Baltimore

Spotlight On Baltimore

May 27, 2015 Todd Cherkis, www.labornotes.org Educate! Baltimore, Freddie Gray, Poverty, Worker Rights and Jobs

Baltimore erupted after the killing of Freddie Gray. The crisis has laid bare a city strained beyond human capacity by inequality and police violence. Public policies have created islands of wealth and comfort, surrounded by a sea of service cuts, hyper-policing, and degrading poverty in which most of the city is drowning. It’s those policies that gave rise to the police violence that ended Gray’s life—an extreme example of the injustice that people here are facing every day. What’s unusual about this moment is that, through their own extraordinary effort, Baltimore’s poor people are being seen and heard. The same pundits who usually focus on how to bring more wealthy people to Baltimore and push the poor out to the suburbs are now talking about how to grapple with savage poverty, hyper-policing, and state violence. “The murder of Freddie Gray was like a boomerang,” says West Baltimore resident Randolph Ford, “flipping the status quo around to where the unity of the people and the fight for social justice has strengthened.”

Baltimore Police Were Out Of Control Before Freddie Gray

May 25, 2015 Steven Rosenfeld, www.alternet.org Educate! Baltimore, Economic Justice, police brutality, Racial Justice

“It became clear that the most brutal cops in our sector of the Western District were black. The guys who would really kick your ass without thinking twice were black officers. If I had to guess and put a name on it, I’d say that at some point, the drug war was as much a function of class and social control as it was of racism. I think the two agendas are inextricably linked, and where one picks up and the other ends is hard to say. But when you have African-American officers beating the dog-piss out of people they’re supposed to be policing, and there isn't a white guy in the equation on a street level, it's pretty remarkable. But in some ways they were empowered. Back then, even before the advent of cell phones and digital cameras — which have been transforming in terms of documenting police violence — back then, you were much more vulnerable if you were white and you wanted to wail on somebody."

Observations Of A White Protester Arrested In Baltimore

May 21, 2015 Doug Miller, www.baltimoresun.com Educate! Baltimore, Police violence, Racism

The difference is all there, so to speak, in black and white. Columbia activist-journalist Robert Brune was there at North and Pennsylvania avenues, recording video as a squad of police tried to clear the corner and enforce the curfew city officials imposed in the wake of the unrest that followed Freddie Gray's April 19 death in police custody. In Brune's footage, a police officer fires his pepper spray into the face of a black man wearing a T-shirt with the slogan "f--- the police." He staggers backward a step but does not fall. Another officer yanks the man to the pavement by his dreadlocks. As a third handcuffs the man, a number of onlookers approach, and more officers meet them and fire their pepper spray into the crowd. Officers hoist the arrestee by his bound wrists, his ankles and the waistband of his pants, carry him hurriedly toward the curb and lay him face-down on the sidewalk. A moment later, Kerridwen Henry, who is white, appears in a bright yellow T-shirt, carrying a placard. She exchanges some words with an officer, then drops to the sidewalk. She is handcuffed, and a pair of officers get her to her feet and escort her out of the frame.

Baltimore: Community Fights To Keep Langston Hughes School

May 19, 2015 Erica L. Green, www.baltimoresun.com Resist! Baltimore, Public schools

A Northwest Baltimore community fighting to save its school — considered an anchor of the neighborhood — has been granted the rare opportunity to plead its case before a state administrative judge. Langston Hughes Elementary is among five city schools due to close at the end of the school year. "Our kids have exceeded every single expectation you have put in front of them," community leader, George Mitchell said. "We are doing exactly what you want a school to do. We've never asked y'all for anything. Just leave us alone." Delegate Jill Carter will defend the community in court, Carter said she is taking the case because "the overwhelming consensus is that it would be to the detriment to the community, exposing the children to harm and danger."

#FreddieGray #TruthFiles: The City That Bleeds 2000 – 2015

May 18, 2015 Robert Brune, www.dcmediagroup.us Educate! Baltimore, Freddie Gray, History, police brutality

We do not learn from police brutality history unless we know how it continues to repeat itself in cities like Baltimore. In this interview, Renee Washington shares with us the brutal details of the death of her fiancee Joseph Wilbon while in police custody. There are parallels between the Wilbon case and the Freddie Gray case. Renee explains how the Baltimore Police, who had detained and beat this man to death, was listed as’John Doe’. Freddie Gray’s name was entered into the system under the name of “Grey” instead of “Freddie Gray”. Professional law enforcement deliberately makes it challenging for people to discover these cases and this appears to be overlooked by the mainstream media.

Understanding How History & Policy Destroy Black Communities

May 16, 2015 Jennifer LuxtonAraz Hachadourian, www.yesmagazine.org Educate! Baltimore, Inequality, killed by police, Racism, Urban decay

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan was very quick to call in the National Guard and police from all over the state in response to the urban revolt in Baltimore; he went to churches to show how much he cared and promised to do something about the inequality between rich and poor, white and black in Baltimore. But his first act now that the revolt has quieted was to cut school funding. Baltimore school's have been historically underfunded, many community schools have been closed and students struggle to get the opportunities in education that wealthy suburbs get. Hogan cut $11.6 million that would have gone to Baltimore schools in favor of funding state pensions. To make matters worse the cut in education funding follows the state's approval of the $30 million construction of a youth jail in Baltimore earlier this week. Hogan should not be surprised if there are additional urban revolts in Baltimore. His actions almost assure it. But, his actions are not alone, there have been decades of economic injustice in Baltimore and cities across the country. And, they are a pattern of injustice that has occurred throughout US history.

The Freddie Gray Truth File (Vol. 3) ~The Racial Divide

May 16, 2015 Rob Brune, www.dcmediagroup.us Educate! #BlackLivesMatter, Baltimore, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Racial Justice

While many of the demonstrators in Baltimore questioned the legality of the Mayor Rawlings-Blake imposed curfew (which began on April 28th), tensions came to a climax on Saturday May 2nd with a city wide action to oppose the questionable mandated curfew issued by the mayor’s office. There were stark differences in the way white protesters and black protesters were detained on North ave after the curfew began at 10pm. Most people around the country saw the video of Baltimore Police pepper-spraying a black man and slamming him to the ground by his hair in what was the first arrest of the evening at North & Penn. avenues. Immediately after the violent arrest, Kerridwen Henry, a white female supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, stepped in front of the police and was arrested without use of force.

#TruthFiles Vol. #2 ~ Witness Harold Perry (Uncut)

May 15, 2015 Rob Brune, www.dcmediagroup.us Resist! Baltimore, Freddie Gray, police brutality

Harold Perry lives directly across the street from the location where members of the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) first detained Freddie Gray. On April 12th, 2015 Mr. Perry observed the entire situation unfold. While Harold is legally blind, his hearing and memory of the violent way the BPD apprehended and seemingly mishandled Freddie Gray has seemingly not been a major concern to State’s Attorney Mosby investigation as nobody from her office in Baltimore has questioned him. Mr. Perry was interviewed Baltimore Internal Affairs , but his account of what happened was not reflected by Commissioner Batts during his subsequent press conferences regarding the arrest.

#FreddieGray #TruthFile Vol. 1: Why Are We Committed To The Truth?

May 15, 2015 Rob Brune, www.dcmediagroup.us Resist! Baltimore, Freddie Gray

This is part I of a mutli-part series by Robert Brune of the DC Media Group and We Act Radio. The series is of undetermined length; long enough to tell the story of what is really happening in Baltimore; what occurred in the urban revolt in the aftermath of the police killing of Freddie Gray; and how that fits into a broader analysis of the inequality, consistent police harassment and racism even in a city led by black elected officials. As residents of Baltimore and concerned citizens around the country expressed frustration and outrage over the death of Freddie Gray on April 19th, 2015, very few expressed themselves with such passion and clarity as Marcus (a resident of Washington DC) who we met one of the many Baltimore City Hall demonstrations.

Banks Did More Damage To Baltimore Than So-Called Rioters

May 13, 2015 Emily Foster, www.ourfuture.org Educate! Baltimore, Banking, Housing, Structural Violence

The death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore is not just a story of police brutality or the lack of socioeconomic mobility for the urban poor. It’s also a story of how deregulation allowed corporate banks to strip middle-class families of their financial stability and walk away, leaving behind payday lenders and check-cashing stores to plunder low-income and minority communities. To better understand and communicate that story, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Economic Policy, and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform took their Middle Class Prosperity Project to Baltimore on Monday. It was the latest in a series of forums that started in February to focus “congressional and public attention on challenges faced by the middle class.”

Baltimore: ‘We Want Justice, By Any Means Necessary’

May 12, 2015 Valentina Dallona, www.roarmag.org Resist! Baltimore, police brutality, Poverty, Racial Justice, Youth

These are important days, not only for Baltimore, but for the entire country. People had to resort to bricks and fire in order to be heard, but finally the authorities (and the world) can no longer ignore the voices of the youth, the mothers, the fathers of Sandtown, who have much to talk about. They talk about the constant abuse of the police force and the everyday racism that consigns black people to a sub-human status. They talk about how the city authorities have completely divested from these neighborhoods, privatizing the little social housing that was left, closing down the recreation centers and cutting down water provisions to those households that cannot afford to pay the bills, while at the same time spending millions of dollars in TIFs and other subsidies to the big downtown developers. They also talk about jobs, or more precisely the lack thereof, and the absence of perspectives for most of the black youth of Baltimore (and so many other cities in the United States). Because racism is the mask exploitation hides under. It constitutes yet another instrument to oppress marginalized communities and undermine social solidarity.

Mayor Declines To Up Job Funding For Baltimore Youth

May 11, 2015 The Real News Network, www.therealnews.com Educate! Baltimore, police brutality, Poverty, Worker Rights and Jobs, Youth

YOUNG: I think it was 8,000 kids that really applied. I want to make sure that all 8,000 of those kids get jobs. JANIS: We spoke to the Mayor's office, who told us that some of the 3,000 applicants may have found work elsewhere, and that the Mayor is also looking for private funding. But earlier this week several groups say the city government itself, not the private sector, should be funding jobs. Among them, former city council president and mayoral candidate Lawrence Bell, who called for more direct government funding for neighborhoods like Gilmor Homes, where Gray was arrested before he died. LAWRENCE BELL, FMR. CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT: Black men are no different from any other men. Given an opportunity, given an alternative, a good alternative, a living wage, they will choose that over the illegal drug market where they're risking life and limb.

Suddenly, Baltimore – Wonder Why?

May 11, 2015 Ralph Nader, www.blog.nader.org Educate! Baltimore, Capitalism, police brutality, Poverty

Suddenly, the mass media is writing about or televising the conditions in West Baltimore. Conditions that Washington Postcolumnist, Eugene Robinson, summarized as decades long “suffocating poverty, dysfunction and despair.” Suddenly, reporters and camera teams are discovering Baltimore’s inner city—crumbling or abandoned housing; mass unemployment; too many merchants gouging the locals (the poor pay more); too many drug dealers; schools, roads and sidewalks in serious disrepair; debris everywhere; lack of municipal services (which are provided to the wealthier areas of the city); and, as always, grinding poverty and its many vicious circle consequences.

Justice Department Launches Probe Of Baltimore Police

May 10, 2015 Julia Edwards, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Baltimore, Freddie Gray, killed by police, Police abuse, Police violence, Racism

The U.S. Justice Department on Friday launched an investigation into the Baltimore police department's use of force and whether there are patterns of discriminatory policing. The probe, announced by U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, was requested by Baltimore's mayor in the aftermath of the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who sustained fatal injuries while in police custody, and the outrage it sparked in Maryland's largest city. Though the Justice Department is already investigating Gray's death and working with the Baltimore police on reform, Lynch said last week's protests pointed to the need for an investigation. "It was clear to a number of people looking at this situation that the community's rather frayed trust - to use an understatement - was even worse and has in effect been severed in terms of the relationship with the police department," Lynch said on Friday.

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