Witnesses In Photos Of Baltimore Protests Dispute MSM’s Version Of Events

[ghostsinthemachine]

As people in Baltimore organize to defend their community against police brutality, there are many different stories coming out both through both the mainstream and social media describing what happened during this week’s Freddie Gray protests.

There is now a heated debate surrounding various videos and photos that allege acts of violence, theft, and vandalism. However, it has now been confirmed that mainstream media sources have been posting pictures and creating their own stories to go along with them. In some cases, witnesses or people who were actually seen in these pictures have come forward to dispute the stories that have been ascribed to these images.

One aspect of the violence this weekend that has not been covered by the mainstream media is the fact that drunk sports fans were actually instigating fights with the protesters. This is not surprising, given the notorious history of violence for which sports fans across the country are well-known.

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/witnesses-photos-baltimore-protests-dispute-mainstream-medias-version-events/#2T2RyOqgsFfL5KsL.99


Posting because this story is coming out now and needs to get some run....

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

1. Excellent...thanks

[ghostsinthemachine]

2. 10 images that you won't see in on Television

http://mic.com/articles/116702/10-images-of-the-baltimore-riots-you-won-t-be-seeing-on-tv

A man stood outside a 7-Eleven and reportedly blocked the entrance from being attacked by looters.

[ghostsinthemachine]

3. How drunk sports fans helped spark Saturday night's post-protest violence

By Brandon Soderberg City Paper

4:22 a.m. EDT, April 28, 2015

On Saturday night, following the violence that broke out near Camden Yards, a photo of me supposedly protecting a woman from violent protesters surfaced on BuzzFeed and then trickled down to the conservative armpit of the internet where it was mischaracterized. In the photo, I look strangely heroic, and the picture was quickly co-opted by those who like to present an all-too-common and easy narrative: white people being terrorized by black people.

The truth, or as much as I have been able to cobble together from my own memory and notes, videos online, video I shot, and videos from City Paper’s Managing Editor Baynard Woods, is far less interesting, though much more important than “white dude saves white lady.”

I’m not exactly sure how the violence broke out around 6 p.m. in front of Pickles Pub on Washington Boulevard and traveled up the street to The Bullpen, Sliders Bar & Grill, and Frank & Nic’s West End Grille then down Howard Street. I know a small group of protesters and a small group of baseball fans started whipping bottles at one another and brawling. When the protesters turned the corner onto Washington Boulevard from Camden Street chanting “black lives matter,” some baseball fans applauded and a few angrily chanted back, “We don’t care”—someone who worked at The Bullpen confirmed this for me. He also said that some patrons chanted “run them over,” and one yelled “go get them.” Other protestors, including City Paper contributor D. Watkins and gang members interviewed on WBAL, recall bar patrons calling them “niggers,” among other racist epithets.

READ MORE: http://www.citypaper.com/news/all-content/bcpnews-how-drunk-sports-fans-helped-spark-saturday-nights-violence-20150428,0,5472440.story

[ghostsinthemachine]

4. Crips, Bloods Call Truce, Not to Harm Cops But to Protect their Community from Violence & Looting Re

Baltimore, MD — The Crips, Bloods, BGF and other major gangs reportedly called a truce during yesterday’s Freddie Gray protests in Baltimore. They did not make threats of violence, they were not indicated as participants in acts of violence or vandalism during the protests.

However, their promise to no longer be divided, was such a threat to the establishment that within 12 hours there were stories on the home page of every mainstream media publication talking about how the gangs were going to join up with the specific intention of killing cops and burning down the city.

Each of the mainstream sources had basically republished a press release that was put out by the Baltimore City Police Department, citing that there was a “credible threat” that gang members were planning to carry out attacks on police. There was no evidence to back this claim up, but the very fact that rival gangs were calling a truce in the streets was enough to drive the establishment into panic mode.

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/crips-bloods-called-truce-protect-community-attack-cops/#fAXojXWGI4Z47WA1.99


http://thefreethoughtproject.com/crips-bloods-called-truce-protect-community-attack-cops/

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

8. The local broadcast news station here (WCPO) reported it as

gangs teaming up to attack police, leaving seven seriously injured, one unconscious.

So not only did they take the police press release as gospel, they actually attributed the violence against police specifically to gang members.

[ghostsinthemachine]

9. I heard that all day long today.

Gotta lot of right wing types and they all heard the MEME....

[alphafemale]

10. Wow. THAT was totally misrepresented then.

So far today the voice of the sane and people are represented at least on MSNBC.

Who knows what will happen when the curfew passes.

I hope the opportunistic criminals do not come out again.

[ghostsinthemachine]

13. More here

Yesterday we were among the first to break the story on Blood and Crip gang “truce” agreements, brokered in large part by leaders from the Nation of Islam in Baltimore. But no sooner than our report began going viral, the Baltimore Police Department seized on this as an opportunity to demonize those groups, and claim that the truce was all about bringing harm to them.

In spite of the police press release to this effect, there was nothing said by any representatives of the Bloods, Crips, Black Guerrilla Family or any other gang that would have given the police any reason to believe this.


http://countercurrentnews.com/2015/04/baltimore-b-c-responds-to-police-lies/

[ghostsinthemachine]

5. "The revolution will not be televised."

"The revolution will not be televised."

— Gil Scott Heron


For hours on Saturday, I marched with City Bloc, a student activist organization, and alongside hundreds of other justice-seeking Baltimoreans in an attempt to bring justice, not revenge, to Baltimore in the aftermath of Freddie Gray's death while in the custody of Baltimore City police. During the endless hours of nonviolent protesting in which I participated, I felt proud to fight against the deplorable powers that be — I felt that my voice had been empowered as a youth in Baltimore City speaking out against injustice.

As I began my job babysitting that Saturday night, after a long day of marching and chanting, my phone began buzzing, notifying me of the violence that had erupted in downtown Baltimore. At that moment, powerlessness overcame me. The voice that I had projected for the entire day and the dedication that so many Baltimore citizens had put into peaceful protests was crushed in an instant.

I was crushed not because the violence lasted longer than the peace, but because the revolution Baltimore worked hard to create was not televised for what it truly was or is. The revolution was televised as angry citizens burning flags, looting stores and breaking police car windows. This is a skewed portrayal of the protests; it is what the media chose to portray — the media that consumers bewilderingly seem to want.

MORE: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-gray-balter-20150427-story.html

[Politicalboi]

6. I was watching MSNBC yesterday

And 3 hours into it they showed cars speeding down this one street. MSNBC said those cars were speeding because people were throwing things at cars. I didn't see anyone throwing things at cars. The fast driving may have started that way by someone throwing rocks at cars going by, but the footage I saw, I didn't see anyone throw anything.

[seveneyes]

7. Only believe the eyes

connected to an understanding mind.

[hunter]

11. I don't watch news on television. Here in the U.S.A. it's all propaganda.

I'm old enough to remember when we laughed at the clumsy efforts of the Soviet Union.

In the U.S.A. television propaganda is a well established science.

Any occasionally honest television journalist risks a rat-fucking like Dan Rather got, or worse.

Even the best of today's television journalists know, maybe stuffed down into their deepest darkest subconscious closets, which subjects are verboten!

[ghostsinthemachine]

12. "Those kids were set up".....

" I was at a stoplight in front of Frederick Douglass High School and directly across from Mondawmin Mall. It was exactly 3 p.m. The mall was on lockdown. There were police helicopters flying overhead. The riot police were already at the bus stop on the other side of the mall, turning buses that transport the students away, not allowing students to board.They were waiting for the kids. As I sat at the intersection of Gwynns Falls, I saw several police cars arriving at the scene. I saw the armored police vehicle arrive. Those kids were set up, they were treated like criminals before the first brick was thrown.

Bear these facts in mind too, every day hundreds of kids leave Frederick Douglass and walk across the street and through the mall to catch the buses on the far side of the mall. Their school releases at about 2:25.

I just wish people could recognize how insane this would be if their kids were released from school to buzzing police helicopters, police in riot gear, and their child being prevented from taking transportation home. It would be a national outrage.

— Meg Gibson, a Baltimore City school teacher at Belmont Elementary School, via Facebook and Facebook chat."

MORE HERE: http://gawker.com/those-kids-were-set-up-1700716306

[libdem4life]

14. Just Google Baltimore Teacher Tweet...lots of articles, copies of tweets...real, not MSN.

[ghostsinthemachine]

15. Baltimore protester Joseph Kent 'kidnapped by police' on live TV

A well-known protester was arrested after curfew on Tuesday night in Baltimore as CNN's cameras rolled, and many want to know his fate.

Joseph Kent, a 21-year-old student at Morgan State University who rose to local prominence during the Michael Brown protests, was seen on live television standing with his hands in the air alongside a line of riot gear-clad police officers just before 11 p.m. Moments later, a National Guard humvee rolled up, and a swarm of officers swallowed Kent. The vehicle blocked the camera's view of the arrest.

MORE WITH VIDEO: http://mashable.com/2015/04/29/baltimore-joseph-kent/?utm_cid=mash-com-Tw-main-link

[ghostsinthemachine]

16. Another DU thread with similar stories

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6589384

here...

[ghostsinthemachine]

17. Baltimore’s Police Officers Have Been Arrested At High Rates

The Baltimore Police Department, which is investigating the death of Freddie Gray a week after its officers took him into custody, had one of the nation’s highest rates of officers who were arrested for the seven years that ended in 2011. And a greater proportion of Baltimore residents have been killed by police officers since the start of last year than have residents of the average major U.S. city.

We don’t know yet how Gray suffered the spinal injury that led to his death, and the Baltimore Police Department hasn’t arrested any police officers, although it suspended six with pay. But data sets that track arrests of police officers and people killed by the police show that Baltimore has an abundance of both.

Over the seven years that ended in 2011, at least 55 of Baltimore’s police officers were arrested on personal or professional charges, according to Bowling Green State University criminologist Philip M. Stinson, whom we profiled last week. Stinson calculates two different rates to compare police departments of different sizes serving cities with different populations. The per-officer rate is the number of officers arrested divided by the number of sworn officers, using the 2008 Census of State and Local Law Enforcement


http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/baltimores-police-officers-have-been-arrested-at-high-rates/

[ghostsinthemachine]

18. Freddie Gray Was The Last Straw: Baltimore’s History Of Police Brutality

The case of Freddie Gray, a black American, who died after a brutal arrest, has brought renewed attention to the Baltimore Police Department, but this incident is just one of many in the department’s corrupt history.


http://www.mintpressnews.com/freddie-gray-was-the-last-straw-baltimores-history-of-police-brutality/205016/

[ghostsinthemachine]

19. Baltimore is NOT Ferguson

his week's Baltimore riot could not have happened to a nicer city.

Baltimore residents welcome strangers and even call them "hon." They sit on benches painted with the slogan "The Greatest City in America."

Baltimore is also where people looted stores and burned cars Monday night. They did it when a man died a week after being arrested.

I was about to call Freddie Gray's death the latest in a string of high-profile deaths of African-American men involving police. But that's not quite right. And that's the point. Each incident of the past year was a particular story in a particular place, which became clear as soon as we arrived in the very particular place that is Baltimore.

Nothing about this story was quite the way it seemed from a distance. For one thing, the uprising did not bring a black populace into confrontation with an overwhelmingly white police force, as happened in Ferguson, Mo., last year.

Baltimore, a majority black city, has a black mayor and a black police commissioner whose force is about half black.

This reality was plain to Taiwan Parker, who lives in the neighborhood where Gray was arrested. He told us that police-community relations have long been sour. And yet, he said, "It ain't no race thing — it's not a race thing at all."


http://www.npr.org/2015/04/29/402971487/residents-disappointed-at-how-rioters-tore-up-baltimore?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150429

[ghostsinthemachine]

20. Baltimore Cop: ‘I Blame The Department’

Baltimore Cop: ‘I Blame The Department’
Author: Wendy Gittleson April 29, 2015 3:31 pm
SNIP>>>>>>>>>>>

I blame the department and let me tell you why. They praise rookie officers. They’ll go around making a 100 arrests a month, and they’ll praise them. These rookie officers will do anything to get an arrest because they want more praise, you know what I’m saying? This is the result of it. They arrested Gray for some bullshit. That arrest was the weakest thing I’ve seen in my life. They do things like that and then what we see happening now happens. They can say anything to anyone to lock them up because they want an arrest. I don’t think they hurt him or messed him up, that’s what I truly think, but I do think they should have called a medic.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/04/29/baltimore-cop-i-blame-the-department/

[ghostsinthemachine]

21. How Balt. Riot Police Helped Spark the Rioting - The Psychology of Militarized Police & Crowds

There are many factors that contributed to the riots that broke out yesterday in the lower income community of West Baltimore, the day of Freddie Gray's funeral, despite the best intentions of community leaders, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and the Police Commissioner, as well as the wishes of Gray's family.

Obviously, while the pent-up anger toward the Baltimore police over the death of Freddie Gray was a huge factor, there were many others, as well. Decades of abuses by the BPD, including the far too often employment of excessive force that led to many injuries and deaths. The utter lack of any accountability by police officers to the community that suffered under these oppressive and unjust policing practices. The failure of the local educational system due to serious underfunding and official neglect. "Poor" economic outcomes for people living in that part of Baltimore, grossly inadequate housing and high rates of incarceration, especially among young people.

All those are relevant to what occurred, but I'd like to address a more immediate factor that I believe set the stage for the riots yesterday: the heavily militarized presence of the police themselves. Even before the first rock was thrown, legions of police were openly deployed in full riot gear, armed with tear gas, pepper spray, batons, tasers, guns that fired "non-lethal" rounds such as rubber bullets, etc. Take a look at this image of these officers in their full gear yesterday (from Slate):

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MORE: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/28/1380894/-How-Balt-Riot-Police-Helped-Spark-the-Rioting-The-Psychology-of-Militarized-Police-Crowds