The Violence in Baltimore

Most of the country is aware that Baltimore was the scene of violent riots recently. Much of the country blames a corrupt and racist police force. The Mayor, who has been severely criticized for her lack of action, seems to think that an investigation into the police department will root out all the evil and make the Baltimore streets once again safe, and most importantly, tourist friendly.

If only it were so simple.

Hopefully, what I'm about to write will not be brushed off as racist by some who read this. As has been pointed out to me before, I supposedly cannot speak of black issues because I am not black. If you want to believe that, then don't speak for me if you are not white. Ok?  Have we gotten that out of the way?  This is a people issue. (However, for the record, if not for white people, the NAACP would never have been formed.)  My track record as a teacher reveals my dedication to educating my students about our country's struggles over racial issues. When other teachers were talking again about Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks during Black History Month, my students were studying the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas and the impact of the Civil Rights Movement on our country. They presented a choral reading of the timeline of our country's black history to their peers during an assembly.  I went to Darby Township Elementary School where I was a minority.  My mother was the first parent in my class to integrate birthday parties.  She got calls from the neighbors for this because they objected to my black athletic friend leading a bunch of us in a running game around the neighborhood. I overheard two of my students discussing me once. Student A insisted I was racist. Student B replied, "Ah she ain't racist.  She's just mean." I rest my case.

Baltimore City is a hot mess, and the idea that ferreting out bad cops will make it all good again, is simplistic and unrealistic. The problems run so deeply that how they'll ever be solved is beyond me. But maybe if lawmakers and leaders would get real and identify some of the difficult issues, a start could be made.

Let's begin with the family. I'm not going to throw out statistics, but too many of the children born in Baltimore are conceived by mistake, as the result of an act of recreation, as an attempt to hold onto a man, or in an attempt to prove some guy's manhood. This shit has got to stop.  Babies are cute.  But they have needs beyond anything that teen moms and social services can provide; it is not long before their constant crying and never ending need for attention is no longer cute. Once they pass the cute kid stage, city children are often neglected. These kids are susceptible to gang life, spousal abuse, drug dealing/using, theft, and a value system based upon what they see on TV. (NOT ALL KIDS.  Ok? Let's get that out of the way too.) If a male wants to father a baby, then that male needs to pay child support. No, baby daddy, an occasional delivery of formula and diapers is not child support. Women need to use those free clinics and not get pregnant out of irresponsibility or the stupid, stupid idea that the guy will stick around because you have provided him with an heir. In the city, lots of girls could be hatching his seeds.  Our city has a growing population of teens who have been raising themselves, who do not go to school, who seek gangs for support, and are ripe and ready to let off some steam through violent measures.  The rioters were not born to pillage and destroy. However, the lack of the family unit, in my opinion, has contributed to a breakdown in the city. The gangs are the new family units.  Crime is the new family recreation. The fights over territory, the fights over "respect,"and the absolute warlike activities in the city are the result of these communities being destroyed from within. Yes, there is a lot of police activity in the city. But are the Baltimore police going into the city and targeting blacks for the hell of it as so many seem to believe?  There is a tidal wave of crime in  the city.  Crime = police response.

When the same few shockingly glaring examples of police brutality are repeatedly broadcast by the media to convince us that the entire Baltimore City Police Department is full of violent, crooked, racist, incompetent police, I get angry. Yes, there are bad cops.  Yes, there are arrogant power hungry cops.  Yes, there are good cops having a bad day.  And yet, what would our city be without its police force?  I feel for the police men and women who go into the city daily to restore peace, solve crimes, rescue the innocent, get drugs off the streets, and protect the public.  They are often greeted with vulgarities that the general public thinks cops should just ignore.  They are physically assaulted. They are threatened with guns. They are shot in the face. They are lied to.  They witness the same people whom they struggle to arrest being released to re-offend. Nobody has their back. Seems like Freddie Gray, with an arrest record for drugs and all the related criminal activities that go with it, has the support of the media and a community looking to villainize a police department.

The Mayor seems content that arrests have been made in the Freddie Grey case.  I don't know what to think. If the police purposely denied him a humane arrest and proper medical care, they were definitely out of line. Such actions are wrong and shameful to the police department.  However, will anyone ever really know what happened that night?  One report states he was not buckled in, leading to his injuries.  Another report states he purposely tried to injure himself.  Who knows?  The federal investigators want to determine if Baltimore police "...use excessive force, including deadly force, conduct unlawful searches,seizures and arrests, and engage in discriminatory policing." The Mayor is convinced this investigation will reveal the truth of what happened that night and what chronically happens in  the police department. We'll see. I don't know what is next in the Freddie Grey case. What I do know is that the future of violence and discord in Baltimore City rests on its outcome.

Black lives matter.  Police lives matter.  When do we wise up and realize that all lives matter?  Is this 2015 or 1968? Are we a civilization or a dystopia? So many questions; so few answers.