Violence in Baltimore . . .

[lavendertook]

. . . is not the rioting. It's what caused the rioting.

I can't imagine what it must feel like to be the parents of these children, stranded after school because not only mass transit was suspended while they were in school, but their school buses were prevented from taking them home. Thanks to browngirl for first alerting me of the shutdown. Those riot police in the pics weren't there to protect these poor kids and get them home, as should be their mission. Baltimore goddam.

WaPo is sucking something awful at covering events. It goes without speaking that CNN is, too. No need to mention the other major alleged news agency. But The Guardian is doing some good coverage. As the police get 10 days to talk with lawyers and come up with a story, the hundreds of people on the street rounded up have had their habeas corpus rights waved for an extended 47 hours and are being assigned massive impossible bails to get out of jail.

synecdochic has some smart things to say and many good links about what's going on here.

The killing of black men like Freddie Gray by US police is nothing new, and not just a new trend because we're hearing about it now in the media. I'm hoping that the coverage the media is finally giving to open season on black people will result in some change in racist police conduct and hyper-militarization.

Comments

[mews1945]

It would be good if real change comes out of this.

[untonuggan]

I wish I controlled our newspaper subscription so I could cancel the WaPo subscription over their absymal coverage of this. Sadly, I do not, and my parents like the "local coverage" even though we all rage at Courtland Milloy on a semi-regular basis.

[baranduin.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links. I've really been at sea about where to get the actual news.

[addie71.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links. I hope we see some change in the racist police actions, too.

[romeny.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your post, I fear for not only for our city but for many throughout the country following the release of information surrounding Gray's death tomorrow. Sigh...

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

thanks for the links!

[lbilover.livejournal.com]

I've been reading articles from The Guardian. Jon Stewart also did a real spot-on segment a couple days ago about the rioting. It's distressing even on the NYT site to read the comments. So much ignorance.