At least one blog reader suggests I\u2019m overdue to comment on the Baltimore riots. He may be right. On the other hand, instead of being overdue, I may be premature writing about it now.
\n\tTomorrow, Friday the first of May, the authorities are scheduled to announce where the investigation is in the death that ignited the riot. At the moment, there is a welcome \u201clull in the action\u201d in Baltimore. There are indications that Freddie Gray, the career criminal dope dealer whose death triggered the conflagration, may have died through his own self-destructive misadventure. If the authorities announce such a conclusion, well\u2026longtime readers will recall my take on the explosion in Ferguson, MO. When the chief prosecutor announced that the grand jury which saw all the evidence refused to indict the officer who pulled the trigger in that case, the \u201cprotesters\u201d instantly became \u201crioters\u201d: as seen on TV and still visible on YouTube, they triggered an obviously pre-planned response of violence without waiting to hear the prosecutor\u2019s well-reasoned explanation of the grand jury\u2019s decision. I would not be at all surprised to see the same reaction if the Baltimore investigation indicates the police may not be at fault in Mr. Gray\u2019s sad death.
\n\tThe flames in Baltimore carry symbolism beyond the obvious, inexcusable arson. The embers of that fire have flown across the country, reigniting the never-really-quenched flames of Ferguson, and sparking new ones in New York, Philadelphia, and elsewhere. That\u2019s happened before and will doubtless happen again. There are people with agendas who want to see the flames of Baltimore turn into a nationwide firestorm.
\n\tWhat I\u2019m about to say will in some parts be what is expected of me, and in some parts, not.
\n\tWe\u2019ve seen bullshit from both extremes. A Salon writer excuses the destruction of black-owned businesses, and a discount pharmacy in an impoverished neighborhood, and the burning of an old people\u2019s home as somehow right because those who perceive themselves as downtrodden are justified in so expressing themselves. I say that\u2019s so insanely unethical, the very suggestion destroys the credibility of the writer. And on the other side, I hear calls for police to open fire with machine guns and show those rioters a thing or two, and I call bullshit on that as well. Would you have your uniformed son or daughter fire the first shot in the next Kent State shooting, or the next Bonus Army shooting?
\n\tThere have been some surprises. Within days of warnings that Crips, Bloods, and Black Guerrilla Family members were going to kill cops, all three groups attempted to create peace in the streets, and seem to have had some success, at least up \u2018til now. Smart PR for those groups? Sure. But if they did actually help quell the violence, the deserve credit for doing so\u2026as long as that approach continues.
\n\tDid the mayor really say that she created a safe zone for rioters? I for one don\u2019t read it that way. I think she was saying that she created a safe zone for peaceful protest and those with a violent agenda took advantage of it, and I can\u2019t fault her for what in retrospect may simply have been poor phrasing. But do I think there should have been a greater uniformed force presence on the streets sooner? Sure\u2026but I wasn\u2019t the one there to see the outbreak building, nor privy to the intelligence that would have warned of it\u2026so I don\u2019t have the standing to criticize the authorities for it, and neither does anyone else who didn\u2019t know what the decision-makers knew in those critical hours.
\n\tA rush to judgment without facts \u2013 something I\u2019ve warned about in this space before \u2013 led to this whole damn thing. I\u2019m going to wait for the facts before I point fingers at the mayor and others in this volatile matter, for the same reasons.
\n\tBut, enough about my take on the matter.
\n\tLet\u2019s hear yours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At least one blog reader suggests I\u2019m overdue to comment on the Baltimore riots. He may be right. On the other hand, instead of being overdue, I may be premature writing about it now. Tomorrow, Friday the first of May, the authorities are scheduled to announce where the investigation is in the death that ignited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-current-events"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}