Baltimore

As Freddie Gray Case Begins, Feds Probe Past Police Killings

September 1, 2015 A. Dwight Pettit and Stephen Janis, www.therealnews.com Resist! Baltimore, Law, police brutality

By A. Dwight Pettit and Stephen Janis in The Real News - A. DWIGHT PETTTIT: When the Justice Department came in they couldn't shut me up. I followed them out the door. STEPHEN JANIS, TRNN: In a city with the second-highest number of police per capita no one has had a more acute front row seat on the consequences of Baltimore's penchant for law enforcement than A. Dwight Pettit. The veteran civil rights attorney has been the city's top litigator of police brutality lawsuits for decades, which is why he's paying close attention to the upcoming pre-trial legal maneuvers in the case against six Baltimore officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray. Gray died in a police van shortly after he was arrested in April, and Pettit says several key motions could play a critical role in the final verdict.

Bankers Buy Baltimore Debt, Charge High Interest, Take Homes

August 30, 2015 Alice Ollstein, www.thinkprogress.org Educate! Baltimore, Bankers, Finance and the Economy, Racism

By Alice Ollstein for Think Progress - Now, new data shows powerful hedge funds are profiting off of struggling families in Baltimore by buying up debts as small as $250, charging high interest rates, and taking their homes when they fail to pay. A report just released by the research and advocacy group HedgeClippers documents how the Wall Street hedge fund Fortress Investment Group and the Los Angeles-based Imperial Capital bought up hundreds of these small liens this year — on everything from an unpaid water bills to delinquent property taxes — and could take property worth tens of millions of dollars if the families can’t pay. Once the hedge funds buy up these small debts, they reap an 18 percent interest, according to the Baltimore-based research group The Abell Foundation.

Arrests For Minor Crimes Spur Resentment In Baltimore

August 24, 2015 Catherine Rentz, www.baltimoresun.com Educate! Baltimore, Freddie Gray, police brutality

By Catherine Rentz in Baltimore Sun - For Trayvon Wiggins, applying for a job brings almost certain disappointment. "I go through the interview process, but as soon as they check my background, I can't pass it," the West Baltimore man said. He has been convicted of minor traffic violations but believes the real problem stems from other arrests that remain on his record even though they were never prosecuted. Wiggins, who has been working odd jobs as he moves to get those records expunged, illustrates the frustration felt by some Baltimoreans who have trouble finding employment because of arrests, including those for minor charges such as trespassing. The issue, which has sparked resentment in West Baltimore and other neighborhoods for years, has received new attention in the aftermath of Freddie Gray's death.

Energy, Democracy, Community

August 5, 2015 John Duda, www.medium.com Create! Baltimore, Cooperatives, Environment, Sharing Economy, Worker Rights and Jobs

By John Duda in Medium - But there’s another lesson to be learned from Curtis Bay: organized communities can successfully demand something other than business as usual. It started with just a few high school students, who started talking about building neighborhood resistance to the incinerator. With the help of local economic human rights organization called the United Workers, that small initial group snowballed into a massive campaign, bringing students and neighbors together with supportive activists and artists from across the city, all showing up at meetings of the institutions who had signed up to purchase power from the planned incinerator, and demanding they do otherwise. Against all expectations, as of August 2015, it looks like they are winning. The consortium of school boards, local governments, and nonprofits has canceled their contracts with Energy Answers, and the incinerator is far from even beginning construction. Meanwhile, Curtis Bay residents have become leading voices working to create an alternative development plan.

During B’more Uprising, City Officials Criminalized Hashtags

August 4, 2015 Kevin Gosztola, www.shadowproof.com Educate! Baltimore, Black Lives Matter (BLM), police brutality, Surveillance, Uprising

By Kevin Gosztola in Shadow Proof - The surveillance by the city, a security company, and a corporation reflects how scared everyone was of the protesting. The uneasiness was used to justify the bolstering of security, even though there was only one day in the beginning where riots occurred. Such monitoring, much of which was aimed at protesters, fits in with DHS’s practice of tracking “Black Lives Matter” demonstrations closely since Michael Brown was gunned down by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. The FBI has used its Joint Terrorism Task Force to provide support to the Mall of America for a Black Lives Matter protest on December 20. Mall of America security have catfishedBlack Lives Matter activists in order to collect intelligence against them.

Ending The Food Deserts In Baltimore

July 26, 2015 Antonia Blumberg, www.huffingtonpost.com Create! Baltimore, Food and Agriculture, Urban Gardens

By Antonia Blumberg for Huffington Post - Rev. Dr. Heber Brown, who heads Pleasant Hope Baptist Church in Baltimore, is spearheading the Black Church Food Security Network in conjunction with the Baltimore Food and Faith Project of the Johns Hopkins Center For a Livable Future and Black Dirt Farm, a local group of urban farmers who grow food on the historic land of Harriet Tubman on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Their aim is to bring together black churches and black farmers to provide their communities with healthy, nutritious food. In Baltimore, 34 percent of the city’s African American population lives without access to fresh, healthy foods, compared to just 8 percent of white residents. Food justice came to the forefront of Brown’s mind five years ago when he was a new pastor at Pleasant Hope and found himself visiting members of his congregation in the hospital up to four times a week. “I realized the people I served were in the hospital, many of them, because of diet-related issues,” he told HuffPost.

B’more Police Chief Allowed Looting To Discredit Protestors

July 11, 2015 Paul Jay and Neill Franklin, www.therealnews.com Educate! Baltimore, Corruption, police brutality

By Paul Jay and Neill Franklin - Commissioner Batts and command staff members addressed officers during a roll call on April 25, 2015 at police headquarters. Of those officers who were present and with whom the after-action review committee spoke--that's the after-action review committee of the FOP. Each reported being given direct orders from Commissioner Batts and command staff members not to engage any protesters. Officers were ordered to allow the protesters room to destroy, and allow the destruction of property so the rioters would appear to be the aggressors. According to the officers' accounts they were told, quote, the Baltimore Police Department would not respond until they--in brackets, the protesters--burned, looted, and destroyed the city so that it would show that the rioters were forcing our hand, end quote.

Federal Documents Debunk Baltimore ‘Gang Threat’ Narrative

June 26, 2015 Adam Johnson, www.fair.org Educate! Baltimore, Media, police brutality

Self-described “FOIA terrorist” Jason Leopold of Vice (6/24/15) has released devastating documents about the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI’s analysis of a “threat” released by Baltimore police to media on April 27. The police had claimed that local “gangs” had gotten together and conspired to “take out cops”; this “credible threat,” used to justify an aggressive crackdown on protests against police violence, was reported on at the time from everyone from local news to national outlets like CBS News (4/27/15): As the funeral for Freddie Gray, the man who suffered a fatal spinal injury in police custody, was held Monday, the Baltimore Police Department announced they had received information about a “credible threat” against the lives of its officers.

Students Team Up For #BlackLivesMatter Street Art Takeover

June 25, 2015 Priscilla Frank, www.huffingtonpost.com Create! #BlackLivesMatter, Art, Baltimore, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Youth

By Priscilla Frank in Huffington Post - In 2011, street artist JR made a call to art and a call to action -- a call he hoped would reach people around the world. "I wish for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project," he said. "And together, we'll turn the world inside out." "Inside Out" is the name of the project, which challenges people around the globe to share their portrait and a message they believe in. Thus far, the project has attracted over 200,000 people from 112 countries, from Ecuador to Nepal to Palestine. Issues addressed range from climate change to gender-based violence, all communicated through the simple yet striking image of a large, black-and-white pasted portrait.

Former B’more Police Officer Comes Clean About Brutality

June 25, 2015 Michael McLaughlin, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Baltimore, Corruption, Patriarchy, police brutality, Racial Justice

By Michael McLaughlin in Huffington Post - A former Baltimore police sergeant took to Twitter Wednesday to air a stunning list of acts he said he participated in and witnessed during his 11 years on the city's force. Michael Wood gave a no-holds barred look at his career in a previous radio interview, but his tweets gained traction for their brazen admissions that officers lied to get overtime, illegally searched "thousands of people" and committed gross acts during raids, like urinating and defecating on suspects' beds. A spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department confirmed that Wood left the force in 2014. In subsequent tweets, Wood promised to reveal more and expressed surprise at the attention paid to his commentary.

Black Churches Led Civil Rights. Can They Do It Again In Baltimore?

June 15, 2015 David Dagan, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Baltimore, Faith, police brutality, Racial Justice

By David Dagan in Huffington Post - Many of today’s black pastors, some young activists argue, have moved away from the black church’s traditional role as a center for African-American mobilization. “Today, what we see is churches being appendages of the kind of status-quo body politic,” said Dayvon Love, 28, director of public policy at the Baltimore think tank and activist group Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle. “This has happened generally post-integration, post-civil rights. You have cadres of individual back people who get positioned in white-dominated institutions, and their presence is used as a way to deflect from structural change.” It sounds like a radical critique, but senior clergy have similar concerns.

After The Uprising: Lessons From Rojava For Baltimore

June 14, 2015 Ben Reynolds, www.roarmag.org Strategize! Baltimore, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Direct Action, Freddie Gray, Police violence, Popular Assemblies, Racism

By Ben Reynolds for ROAR. How can we create the fundamental change we so desperately need? We need a superior strategy to the failed strategies of the past; we need a means to turn an uprising into a revolution. History offers a few successful examples of popular organizing we can draw from. During the French Revolution, the popular assemblies of the Paris sections formed a radical base that pushed the developing revolution forward. The Russian Revolution of 1917 saw deliberative popular bodies known as “soviets” overthrow the provisional government in the name of bread and peace. These kinds of systems — based upon deliberative councils and assemblies — frequently appear in any period of unrest or upheaval, and have recently emerged in Argentina, Spain, and elsewhere. In the present, the Kurdish movement in Turkey and Syria employs a developed version of this system known as “democratic confederalism.” Face-to-face neighborhood assemblies form the base of political decision-making, while successive councils operate at the district, city and regional levels. The councils and assemblies deliberate upon all of the issues facing the community and attempt to organize the means to effect necessary changes.

Ruling Halts Gunpowder Pipeline Construction

June 2, 2015 Rona Kobell, www.bayjournal.com Resist! Baltimore, Maryland, Oil & Gas, Pipeline

By Rona Kobell in Bay Journal - A Baltimore County Circuit judge ruled that the Maryland Department of the Environment improperly issued a permit to a gas company for its 21-mile pipeline along parts of the Gunpowder River in northern Baltimore County. The move temporarily stops the pipe-line construction, which has riled neighbors, environmental groups and the Friends of Oregon Ridge, a county nature park that sits near the gas company right of way. Circuit Judge Justin King found the permit that the MDE issued to Columbia Gas lacking in many respects. The department, he said, did not give the public adequate notice to review and comment on the proposed right of way. When the company changed its route, the department did not inform people. It did not allow for a review of historic properties on the route.

Protest At Mass-Arrest-O’Malley Presidential Announcement

June 1, 2015 Kira Lerner, www.thinkprogress.org Resist! Baltimore, Maryland, police brutality, Politics

By Kira Lerner in ThinkProgress - A few minutes into O’Malley’s speech, Megan Kenny, a Baltimore activist holding a sign reading “Stop Killer Cops,” began marching and chanting “black lives matter” as police attempted to stop the interruption. “The unrest and the unlawful police practices stem from O’Malley’s zero tolerance policies,” Kenny said. “His zero tolerance policies were ineffective, period.” As mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007, O’Malley instated a “broken windows”-style of policing in an attempt to reduce crime which was rampant in the city at the time. Police officers were encouraged to make arrests for minor-level offenses, with the idea being that minor disorders create an environment in which violent crime occurs.

Matt Taibbi: Why Baltimore Blew Up

May 27, 2015 Matt Taibbi, www.rollingstone.com Educate! Baltimore, Housing, police brutality, Poverty, Racial Justice, Social Change

When Baltimore exploded in protests a few weeks ago following the unexplained paddy-wagon death of a young African-American man named Freddie Gray, America responded the way it usually does in a race crisis: It changed the subject. Instead of using the incident to talk about a campaign of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of illegal searches and arrests across decades of discriminatory policing policies, the debate revolved around whether or not the teenagers who set fire to two West Baltimore CVS stores after Gray's death were "thugs," or merely wrongheaded criminals. From Eric Garner to Michael Brown to Akai Gurley to Tamir Rice to Walter Scott and now Freddie Gray, there have now been so many police killings of African-American men and boys in the past calendar year or so that it's been easy for both the media and the political mainstream to sell us on the idea that the killings are the whole story.

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