followed that action around the nation by diminishing every American’s civil rights protections in order to control an unfairly impoverished population living under an ever-declining standard of living and suffering at the butt end of an ever-more militarized and aggressive surveillance state.
The innocent working families of all backgrounds whose lives and dreams have been cut short by excessive violence, surveillance, and other abuses of the Bill of Rights by government pay the true price, and ultimate price, and one that far exceeds the importances of any kids’ game played tonight, or ever, at Camden Yards. We need to keep in mind people are suffering and dying around the U.S., and while we are thankful no one was injured at Camden Yards, there is a far bigger picture for poor Americans in Baltimore and everywhere who don’t have jobs and are losing economic civil and legal rights, and this makes inconvenience at a ballgame irrelevant in light of the needless suffering government is inflicting upon ordinary Americans.