Baltimore riots

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I'm surprised that a thread wasn't made for this yet.

Yes I will agree that the police can be too brutal at times, but stealing 50 pairs of Air Jordans from the mall and throwing bricks at the people trying to make peace only encourages police brutality.

MLK Jr. didn't die for this crap.

Actually stealing has got nothing to do with how the police treated Freddie Gray so those thieves stand a good chance of getting arrested.

What I disagree with is the video of the mother hitting the son for participating in the violent aftermath because all this violence is a big reason why it is so violent. There's just too much violence. If the kid is harming someone and breaking the law, just hand him over to the cops. Gotta learn if you act that way the police will cite you but don't teach him to start using others as a punching bag when you get angry over something they did. That is why they are in this mess to begin with. People treating each other as punching bags at will.

Too much media attention on these riots. I think it would have been better had the President not spoken publicly about this because by doing so it focuses more media attention. The fewer people who are reminded of what's happening, the fewer who will want to participate.

The only aspect of this that deserved media attention was the original issue i.e. the death of Freddie Gray. Not that I am obsessed with this topic, but it is a relevant topic for public discussion whereas the riots are simply hooliganism.

A good example of what I mean would be the policy at a baseball game that when somebody runs out onto the field, the broadcasters do not televise that. That way the motivation to do that in order to "get on TV" doesn't exist. That is certainly one motivation for the rioters.

It seems like most of the rioters are opportunists who are taking advantage of the situation rather than actual protestors.

I doubt that MLK would condone the looting

Yeah I do not see how stealing a bunch of crap or throwing bricks at people is a solution for police brutality...I saw a rather short video that showed a bit of what was going on, burning buildings, looting and well it was kinda scary looking, I was glad to be safe in Colorado. But that kind of rioting cannot be a good sign either way....I mean if people start acting like that on a larger scale things are going to go to hell really fast, faster than they are.

Bunch of idiots......I mean I know social unrest and all that, but violence like that won't solve it. As for the MLK quote posted in this thread...somehow I just don't think the majority of the looters and brick throwers felt they 'had' to do that I feel like a lot just took it as an opportunity to act like asses unchecked. Wheras in MLKs era I could see more people really feeling like they needed to 'fight' I doubt in the context of this incident he'd defend any of that...but IDK, I do know the guy wasn't a complete saint even if he did have some important things to say.

N&CE discussion of topic

Individually, obviously these acts vandalism and looting are reprehensible but its besides the point to me as these riots are a predictable result of our police state and what other way do these people have to get noticed? I'm not excusing or condoning their actions but I get the anger. Do you know they were peacefully protesting Freddie Gray's death for over a week before these riots? What attention was given to that? How was the city, the state, the presidency going to rectify that? It seems they were ready to ignore it and move on. Riots unfortunately do get people's attention and it will force change in the city of Baltimore and elsewhere, we're all going to remember what happened in Baltimore just as we will remember what happened in Ferguson.

In 2015 as society we no longer accept the police treating us like they would treat the people of a conquered nation, we're not Iraqis and this is not Fallujah. Technology has made it where every times this happens its national news and so rarely is justice ever had, so the pressure just keeps on building and building. Every week now there is some new killing by the police, people are paying attention now and they're not accepting the status-quo any longer when it comes to police brutality. There is a crisis in the country and the people's grievances aren't answered then something explosive will happen. Another quote that has been thrown around these last couple day's is JFK who said "those that make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" and it is true now as it was then.

The primary purpose of government is to defend lives and property. If a government kills people with insufficient cause, then does not defend innocent third parties from the ensuing riots, it is pretty much failing at everything that would justify its existence.