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Baltimore Residents Begin Clearing Debris After Night of Riots

nytimes.com

91–100 of 110 posts

Re: Baltimore Residents Begin Clearing Debris After Night of Riots

#91
post #31

FWIW, David Simon's response: http://davidsimon.com/baltimore/ > Yes, there is a lot to be argued, debated, addressed. And this moment, as inevitable as it has sometimes seemed, can still, in the end, prove transformational, if not redemptive for our city. Changes are necessary and voices need to be heard. All of that is true and all of that is still possible, despite what is now loose in the streets. > But now — in…

His various replies to comments are also worth reading.

Re: Baltimore Residents Begin Clearing Debris After Night of Riots

#92
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what happens when you have populations that think they are above the law, and that prey on other citizens that aren't like them (FTFY)

you can't even stand behind your own comments.

He or she may not feel like exposing their identity but what they say is not that far off. Most of the violence is not by the local people who will be directly impacted by the violence in the neighborhoods. It's by people who found a nice excuse to vent whatever frustration they have violently and anonymously. These acts don't further justice -the same way mistreating arrestees does not further justice. They coopt the frustration of the community and corrupt it and moreover set the community back in terms of forward development.

I think the problem is more your interpretation with what they are saying than what the words they said. Also, who are the people above the law, the rioters, the bad police, its not clear, but we know both contribute to destruction.

Re: Baltimore Residents Begin Clearing Debris After Night of Riots

#94
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't North American cities generally grid based? wouldn't this make it easy for police to for lines, block off several streets, and contain rioters within a block or two?

See New York where protesters could easily avoid cops by creating multiple incidents at once and dispersing in different directions when police resistance arrives. It takes too long for an organized group to move through the city and that can be used to spread police thin.

That's more a problem with the size of the cities that the layout though.

Re: Baltimore Residents Begin Clearing Debris After Night of Riots

#95
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you aware that it's not the police or city who own the CVS? It's also not the police or the city who own the 7-11. It's not police or the city who own Binta's African Hair, or the community center, or the stores in the Mondawmin mall, or the McDonalds, or the majority of the other property that was damaged. It's individuals, private citizens, neighbors of those who are looting. Will you please explain how looting…

A black man killed in police custody and large peaceful protest doesn't even register as a blip on any radar. It was a footnote in the media and something politicans ignore practically every month in the US. The riots have very significantly raised this issue to the public. Sure a lot of people are just going to write it off as mindless violence (and a lot of it is) but in reality destruction of random private and co…

Have you read any history? Riots such as these happened all during the late 1960's in response to much worse oppression during the time period. Virtually all these riots made the black community worse off. Their own business districts were destroyed, anyone with any money fled the city, the tax base collapsed, crime got even more out of control.

If the black community in Baltimore want to solve police oppression, here is a positive way they can do it: 1) form a neighborhood association with a neighborhood police force to handle issues of crime. These police officers would be elected and controlled by the community. 2) Tell the center city police that they no longer have to police the black neighborhoods, which the police would like, it is not a fun job. When a case of police brutality breaks out, tell the police to stay of the hood from now on or face reprisals. 3) Tell their elected officials - (who are black, the majority of the voters are black in Baltimore) to disband the police.

Re: Baltimore Residents Begin Clearing Debris After Night of Riots

#96
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, I see you are advocating a new system where injustices are answered with further injustices.

There is no system in place where this can end with justice. Every time that justice has been called for in cases of police brutality against minorities over the past year, only once was that justice served. Murderers are at large, and richer for, injustices that were defended by the system. Those that are supposed to deliver justice consider themselves all-powerful and above the laws they should be upholding. Justic…

I don't know what the answers are, but burning the businesses of innocent people who have nothing to do with all of this is not one of those answers.

Re: Baltimore Residents Begin Clearing Debris After Night of Riots

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an awfully big assumption. Was the fact that the police beat this guy and cracked his spine reported in the Baltimore Sun yesterday? There has been no conclusion that that is the case. Those that are rioting are guilty of exactly what they accuse the police of. I believe the mayor called them "thugs".

He was able to run away from the police BEFORE they arrested him. After he was transported to the police station, he was found to be severely injured and the folks at the police station sent him immediately to the hospital. I'm going to use logic here for a minute. There are only two possibilities for how this happened. Either it happened at the hands of the police, or another force. Who is this other force, and how…

It is possible to break a bone and have the injury remain somewhat stable for some time.

I do not offer that as an explanation of what happened, but simply as a third possibility, that he was already injured when taken into custody, but that the severity of the injury was not apparent.

Re: Baltimore Residents Begin Clearing Debris After Night of Riots

#98
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, today I learned America has never had a riot before. Although I seem to distinctly remember my city of Philadelphia rioting pretty good after the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series...

Your sarcasm is misplaced. In fact, America has seen a lot of protests and riots, for example in Brazil and Mexico.

Or in, say, New Hampshire, like a year ago.

Re: Baltimore Residents Begin Clearing Debris After Night of Riots

#99
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where did I blame poor people? Why do discussions like this on HN have to be so twisted and toxic? If anything, I would blame the political elitist class that uses shiny beads to buy power and then perpetuates the misery of their constituents by not giving them a good education and the means to improve their lot.

It reads to me like a complaint about wards of the state but I may have misunderstood.

I think it was meant to be a complaint about the political party that consistently keeps certain demographics beholden to them with policies that are made in the guise of "helping".

Re: Baltimore Residents Begin Clearing Debris After Night of Riots

#100
post #18
post #11

Another great opportunity for effective protest lost.

People have been protesting peacefully in Baltimore all last week with 0 answers from the police or elected officials. No media was talking about it, there was no Freddie Gray thread on hackernews, but now the whole world is talking about it.

> People have been protesting peacefully in Baltimore all last week with 0 answers from the police or elected officials. No media was talking about it, [...]

It's almost a law of the internet that when someone claims media is not talking about something they turn out to be wrong:

April 24th: stories in New York Times, New York Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Boston Herald, NPR, NBC News, ABC News.

April 23rd: CNN, The Guardian, ABC News, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor.

April 22nd: TIME, Daily Mail, New York Daily News, ABC News, Christian Science Monitor.

April 21st: CNN, Washington Post, New York Times, ABC News, Huffington Post, The New Yorker, The Guardian

April 20th: New York Times, NBC News, Washington Post, The Guardian, Slate.

April 19th: CBS News, Al Jazeera America, Wall Street Journal.

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