Pirate's Cove

And let’s not forget about all the arrests. There’s a serious amount of dissonance going on in this NY Times article written by Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Stephen Babcock

Scenes of Chaos in Baltimore as Thousands Protest Freddie Gray’s Death

OK, the headline, which is most likely written by an editor, says “chaos”

A largely peaceful protest over the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who suffered a spinal cord injury in police custody, gave way to scattered scenes of chaos here on Saturday night, as demonstrators smashed a downtown storefront window, threw rocks and bottles and damaged police cruisers, while officers in riot gear broke up skirmishes and made 12 arrests near Camden Yards.

Perhaps someone in the Credentialed Media could explain why, exactly, they love using the phrase “largely peaceful”, when it is anything by? (Of course, were this a Right leaning gathering, they’d immediately deem it a riot)

Hours earlier, a racially diverse and mostly calm crowd of hundreds — and by some estimates more than 1,000 — marched through the streets, clogging intersections, carrying signs and shouting, “All night, all day, we’re gonna fight for Freddie Gray!” They made their way from the Gilmor Homes — the squat brick public West Baltimore housing development where Mr. Gray was arrested on April 12 — through the sparkling downtown harbor, a major tourist attraction here, before assembling on a plaza at City Hall.

There, Malik Shabazz, president of Black Lawyers for Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based group that called for the demonstration and advertised it on social media, told the crowd that he would release them in an hour, adding: “Shut it down if you want to! Shut it down!”

Hmm, yelling about fighting to people who were already worked up, and telling them to shut it down. (Were this a conservative crowd, the media would tell us how this was a call for violence)

Mr. Shabazz said in a later interview that his rhetoric was intended only to encourage civil disobedience — not violence — but added that he was “not surprised” by the scattered angry outbursts because people here “haven’t received justice.”

Why would he be surprised? Time and again we’ve seen these “demonstrations” turn violent. That’s not a reflection as to what happened to Freddie Gray, of which I do not know, having barely followed this. This is more about the crazy media talking point about “mostly peaceful”. It is interesting to note, though, that Baltimore is a very Liberal/Democrat city with a huge presence of Blacks in government and the police department. And a mayor, Stephanie Rawlings Blake, who is Black. Doesn’t seem that they are doing the community any good service.

Saturday’s trouble began in the early evening, when a group of protesters, as many as 100 by some accounts, split from the main group as the City Hall rally was breaking up and went on a rampage, throwing cans, bottles and trash bins at police officers, and breaking windows in some businesses. As the breakaway group reached Camden Yards, where the Baltimore Orioles were playing the Boston Red Sox on Saturday night, it was met by police officers in riot gear.

Protesters smashed windows of some cars and blocked the corner of Pratt and Light Streets, a major intersection that is a main route to Interstate 95 and out of the city. The department used its Twitter feed to urge demonstrators to remain peaceful, and blamed the problems on “isolated pockets of people from out of town causing disturbances downtown.” Late in the ballgame, police briefly instructed fans to remain in the stadium “until further notice,” but the crowd was eventually released.

This “mostly peaceful” demonstration needed 1,200 officers to be deployed. Reason has an interesting screencap from the Camden Yards scoreboard asking people to stay in the stadium.

It's like #BlackBrunch only at night, at a baseball game, with riots, looting and stuff = Black Lives Matter Logic ! pic.twitter.com/WEEg0gmcLf

— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) April 26, 2015

Of course, violence in Baltimore is nothing new. This is a city that is known for the use of bullet proof plexiglass, used extensively to separate the store workers from the consumers, often with huge amounts of the product behind the plexiglass. This is a city that had to deploy huge numbers of officers around the city to deal with violence and crime for July 4th. They’ve had to deal with large groups of Black youths committing large numbers of crimes around the Harbor area.

The People’s Power Assembly was on hand, a group that backs cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. And

Shades of Ferguson. What, exactly, did this store, its owner, and its employees have to do with the death of Freddie Gray? Lots of interesting photos at the Baltimore Sun. Looks mostly peaceful, eh?

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: Mostly Peaceful Protest In Baltimore Includes Broken Windows, Thrown Rocks, Damaged Police Cars »