Taking to the Baltimore Streets, but for Peace and Progress

Let me explain something: you’re not a community leader if no one has ever heard of you, or if they’ve heard, they’re not listening. I’d lay odds that if I asked a hundred people, especially younger people, who their local and state elected officials are, not one could name more than two. In addition, this is not the rural South fifty years ago: the clergy do not and cannot speak for or to an unchurched population. But Mr. Savage faces a steeper challenge: if you tell them you were there and you understand, they won’t believe you, because they see you as you are now, so they figure either that you weren’t really “there,” or that your life was never as theirs, because here you are, so you don’t really understand. It’s difficult to form a bond with people who have such a different way of looking at things: it takes interpersonal skills that few have, and a lot of time and effort—and you have to deliver.

We need to look at the family structure in our country. Many of these young people are products of unmarried women and it is extremely difficult to raise a child without a father present. The children want a family structure and discipline which results in love and caring in the home. This must be addressed if there is to be any real positive change in our society. Too often our progressive left-leaning leaders do not want to discuss the breakdown of the American family which is occurring in black, white and Latino households. Things will only deteriorate further if we do not face this fact. Our country deserves better and there is much we can all do to achieve this goal.

I've always believed that everything starts in the home, and that basic principle applies here, in Fergusson and elsewhere. Yes, there are legitimate grievances that need to be addressed. But until we're ready, willing and able to step back...wait for all the facts to come out...and only THEN pass judgment on a given situation, will we EVER be able to live in rational peace & harmony.

When outside "agitators" wreak havoc and promote violence in an already sensitive situation, it only spoils things for those LEGITIMATE and PEACEFUL protestors!

Rep. Elijah Cummings almost seems like the last vestige of the Martin Luther King, Jr. non-violent civil rights movement. Why? 50 years later it feels like it was all for nothing, so we will have to start again. But, who will lead? We were just too complacent, for too long. That's how these right wing-nuts became so ubiquitous.

Thanks gang members. Now, stop killing young blacks.

One of the things that shocked me most about this article was that, in a group of 7-15 year olds, one of the kids thought Taylor Swift was president? What kind of schools do these kids go to?

I'm sure it was one of the younger ones, but even so ... back when Obama's second inauguration was on TV, my then-7 grandson couldn't tear himself away from watching. Forget cartoons ... "Grandma, he's still on TV!" So, we watched and talked about it. He was thrilled that a multiracial person like him was the president. Taylor Swift? Sad.

So a city controlled by black politicians and democrats for 50+ years and the only non Democrats related to powerful democrats is sinking into the slime promoted by E. Cummings and fomented when the police are restrained and the gongs promoted.

Let's all rejoice at their commitment! Mr Cummings and the political class are doing just fine at the cost of the ??% black population... Reminds us of some black African countries... surprise... surprise...

Gangs are the scourge of poor black areas. Gang violence is far more a threat to the law abiding than is police violence. Gangs thrive on crime and they kill many of the innocent who die in Baltimore. It's a rare law-abiding citizen who can reach out to gang members. Most folks fear for themselves and their kids. Any suggestion that gangs will play a long-term constructive role in Baltimore is naive. They need to be weeded out. Only an outsider would think otherwise.

So where were these folks during the riots. They were nowhere to be seen!

Yet, they would be the first to complain about the lack of police protection if it was their property being looted and destroyed. I have no use for this kind of leadership. They are Johnny come lately.

How many looters and burners have been turned in to the police by the black community? How many will actually be prosecuted and do time?

If the black community wants to stop the pillage they should teach their people to get an education, stop doing drugs, don't steal, no one owes you a living, and obey the law.

We saw what was being taught in Baltimore during the riots. It was, loot, pillage and burn. Some even said it was ok to steal and pillage but don't burn. What leadership!

Long-term poverty, frustration, devaluation of human dreams. It hurts. Freddie Gray dies for seemingly no good reason. So the answer is to loot? There were those who were angry at calling the looters thugs. What! What do you call a person who is angry over a man's death, but chooses to line their own pockets at CVS. How is stealing a hair dryer going to bring back Mr. Gray or help the elderly in need of a neighborhood pharmacy?

I see a lot of comments describing the corruption and bias in our government. I don't disagree it is there as it is in every society, but people should also realize that it is rare that there is a simple solution to these issues. We live in a country where people from any culture can thrive and grow, but there is still a lot of racism preventing people from having equal opportunity. The diversity that characterizes the US is the same diversity that makes it almost impossible to write a law that satisfies everyone. Generally the solution to this is to write the laws in vague language so that they can be interpreted to address different problems in different ways. However, this can lead to interpretations that not everyone agrees with. or people bending the rules to achieve their goals. Writing a law that says any cop involved in a scandal should be fired is just too imprecise. There need to be a very definite set of laws that encourages unbiased law enforcement and makes very clear what will happen when abuse of power does occur. I don't claim to have all the answers but complaining over and over and over again without suggesting solutions and discussing them in order to refine a final concept is futile.
Regardless, violence is certainly not the answer in Baltimore. If you have a cause that fights for equality and justice, but you defend that cause by burning public buildings and attacking innocent firemen and police officers, you totally discredit your cause.

Surprising that so many people seem surprised that rioting occurred. Sure there are socio-economic factors involved. But in the past all over the world, people riot because they can, because they want to. Frustrated? Yes. Enjoy destroying things—even in their own community? Yes. Go back 1500 years to Constantinople. Rioters regularly burned parts of the city. Monks rioted, chariot racing fans rioted, gangs of young toughs rioted. When there’s an opening, as in outrage in Baltimore, the rowdies will have their riot.

"Ordinary citizens, by the hundreds, have swept up the mess and repeatedly formed lines to create a buffer between police officers in riot gear and angry demonstrators."
It is a sad day when the citizens line up to protect the police!
The authorities need to recognise that their policies, processes and day to day practices are not working. It is time to work with the people for the people, not against them and only with and for the privileged. This is like South Africa in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Shudder.

Millions of our fellow citizens lead lives of desperation. And they are beginning to take to the streets like the people of Baltimore and Ferguson and other places where hope has disappeared.

The good jobs that were everywhere in my youth, that gave us a strong middle class and fueled the American dream, are gone. They have been shipped to parts of the world where even more desperate people are willing to work for pennies a day.

The corporations and the 1 per cent are immeasurably richer because the politicians, including Democratic Presidents and members of Congress, allowed those jobs to be taken away. Those elected to represented the people of the United States have even led the shift, as President Obama is doing now by trying to "fastrack" the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Anyone who examines what has leaked of this secret deal (Yes, citizens are not allowed to know all the details!), knows it will further erode jobs in our country, environmental protections and the like.

The military-industrial complex appears to be a shadow government and the catalyst for an endless war America is fighting. Supposed to keep us safe, it is instead a war creating untold new enemies every day. It has unleashed a conflagration that is destroying the lives of ordinary folk all over the Middle East.

Yet we persist, spending trillions (A trillion is a number so big the human mind can't take it in.) as our own country crumbles into decay and despair.

We will see many more Baltimores.

Baltimore is one more event where dissent is fueled by anger that comes from chronic persistent poverty and people who feel "unheard." It's almost like the folks who chose to burn are saying, "Can you hear me now?" There have always been people who will choose violence and those who turn to non-violence, it is the way of human beings. Yet the efforts of those in Baltimore to offer an alternative to destroying the city and causing harm is the model we can all strive to embody - choose peace, always and stay the course. even when it's hard, holding out for a way that embraces and cares for all. This is the essence of hope.

Those of us who cannot go to Baltimore can send our energy towards them holding out for reconciliation and mercy for everyone. Nelson Mandela said, "Love is more powerful than hate." he was right then and it holds true today.

This is not a Baltimore problem. This is a USA problem and we are all need to rise up and and help this nation heal now! America is better than this! Time for grace, love and healing!

There is much more to this picture of what is taking place in Baltimore, a hidden planned agenda. It's not all about economic disparity which so many politicians and community leaders talk about as the riots subside. The police killed another black man while in their custody. Police are killing American citizens, all across the country, nearly every day, just like our drones are killing American citizens and innocent civilians overseas. This incident and the way it is being manipulated by our leaders and covered and presented in the press is just one small part of a larger pre planned event that will continue to escalate through this summer with Operation Jade Helm. I haven't seen much on that in the mainstream news. The Department of Defense release says it is a massive training exercise for our military involving a lot of Special Ops soldiers, who will be operating in plain clothes and also working with local law enforcement. Their mission will be infiltrating many of the small towns in Texas and several other states to gain intelligence and see if they can move about undetected. Really? I think it was Freud who said: "Paranoia is the ability to find the hidden connections."

Walk around the Inner Harbor area and visit hotels/restaurants you will see there are lots of jobs. However, rather then be filled by young black men many of these workers are Hispanic. Why? If many of those men can travel thousands of miles to work surely young Baltimore men can manage a few blocks for a job!

Let me see if I get this right. So the Black G F, the crips and the bloods which are all criminal organizations are going to help settle the woes of the black community. Wow. What could go wrong here? Mick Jäger of the Rollimg Stones was right when he wrote, "all the cops are criminals and all the sinners saints". Just one of the lyrics of Sympathy for the Devil.

The development of networks of city leaders and local authorities is important to invest in risk reduction activities and contribute more safely dignity the respect that is the natural right of all human good luck Baltimore

Expect more simmering Baltimores to erupt in the coming years as our democracy increasingly degrades into an oligarchy that no longer serves the majority. Unless a major political correction can be quickly and successfully implemented, America will get much uglier.

My black friends over the decades have never participated in riots. Nor in looting. And we demonstrated from the 60s on for civil rights for them and then against the vietnamese war and then for women's rights and other issues.People who take advantage of a death in order to riot and loot and burn and destroy are not protesting.

This is a leaderless, organization less phenomenon, just like Occupy Wallstreet. No one has faith in their leaders, no one has political organization except for the rich.

This shows how low America has sunk. It is no longer a pluralist democracy.

It is a depleted pluralist, non democratic political system.

Seeing the people out cleaning up on their own, volunteering, calling for peace and making a difference is inspiring. They show the country that Baltimore is a community pushed to the brink, yet in the midst of this people of faith, community organuzers and outreach, even leaders of street gangs, are pushing the boundaries of what white America has traditionally seen and experienced about the black community there. Baltimore has brave people in that city, who have had enough, and eho also show they truly aspire to more...if only.the chance is given. I hope Americs continues to see the complicated paradigms that make up race relations in our straining land.

I hope the CVS pharmacy that was looted and burned by demonstrators who were supposedly expressing "outrage" at police brutality remains just the way it is as a symbol of what happens when protests get out of control.

There seems to be some gap in the information about Baltimore that seems to be missing from most of these stories. The mayor is black, the police chief is black and many members of the city council are black. Some council members have been on the council for over ten years! The problems of Baltimore are just as much their responsibility of these leaders as any others.

One story in the NYT describe the Mayor as an outsider. What! She was elected mayor. Is that just an excuse for her failures?

A Zero Tolerence policy for involvement in police abuse should have been in effect a long time ago. There is no excuse for this failure. That policy would result in the firing of any police officer involved in the abuse of a citizen as well as the loss of his or her pension and prosecution in the same way that a civilian would be prosecuted. That is what should be in place. I would like to know why the mayor and the city council have not done this.

Today's protests will solve nothing. Gone are the days of Dr. King who always had the moral high ground. The core problem today is a political corrupt system that fails to address the one issue that would make a difference, that being the failure of public education. The hopelessness that the public education system in these communities produces chaos that these people should be protesting against. It will never happen, thus the problem will never really be solved. Sad.

Nice to hear that some people act to dilute the effects of those other community organizers who work to enflame and divide .

Baltimore will become a turning point in race relations and where we are in the US - thank you.

A black-led city with Mayor, Police commissioner, Police Department - both led and constituency, in a 63% black city - there is no "local racism here."

A first night of degenerates, that every city has, then following nights, with the verve of what people really want.

Will it be a turning point? I don't know - it's not just white that has to change, but black...and it takes years, to decades, but Baltimore did not burn...and that is nice.

Always looking for the upscale places...Baltimore feels like one now. :)

“In Baltimore,an array of pastors, politicians, community leaders ,and even gang members have repeatedly taken to the streets to calcrowds,effectively helping police impose a curfew so far.”

I live on the Barrier Island of Long Beach, New York,which was completely submerged during Hurricane Sandy.There was no power,running water, phone or cell phone service,and there had been reports of minor looting.
The City of Long Beach was placed under a 7 p.m.- 7 a.m. curfew the very first night after Sandy hit.

Here in New York,it was the National Guard and not " pastors,politicians, community leaders and gang members” which helped police enforce the curfew,and the only buildings that had burned down were the ones that caught fire when flood waters hit electrical systems.

If the police and National Guard can’t impose a curfew in Baltimore without “help”then something is even more seriously wrong than seems apparent. That’s a truly frightening thought,given the externes of the violence.

At least four long-standing, toxic issues that are deeply woven into the fabric of American society need to be unraveled and confronted with painful honesty and a serious commitment to correct them:

** the Thin Blue Line behind which police, abetted even by so-called good cops, have been hiding their crimes for decades;

** racism, as old as the USA and hiding in plain view in every American institution;

** ever greater concentration of political power in ever fewer corporations, banks, and wealthy families;

** violence, exemplified by an enormous military always at war somewhere either overtly or covertly and now spilling onto the streets of the USA in the form of grotesquely militarized police.

The United States is a violent, racist nation ruled by an obscenely wealthy elite for the benefit of that wealthy elite. I do not say this to provoke or be insulting. Consider my statement an intervention by a family member who loves the USA --- I am an American who left for the reasons listed above.

Right now conflict in the USA is addressed with "force" --- who has the most firepower and is most willing to use it wins. This must change. The USA must be willing to acknowledge the truth about itself and find the courage to embrace peace, equality, honesty, and justice. Otherwise, recent unrest is only the beginning of much more and worse.

Tuesday and Wednesday in Baltimore marked a watershed change in the evolution of the urban African-American community that has been more than a half century in the making. It is a positive change for the better that brings a backbone of hopefulness -- the kind of hope that has a strong and sturdy spine.

African-American women have long been at the forefront of courageous and mature responsibility but the lack of a critical mass of mature and responsible African-American men able and willing to take up the mantle of leadership has constantly kept the true empowerment of the community from reaching its full potential. Of course there have always been some fantastic African-American men on the front lines of community responsibility, but almost always from the top -- church leaders and politicians -- without the critical mass of male leadership from the deep grass roots that is the sine qua non of a strong and sturdy spine.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, however, the grass roots clasped hands with the African-American power structure and transformed Baltimore from a chaotic, undisciplined and undirected city in flames to a relatively peaceful and stable community with a unified purpose. A community with that kind of purpose and spine can do great things -- even the impossible task of ensuring that ALL urban citizens are treated by the police with the dignity and respect that is the birthright of every American.

Any effort that helps fewer people of color encounter the so-called justice system is one less life/family filled with complications later on. But, what about the conduct and behavior of the police? Their lawlessness? Let's STOP blaming the victims of a system that projects a predatory instinct to target vulnerable people and communities. Not just to fill their coffers but to terrorize and kill: 1 black man every 28 hours! What no one should forget is that Freddy Gray was alive, running and talking, before he came into contact with the police; later he was screaming in pain, dragged to a van, hospitalized and dead. Who does this scenario point to as being responsible? Freddy? Freddy's dead and the Baltimore Police Department had everything to do with his demise. The protestors, revelers (that I do not understand; this is not about Baltimore as much as it is about the continuous killing of black men at the hands of the police departments in the US), protectors, defenders, etc. that are putting themselves at risk to control the anger of people who should be angry now and after the answers provided by the Baltimore Police about Mr. Gray's death, must not thwart the outcries of pain and anguish directly related to the political nature of authorized and unaccountable deaths of black people by police. If people keep protesting peacefully, yet the police keep killing, were these lives expendable? No! Police violence visited them because of the color of their skin. A VILE injustice!

My heart goes out to the civic leaders of Baltimore - to the mayor, the police commissioner, the police chief, the local clergy - and the cops on the beat. They are held up to take responsibility for the city's woes but they only represent public power and public power is in sorry shape all over America. The real power is private power. That's the power that profits from keeping labor cheap, from keeping communities depressed, from keeping the people in competition with one another for table scraps, from keeping the workers unorganized, and from keeping the public power weak.

In their hearts, the people of Baltimore know that the mayor cares about them, but that the private power that makes their lives miserable is out of the picture. The cops are just a false proxy for this power. The misery of the poor is profiting the very rich. The cops are an illusion and race is an illusion - it's the worthless conversation that has to stop. The reality is right there in front of our faces: great wealth and terrible poverty side by side.

Really great for Savage to be out there now after the dam has burst. Really would like to hear about the people who have been playing the little Dutch Boy for Years. The media putting the gangs’ center stage in these problems is empowering the gangs and I think it is going to back fire. The young should be taught a gang is still a gang and a book is still a book. A book will give you a way up and if you want it a way out. Being a grown man wearing a Red or Blue bandanna saying you are there to protect the hood only last until the cameras are turned off. Media needs to stop portraying them as the Robin Hoods of the hood. For they are not. Big news is The Crips and The Bloods have called a truce. Anyone ever ask before the truce who were you at war with? How many innocent victims would you calm as collateral damage? I guess protecting the hood where you deal drugs to our children has become a respectable profession?

In the end, people are looking for respect, stability and safety. Mr. Savage and other like-minded individuals are reaching those ends through constructive means, earning credibility and establishing a livable community. Those on the other end, the active gangs and the looters we saw in Baltimore, are looking to intimidate and take away others' lifelines. The actual self-empowerment will win a community from the throes of destruction, and if that message needs to come from one who saw the err of his ways, more power to him!