Fredericka Gray, the twin sister of Freddie Gray, made a statement after protests turned into riots, looting, destruction of property, physical attacks with injuries against the National Guard and police, and arson.
EVERYONE SHOULD STOP AND THINK ABOUT WHAT THIS YOUNG WOMAN IS ASKING.
"My family wants to say, 'Can y'all please, please stop the violence? Freddie Gray would not want this.' Freddie's father and mother do not want any violence. Violence does not get justice."
FIRST, LET US UNDERSTAND WHAT HAS HAPPENED, AS MUCH AS IS POSSIBLE.
THE FOCUS MUST REMAIN ON THE, MOST LIKELY, WRONGFUL DEATH OF A YOUNG MAN IN POLICE "CUSTODY".
THE FOCUS MUST ALSO INCLUDE WHAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE DUTIES OF POLICE OFFICERS IN AMERICA...TO "PROTECT AND SERVE" EACH COMMUNITY THAT HAS A POLICE FORCE.
PROTECT...
PROTECT AND SERVE.
IT DOESN'T MATTER IF A CITIZEN OF A COMMUNITY IS WHITE, BLACK OR INDIGO WITH ORANGE RACING STRIPES, YOUNG OR OLD, STRAIGHT OR GAY, WHETHER THAT CITIZEN HAS PRIOR CONVICTIONS OR IS NOMINATED FOR SAINTHOOD BY THE VATICAN, IS HOMELESS OR HOLDS A MORTGAGE ON HALF THE HOMES IN TOWN, IS RICH OR PENNILESS, A RESIDENT SINCE YESTERDAY OR ONE WHOSE FAMILY HAS LIVED THERE FOR 200 YEARS...ALL ARE TO BE "PROTECTED AND SERVED" IN THE SAME IDENTICAL MANNER, NO EXCEPTIONS!
PROTECT...PROTECT AND SERVE.
WAS FREDDIE GRAY PROTECTED WHILE IN CUSTODY?
THE BOSTON GLOBE HAS DONE, WHAT I CONSIDER TO BE, SOME FINE INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM IN TRYING TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION.
IN SPITE OF THE RECENT CRIMINAL ACTIONS AND ABSOLUTE STUPIDITY OF SOME WHO DECIDED TO TURN FREDDIE GRAY'S DEATH INTO A LOOTING, DESTRUCTIVE FIASCO, THE GLOBE HAS STAYED FOCUSED ON THE ISSUE.
[AS USUAL, EMPHASIS, HIGHLIGHTS, ITALICS AND BRACKETED COMMENTS ARE MINE WITHIN QUOTED TEXT **.]
THEY PUBLISHED THE FOLLOWING ON APRIL 12, 2015.
"The 45-minute mystery of Freddie Gray's death."
8:39 a.m: As three officers approached on bicycles along West North Avenue, the 25-year-old Gray was on the east corner of North Mount Street chatting with a friend, according to Shawn Washington, who frequents the block.
"Ay, yo, here comes Time Out," a young man on the opposite corner yelled, using a neighborhood term for police.
Gray swore, taking off on foot as the officers began hot-stepping on their pedals to catch up. One officer jumped off his bike to chase Gray on foot.
"That was the last time I seen that man moving," said [eyewitness] Shawn Washington, 48.
The Baltimore Sun found that police missed the opportunity to examine some evidence that could have shed light on events. For example, by the time police canvassed one neighborhood looking for video from security cameras, a convenience store camera pointed at a key intersection had already taped over its recordings of that morning.
The Sun also found that accounts from residents conflicted with the official version of events, including a police account that Gray's arrest was made "without force or incident."
Officials have declined to provide 911 call recordings related to Gray's arrest or injury, citing the open investigation, and police have declined to provide dispatch recordings that would contain any conversations between officers and dispatchers while Gray was in custody.
The timeline for when and where the van stopped remains incomplete, and no time has been provided for the van's last stop, back on North Avenue for another pickup before its arrival at the Western District police station.
Insights into the critical minutes between Gray's arrest and the call for paramedics can be gleaned from residents who said they observed several interactions the police had with him.
The reason Gray was chased by police remains unclear. Police have said it came in part because he ran, raising officers' suspicions in an area known for drug dealing.
Neighborhood accounts vary on where Gray ran before reaching Presbury Street and being apprehended by police.
Still, the arrest occurred just one minute after the initial contact, according to the police timeline.
Community outrage over the arrest has been fueled by videos showing Gray — listed on the police report at 5-foot-8 and 145 pounds — on the ground before being dragged to the police van. Neighborhood residents and police agree that the videos don't show the whole story, though.
Kevin Moore [an eyewitness], a 28-year-old friend of Gray's, said one officer had his knee on Gray's neck, and another was bending his legs backward.
"They had him folded up like he was a crab or a piece of origami," Moore said. "He was all bent up."
At 8:42 a.m., police requested a transport van at the scene.
At that point Gray, who had asthma, asked for an inhaler, but Moore said police ignored the request.
Batts [???] has said Gray's trouble breathing was not given the proper attention at "one or two" of the van's subsequent stops.
Alethea Booze, 71, who has lived along Mount Street just north of Presbury all her life, said [when she got outside after hearing Gray screaming] there was Gray, who used to call her "Mama" and run errands for her to the corner store, lying handcuffed on the ground.
Booze said she winced as police hoisted Gray. His legs appeared broken to her, though police have said Gray suffered no broken bones. Bystanders got more vocal. "Call the ambulance!" Booze remembers saying as police tried to disperse the crowd.
At least three cameras mounted on the Gilmor Homes buildings overlook the location, along a low stone wall on the edge of a courtyard. Police have released some footage, but it showed little of the arrest.
In a bystander's video Gray is shown being pulled to the van, his feet dragging, before standing briefly on his own as he's placed inside the van.
Michael Robertson, 27, said his friend [Gray] — who had a record of drug arrests — ran because he "had a history with that police beating him."
[Gray did have a police record for drug arrests. i have not been able to locate any other mention of prior police beatings he may have suffered. Police 'mugshots' might show evidence of bruises, cuts, etc, if he was beaten prior to arrest mugshots.]
One block south and four minutes later, at 8:46 a.m. at Mount and Baker streets, the van stopped because Gray was acting "irate," police said. Police have also said that paperwork had to be filled out, though they have not provided more detail.
Gray was taken out of the van so officers could place leg shackles on him. Police have said he was not buckled into the van with a seat belt afterward, even though that is required by department policy.
Shouts at the scene brought Tobias Sellers and others running down the street.
Sellers, 59, who is [Ms.] Booze's brother and lives on the same block, said he was among those who started moving toward Gray, and saw police beating him. "They were taking their black batons, whatever they are, and hitting him," Sellers said.
From inside her Gilmor Homes apartment, which overlooks the street north of Baker, Jacqueline Jackson, 53, heard "a big commotion" as she was washing dishes.
She lifted her blinds and window and peered out, looking down on the van. Gray, she said, looked unresponsive.
"They lifted him up by his pants, and he wasn't responding, and they threw him in that paddy wagon," Jackson said. "It wasn't like they took him out to see what was going on with him. … I said, 'Call the paramedics!'"
Police have said that a preliminary report on Gray's autopsy showed he had no injuries except to his spinal cord. No evidence of kicks, punches or other beatings. No evidence of broken limbs.
Four cameras mounted on the Gilmor Homes buildings overlook the Mount and Baker intersection, but footage released by police has shown little of the officers' interactions with Gray. Police have promised to release more video as it becomes available.
At 8:59 a.m., as the van headed toward Central Booking, the driver called for an officer to "check on" Gray.
Police said an officer did respond and had "some communication" with Gray at the intersection of Druid Hill Avenue and Dolphin Street, though they have not described that interaction in detail and have said there is no surveillance footage. Batts [???] said officers called to the van had to "pick [Gray] up off the floor and place him on the seat," but he declined to elaborate.
Deputy Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez said police still need to determine what Gray's condition was at the intersection and whether the police response during the encounter was appropriate.
Nearby, the G&A Food Market sits across the street from the Union Baptist Head Start; both have security cameras trained on the street.
One of the market's cameras points toward the intersection where police said the van stopped. Cindy Wang, 28, who works at the market, said police arrived there on Monday, April 20 — the day after Gray's death but eight days after his arrest — to inquire about the camera's footage.
By then it was gone.
"They were kind of late, because the camera only had a six-day record," Wang said. "If they came the second day or third day, they could have found it."
The camera on the Head Start building faces Druid Hill, not the intersection. Gayle E. Headen, director of the Head Start center, said a detective arrived there on April 20 and asked to review the footage, without giving a reason. "I didn't think anything of it,"
Headen said, noting that police have been interested in the footage for drug investigations in the past.
The detective asked to watch the footage from 8:55 a.m. to 9 a.m., and saw a police cruiser pass by at the 8:57 mark but no van, said Headen, who personally took the officer through the footage.
In fact, the footage shows a white van with a blue stripe down its side — like those on police vans — passing by at the 8:54:32 a.m. mark, according to The Baltimore Sun's review of the footage. The police cruiser, with its lights flashing, drives by about three minutes later.
During the Druid Hill and Dolphin stop, a call came through asking the van driver to return to the 1600 block of W. North Ave. — not far from the spot where Gray and police first made eye contact — to pick up another person. Such vans are divided by a metal barrier, and the second person was loaded into the section of the van not occupied by Gray.
Police have not described any interaction with Gray at this location. They have declined to identify the second person placed in the van, saying they need to "protect the integrity" of the criminal investigation into Gray's death, in which that person is now a witness.
After the pickup, the van headed south again — but this time it was headed for the Western District police station rather than Central Booking.
[UPDATE: TODAY, APRIL 30, POLICE HAVE STATED THAT THE VAN MADE AN UNREPORTED 4th STOP. NO FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT THIS STOP WAS GIVEN.,
THE POLICE INVESTIGATION IS COMPLETE, BUT WAS SEALED AND HANDED OVER TO THE NEW STATE ATTORNEY, A YOUNG BLACK WOMAN, MARILYN J. MOSBY.
MS. MOSBY STATED THAT HER DEPARTMENT WILL REVIEW THE RESULTS BUT WAS ALSO CONDUCTING ITS OWN INVESTIGATION.
SHE SAID IT COULD BE MONTHS BEFORE HER OFFICE DECIDED IF ANY OF THE SIX POLICE OFFICERS WOULD BE PROSECUTED.
"In a sometimes defensive appearance on Thursday, Baltimore mayor, Ms. Stephanie Rawlings-Blake offered a heated self-defense against criticism that she was not sensitive enough to the city’s poor and had not done enough to rein in police misconduct.
Referring to herself, Ms. Mosby, and the nation’s new attorney general, Loretta Lynch, the mayor said Thursday, “If, with the nation watching, three black women at three different levels can’t get justice and healing for this community, you tell me where we’re going to get it in our country.”
Baltimore's police commissioner, Anthony W. Batts, is also Black.]When Gray was taken out of the van, Rodriguez said, "he could not talk and he could not breathe."
Beyond damage to his spinal cord, Gray had a crushed voice box.
At 9:24 a.m., officers called a medic to the Western District station, reporting that Gray was in "serious medical distress." The Baltimore Fire Department said the call arrived at 9:26 a.m.
Paramedics responded, spent 21 minutes treating Gray at the station, and arrived at Maryland Shock Trauma Center — where Gray would fall into a coma and die a week later — at 10 a.m. [Arrival at trauma center, 10 a.m., 45 minutes after his arrest]
Of the six suspended officers — Lt. Brian Rice, Sgt. Alicia White, and Officers William Porter, Garrett Miller, Edward Nero and Caesar Goodson Jr. — five have provided statements to police officials. Police have not said which officer has refused. The police union has defended the actions of all those involved.
At recent protests, chants of "We want all six!" have rung out. People in Gilmor Homes are skeptical of any police review of the officers' actions.
Everette Wade, 54, said the "last time Baltimore was in the news" to this extent was more than a decade ago, when coverage broke out over a DVD that highlighted the "Stop Snitching" culture of violence against residents who provide information to police.
Wade said he feels today is not all that different.
"Police have a 'Stop Snitching' policy. The good boys in blue cover for each other," he said. "That's 'Stop Snitching' all over again, isn't it?"
<end Globe article **>
FORMULATE YOUR OWN OPINION.
EVERYONE HAS A RIGHT TO DO SO.
LET ME JUST 'PREDICT' THAT THE 'INVESTIGATION' WILL MOST LIKELY DETERMINE THAT FREDDIE GRAY'S FATAL INJURIES OCCURRED BECAUSE HE WAS NOT BUCKLED INTO HIS SEAT AND WAS THROWN ABOUT THE VAN.
[UPDATE, APRIL 30,2015: AS I PREDICTED ABOVE:
"On Thursday, a Baltimore television station, WJLA, reported that according to unnamed law enforcement sources, ”the medical examiner found Gray’s catastrophic injury was caused when he slammed into the back of the police transport van, apparently breaking his neck.”]
SOMEONE WILL GET SLAPPED ON THE WRIST OR MAYBE SUSPENDED AND THAT WILL BE THAT.
I WOULD ONLY POINT OUT THAT THE YOUNG MAN COULD NOT HAVE CRUSHED HIS OWN LARYNX AND SO SEVERELY INJURED HIS OWN SPINE WHILE HANDCUFFED AND SHACKLED.
HYPOTHETICALLY, HE COULD HAVE FALLEN HARD ONTO SOMETHING OR WAS THROWN INTO SOMETHING ON HIS RIDE TO THE POLICE STATION.
THAT SCENARIO HAS BEEN SET UP BY THE SEVERAL POLICE STATEMENTS SAYING HE WAS NOT 'BUCKLED UP'.
JUST AS HYPOTHETICALLY A POLICE OFFICER OR OFFICERS COULD HAVE DONE THIS DAMAGE.
ONE MAJOR THING THAT SEEMS UNEXPLAINED, TO ME, IS WHY FREDDIE GRAY WAS CHASED AND APPREHENDED, BUT NONE OF THOSE WITH HIM WERE ARRESTED.
IN OTHER WORDS, WAS IT ONLY BECAUSE HE ALONE RAN?
THE OFFICERS APPROACHING THOSE STANDING THERE DID NOT SEEM INTERESTED IN ANYONE IN THAT GROUP...UNTIL GRAY BEGAN TO RUN.
IF GRAY HAD NOT RUN, WOULD THE POLICEMEN HAVE SIMPLY PEDALED ON BY?
WE HAVE WHAT EVERYONE SHOULD BE FOCUSED ON BEFORE US NOW.
THIS IS WHAT AMERICANS NEED TO KNOW.
WHAT AMERICA DOES NOT NEED IS ANOTHER 'PROTEST MARCH' THAT ENDS IN LOOTING AND RIOTING.
THAT KIND OF IDIOCY TAKES THE FOCUS OFF FREDDIE GRAY'S DEATH.
THERE HAS BEEN WAY TOO MUCH OF THIS RECENTLY...
WE ALL REMEMBER THE FLAME-LIT NIGHTS IN FERGUSON, MISSOURI, AFTER "PROTEST MARCHES" TURNED INTO CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR!
BEING DEDICATED TO POLITICAL INCORRECTNESS, I'M JUST GOING TO ASK AND THEN HOPE SOMEONE HAS A BIG ENOUGH SET TO ANSWER HONESTLY...
BUT, IF YOU ANSWER, KEEP IN MIND I AM ALSO ONE OF THE "MINORITY" IN AMERICA!
MY ANCESTORS WERE STANDING ON SHORE WATCHING THE MAYFLOWER SAIL IN!
WE'RE A REALLY SMALL MINORITY!
WHY THE HELL DOES LOOTING SEEM TO ALMOST ALWAYS FOLLOW PROTESTS OF POLICE BRUTALITY, OR COME AFTER POLICE KILL A BLACK MAN, COME AFTER THAT VICTIM'S FUNERAL, OR BEFORE A FUNERAL?
IS THERE AN UNWRITTEN NEW RULE WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THAT SAYS, "AFTER WE MARCH IN PROTEST, THEN WE ALLOW SOME TO GO LOOT STORES"?
OH, AND BURN THINGS...LOOT AND BURN.
THOSE WHO START SUCH SHOULD BE IMMEDIATELY STOPPED BY THOSE DEDICATED TO SEEING AN INVESTIGATION, STOPPED SO THIS ISN'T ADDED TO THE FAMILY'S GRIEF!
LOOK AT THESE PHOTOS!
THEY COULD HAVE SEEN SOMETHING THAT WOULD HAVE MADE THEM WANT TO JOIN YOU, HELP YOU, DEMAND CHANGE, BUT THEY SAW THIS!
HOW MANY DO YOU THINK, OF ALL WHO SAW THIS, ARE NOW SAYING,
"DAMN! NO WONDER THE COPS ARE USING EXCESSIVE FORCE! THAT'S JUST A BUNCH OF LAWLESS CRIMINALS!" ?
WHO SHOWED THE WORLD ANYTHING, ANYTHING AT ALL THAT WOULD MAKE EVERYONE WANT TO SEE JUSTICE DONE IN THE FREDDIE GRAY CASE, FOR THE MAN WHO DIED IN POLICE CUSTODY THERE?
WHAT WILL AMERICA AND THE REST OF THE WORLD SEE ON TV, PLEAS FOR JUSTICE, FACTS THAT QUESTION WHAT REALLY HAPPENED?
NO!
THEY'LL SEE HOURS OF LOOTING AND RIOTING.
THE MAJORITY OF PROTESTERS ALLOWED THE OTHERS TO GET OUT OF HAND. CROWD CONTROL JUST DIDN'T HAPPEN!
[A VIDEO BELOW SHOWS HOW ONE MOTHER "CONTROLLED" HER SON!]
HOW COULD ANY OF THIS BRING ABOUT CHANGE...EXCEPT MAYBE MAKE SOME EXPECT THIS FROM FUTURE PROTESTERS?
WHAT GOOD DID THIS DO FOR FREDDIE GRAY OR HIS FAMILY?
HOW DOES ANY OF THIS CALL ATTENTION TO "POLICE BRUTALITY" OR RACIAL PROFILING, OR ANYTHING WE NEED ATTENTION FOCUSED ON?
LET ME JUST SAY THAT I WAS BARELY A "LEGAL ADULT" DURING THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND FREEDOM RIDES OF THE 1960s, AND I KNOW MARCHES AND PROTESTS CAN HAPPEN WITHOUT LOOTING AND BURNING.
DR. KING NEVER SMASHED OUT A WINDOW OF A SINGLE STORE NOR TOOK ANYTHING OUT OF A STORE THAT HE DIDN'T PAY FOR!
HE NEVER SET FIRE TO ANYTHING NOR THREW ROCKS OR SHOT AT ONE POLICEMAN, AND NEITHER DID THOSE I MARCHED WITH!
SOME GOT SOME DAMNED BAD BEATINGS IN THOSE DAYS, BUT FROM WHERE I STOOD, I SAW NO ONE BREAK INTO A STORE OR SET ANYTHING ON FIRE!
IT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN TOLERATED BY OTHER MARCHERS!
NOWADAYS, IT SEEMS LIKE IT'S THE GRAND FINALE OF ALMOST ALL PROTESTS WHEN A BLACK VICTIM IS INVOLVED.
THE RAW TRUTH IS, THAT IS WHAT THE WHOLE WORLD SEES!
IT SEES ONLY THOSE WHO ARE COMMITTING CRIMINAL ACTS!
THAT HAS TO CHANGE!
WHY?
WHAT THE HELL GOOD DOES DESTROYING A STORE WHILE YOU STRIP IT BARE AND THEN SETTING IT AFIRE DO?
WHAT "STATEMENT" DOES THAT MAKE?
"HEY, LOOK, I'M A FREAKING THIEF AND AN ARSONIST"?
DOES ANYONE WONDER WHY THE "PROTESTS AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY" DON'T BRING THE WHOLE NATION OUT TO JOIN YOU?
THEY DON'T WANT TO GET SWEPT INTO A STORE BY A MOB OF LOOTERS, GET TRAMPLED BY THOSE GOING FOR THE "BIG TICKET ITEMS", NOR DO THEY WANT TO RISK GOING UP IN FLAMES IF SOMETHING YOU SET AFIRE EXPLODES NEAR THEM!
LIKE THIS MINISTER (JOHNATHAN GENTRY) TRIES TO TELL ALL OF US, CHANGE STARTS WITH EACH OF US.
IF WE WANT CHANGE, WE CHANGE!
THIS GENTLEMAN SAYS THINGS I DO NOT AGREE WITH, BUT HE IS "INTENSE".
THIS VIDEO CAME AFTER THE FERGUSON RIOTS.
HE WAS LATER INTERVIEWED BY FOX AND OTHER MAINSTREAM MEDIA.
AND THIS MOTHER WHO PULLED HER SON OUT OF THE RIOTS AFTER SHE SAW HIM ON LOCAL BALTIMORE TV, THROWING ROCKS AT POLICE, HAS BEEN CALLED "MOTHER OF THE YEAR".
I DISAGREE, BUT SHE JUST MAY HAVE SAVED HER SON FROM BEING THE NEXT FUNERAL!
A SCARED MOTHER WILL DO SOME VERY ODD THINGS.
WILL VIOLENCE ATTRACT HELP TO RIGHT THINGS?
NO!
VIOLENCE TURNS THE WORLD AGAINST YOU AND ANYTHING YOU STAND FOR!
I CAN GUARANTEE YOU, NEITHER I NOR ANYONE ELSE WHO HAD KINFOLKS ON AMERICA'S "INDIAN RESERVATIONS" WOULD HAVE STEPPED OUT IN SOLIDARITY DURING THOSE VERY DANGEROUS TIMES IN THE SIXTIES IF THE MARCHERS HAD ONCE TURNED INTO LOOTERS, OR ARSONISTS!
HELL NO, WE WOULDN'T GO INTO THAT KIND OF MESS!
THAT WAS NOT WHAT THE PROTESTS WERE ABOUT!
THOSE MARCHERS WE STOOD SHOULDER-TO-SHOULDER WITH IN SOUTHERN TOWNS CONDUCTED THEMSELVES IN A PEACEFUL, DIGNIFIED MANNER!
IF YOU WANT TO SEE POLICE BRUTALITY, GO LOOK AT SOME VIDEOS OF THOSE PROTESTS SOMETIMES, SEE WHAT A LOT OF THOSE MARCHERS GOT FOR STANDING UP AND WALKING QUIETLY DOWN A STREET OR ROAD!
WE WERE URINATED ON, SPIT ON, AND HAD PEOPLE ON BOTH SIDES SCREAMING IN OUR FACES, THROWING THINGS, CURSING US, THREATENING TO BEAT US, EVEN KILL US!
BUT I SAW NO ONE GET UP FROM BEING KNOCKED DOWN AND GO ROB A STORE, OR BURN A CAR, OR THROW A BRICK...NOT ONE!
AND THE MISTAKES MADE ON SOCIAL MEDIA THAT IS ALWAYS PICKED UP BY "NEWS" SERVICES TO KEEP THE POT STIRRED ARE OFTEN JUST INSANELY WRONG!
HERE, LOOK AT SOME TWEETS DURING A PREVIOUS "LOOT AND BURN" FOLLOWING ANOTHER "PROTEST" NOT SO LONG AGO IN FERGUSON, MISSOURI:
[ YOU CAN SEE THESE TWEETS COLLECTED IN ONE PLACE <HERE>]
~ Grizzwald Cobblepot @ItsMeGrizz
Loot in the white neighborhoods guys!!!
9:59 PM - 10 Aug 2014
90 90 Retweets 21 21 favorites
~ JP IZZZ YA DADDY @JP_Izzzz_Me
@Salute_DeezNutz gonna have to loot the white neighborhoods then
10:23 PM - 10 Aug 2014
11 11 Retweets 1 1 favorite
~ If you gon @ least loot, go to the white people neighborhood
— #Struggle (@illmatic_kid) August 11, 2014
~ Words from mentor. If you're going to riot and loot, at least take it to the rich white folk neighborhood. 😂
— Kesus ⚡ (@KesusWalks) August 11, 2014
~ Tearing up ya own hoods ain't helping the cause
— Groovy (@Hii__PoWeR) August 11, 2014
THIS ONE JUST MAY TOP THEM ALL?
~ If you're gonna riot and kill people at least kill WHITE people. Why attack your own people?
— H. Don Datta (@HollowDaGatMan) August 11, 2014
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE ABOVE...YOU GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS ANYTHING BUT CONCERNED CITIZENS LOOKING FOR JUSTICE!
A YOUNG MAN IS DEAD.
HOW HE DIED, IF ANYONE WAS AT FAULT IN HIS DEATH, AND IF SO, WHY, HOW, AND WHAT CAN BE DONE TO PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING TO ANY OTHER HUMAN BEING, ALL THESE THINGS SHOULD BE THE FOCUS OF THE BALTIMORE PROTESTS...NOT LOOTING, NOT BURNING, NOT DOING PHYSICAL DAMAGE TO A POLICEMAN OR A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL GUARD.
SURE, WE CAN GO ON FOREVER LETTING VIOLENCE BEGET VIOLENCE, MAKING EXCUSES FOR VIOLENCE, KEEP THE HATRED AND MISUNDERSTANDING AND DIVISION ALIVE, OR, WE CAN LISTEN TO PEOPLE LIKE THE MINISTER AND THE MOM (WHO REALLY DIDN'T HAVE TO SLAP THE KID AROUND, DID SHE?) AND BE THE CHANGE WE WANT TO SEE, OR WE CAN CONTINUE TO JUST BLAME, JUST MAKE EXCUSES WHY WE DON'T DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY, TRY SOMETHING NEW, SEE IF THE PHILOSOPHY THAT DR. KING AND MEN LIKE GANDHI PREACHED WORKS.
ONE DEFINITION OF INSANITY IS TO KEEP DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER, HOPING FOR A DIFFERENT OUTCOME.
CHANGE!
THOSE WHO SAY THEY WANT CHANGE MUST BECOME THAT CHANGE!
WHAT WE SEE BY THE LIGHT OF FLAMES IN BALTIMORE, ANYWHERE, WILL NEVER BRING ABOUT THE CHANGE PEOPLE SAY THEY WANT!
LEARN...OR CONTINUE TO PERISH!
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