Just perused GD. Baltimore officials should read DU for expert advice.

[Stinky The Clown]

Shame on some of you for the posts you've made. So binary. So monumentally ill informed. So typical.

Some of the comments are just stupid. The mayor's make-up is an issue for some knuckleheads. The use of the term "thugs" is worth how many threads? Perceived worry about the CVS that burned rather than worry about Freddie Gray.

Consider this: Baltimore residents for YEARS, for DECADES, sought such stores in their neighborhoods. Without them, their neighborhoods would be grocery and medical deserts. With the looting and burning of that store, how big a setback is that for the residents?

For those who wonder, we in the area have been VERY mindful of the tragic, and likely criminal, death of a man who it now seems was thrust into the situation without reasonable probable cause.

Do any of you know what the Nation of Islam has been doing through all of this? Local clergy? Do any of you know what Just Plain Citizens have been doing to save their neighborhoods?

Just now a community center, under construction and intended to serve the under served, has burned to the ground. What might you call the arsonists if not thugs? How about the people who would/have attacked firemen?

How many "experts" here know that the mayor's new police commissioner has fired for misconduct more than 50 officers over the last two years? To be sure, there are still problems, but it isn't as if what we saw is condoned or winked at by those at the top.

If you don't know any more than what you see on TV, how about holding your judgmental bullshit and just stop and THINK.

Would that the situation in Baltimore was a simple, binary matter so easily solved by koncerned keyboard kooks.

Meh.






Alert in 10 .. 9 .. 8 .. 7 ......

[justiceischeap]

1. Maddow said the copter news reporter reported that

the community center wasn't, as yet, related to the riots.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. BREAKING: per MD official, the fire IS related to the trouble tonight.

If Maddow considered where the commin uty center was, and if she considered the rapidity with which it spread, it would seem reasonable to have considered it was related.

[DURHAM D]

6. She was just trying to be fair and

report accurately. If she gets the official word she will no doubt report it. She is doing an excellent show.

otoh - She may have already done that because I have not been watching for the past few minutes.

[840high]

23. Yes it was.

[AuntPatsy]

2. It's escalating and we both know it, the horrors being inflicted on citizens of this

Country by those who once vowed to protect them should alarm us all and we cannot continue to ignore it, no one is saying Stores should be looted or stores burnt down, no one, I read struggle in every word you wrote, and struggling to understand why is why we are here.....

Silence is not the answer

[Stinky The Clown]

7. No, silence is NOT the answer. Intelligence and compassion are better.

By the way, a church was burned tonight, too.

[AuntPatsy]

29. Of course I would agree but that's just not a guarantee, a structure was destroyed?

Sad but a horrific murder occurred preceding that as well as countless others, that building can be rebuilt, the body cannot always...

[DURHAM D]

4. I am amazed at some of the people on DU

that have expressed very strong opinions on how we got here and how everyone from the President on down should react. The situation is very complicated and it is actually embarrassing to see how far this place has sunk on a general intelligence scale.

And then we had a famously (only on DU) prolific OP starter who didn't want to see the blow by blow threads on the escalating events in Baltimore posted. Guess it crowded them out of Latest Threads space.

[Stinky The Clown]

9. If someone wants to start a thread to discuss stuff, try this topic: POVERTY

That's a root cause of a lot of what we're seeing now.

Poverty.

[Maraya1969]

12. +1000000

[DURHAM D]

13. Agree

btw - A CNN reporter said today that there is not a decent grocery store in the area, He went on to say that he did see someone selling fresh fruit and vegetables out of a horse drawn wagon. Unbelievable.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. One of the causes

yes

But hardly the only one. Just one of the big ones.

[ReRe]

18. Amen. n/t

[lumberjack_jeff]

19. Yes, and the riots are going to cause more of it.

Or at a minimum, create another barrier to getting out of it.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

24. and there is severe poverty in Baltimore

[enid602]

28. segregation

Poverty and segregation. You have two kinds of neighborhoods in the Balto. metro area; white and black. I don't know if it can ever change.

[Stinky The Clown]

32. The city is nearly 70% black.

That there are black neighborhoods is hardly a surprise.

I am also personally aware of many mixed neighborhoods.

The picture you paint of city wide segregation is just flat wrong.

[enid602]

35. Maryland

I'd say it is more of a state wide problem. The fact that Baltimore City and PG County are majority AfAm, while other counties are distinctly minority AfAm paints a picture of segregation. I went to high school in Anne Arundel County, which is admittedly not a liberal bastion. Though it is (according to the US Census Bureau) 16.4% AfAm currently, I'm pretty sure the majority of blacks live in segregated neighborhoods.

I grew up in Los Angeles, which experienced the 'Blackspora' after the riots in the nineties. Though the AfAm population has remained the same, blacks have since moved to all areas of the city. South Central was 45% AfAm prior to the riots; now it is 15%. The SF Valley and Westside are now 5% AfAm each, whereas they had negligible black populations prior.

[AuntPatsy]

30. Yes as well as bigotry and racism, sometimes a lethal combination

[Vattel]

5. Awesome post.

I trust Rawlings-Blake and Commissioner Batts. They want justice done in the case of Freddy Gray, and they are not defending the police officers who killed Gray.

And as for the thugs who are committing arson and assault and theft, they can go to hell.

[840high]

25. Yep.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Nah, not DU, how about the DOJ?

The report recounted the broken bones and battered faces suffered by suspects during arrests, and found that officers didn't always complete the use-of-force reports that are required after violent arrests.

Some suspects said they didn't pursue complaints against officers after they were treated harshly by the department's internal affairs detectives.

The consultants plan to review disciplinary records and files from review boards, and sift through residents' complaints to match them to lawsuits in which officers were accused of abuse.

"Accountability means you have a system that would be very thorough evaluation of any use of force through the chain of command," Davis said. "If the reports are not there, but you have lawsuits, that suggests other challenges or problems."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bs-md-justice-probe-20141017-story.html#page=1

[TreasonousBastard]

10. Spot on, and I hope I'm on the jury.

[kwassa]

11. Lack of knowledge never prevented us from leaping to snap judgements!

It is an old DU tradition.

Thank you for your perspective.

I lived through the LA riots, and saw the difference between protestors and opportunists. I agree with what the Mayor is doing.

[Purveyor]

14. Hear, hear...indeed.

[renegade000]

16. thought i'd link to David Simon's blog post on the matter

http://davidsimon.com/baltimore/

Similar sentiments expressed as yours with regard to the violence currently ongoing.

[840high]

26. Thank you.

[shireen]

17. thank you Stinky

I've been reading comments on DU and feeling really upset, not being able to find the words to respond. You said it perfectly. The violence is going on just blocks away from where I work. We're heartbroken.

[seabeyond]

21. OP alert results.

n Mon Apr 27, 2015, 09:06 PM an alert was sent on the following post:

Just perused GD. Baltimore officials should read DU for expert advice.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026578364

REASON FOR ALERT

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.

ALERTER'S COMMENTS

Meta post, riddled with personal insults of DUers. "Kooks" for example. Disruptive and offensive.

You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Mon Apr 27, 2015, 09:13 PM, and the Jury voted 0-7 to LEAVE IT.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: This is an intelligent and well-thought-out post, contrary to what the alerter apparently thinks. Leave it alone, for crissakes.
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: I call bullshit on this alert. Let the man speak his mind.
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: What a horrible alert and reasoning for alert. I am not one to jump on the protesters or in anyway side with the police. But, this OP was informative from a knowledgeable position and I could see no reason to alert. A poor poor alert. Shame on alerter.
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Poster is right.
Juror #7 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given

[840high]

27. Good.

[Stinky The Clown]

31. Thank you for posting that

[spanone]

22. k&r...

[Lurks Often]

33. Bravo on a very accurate observation of DU

While jumping to conclusions with little information is a long DU tradition, it has gotten worse in the past year or so.

Yes police departments need to do a better job in getting rid off and/or prosecuting bad cops, but that's going to take time, it isn't going to happen overnight.

As for the keyboard commandos most outraged, perhaps you should spend less time behind the keyboard and more time actually doing something, be it volunteering, acting as a big brother or big sister or some other way over actively helping.

[cwydro]

34. Great post.