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Baltimore: Freddie Gray Protests Turn Violent


CaptureThousands of protesters took to the streets Saturday in the largest Freddie Gray rally yet, and after hours of peaceful demonstrations, pockets of protesters smashed out police car windows and storefronts.

CaptureTwo people were hurt in the mayhem and at least a dozen were arrested. The problems happened near Camden Yards, where the Baltimore Orioles game against the Boston Red Sox went on as scheduled. Before the game, demonstrators fought with fans at a bar.

CDe0K--W8AIB2-OGray died April 19 after suffering a fatal spinal injury while in custody. Authorities have not explained how or when Gray’s spine was injured. Video showed him being dragged into a police van and police have said he rode in the wagon for about 30 minutes before paramedics were called.

Police have said Gray should have received medical attention at the spot where he was arrested — before he was put inside a police transport van handcuffed and without a seat belt, a violation of the department’s policy.

CDe3ytCWoAE0qowThere have been near-daily protests since Gray’s death. On Saturday, a small group threw cans and plastic bottles in the direction of police officers. One protester broke out the window of a police cruiser, grabbed a police hat inside and wore it while standing on top of the cruiser with several other protesters.

At that point, scores of officer rushed into the area, stopped and formed a line, three officers deep. The protesters scattered but returned a few minutes later and began yelling “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!”

From inside the stadium, fans watched the protesters gather.

CDe1KhSWgAATjSqBefore the protest turned tense and violent, demonstrators filled two city blocks and marched 2 miles to City Hall, where the crowd overtook the grassy plaza adjacent from the building.

Tanya Peacher, a 36-year-old Baltimore resident, said she’d never attended a protest in the city before, but watching a video of Gray’s arrest motivated her.

 

“I looked at my son,” she said, “and thought ‘that is my son.'”

Residents young and old, from Baltimore and beyond, voiced their anger at how the department and the city’s officials are handling the investigation into Gray’s death. At one point, the crowd paused for a moment of silence in front of Shock Trauma, the hospital where Gray died. The marchers then migrated to Camden Yards.

At a downtown intersection, a dozen marchers laid down in the street during an impromptu “die-in.”

CDe3-_eUgAAAROSWearing a sign around his neck that said “I am Freddie Gray,” 33-year-old Dante Acree joined thousands of others outside City Hall. Acree said he came out to the protest because “it could have been one of my kids.”

“It could have been my brother, my father,” he said. “I’d want the same support.”

Leonard Patterson, 56, said he drove from Manassas, Virginia, to be a part of the protest. Patterson said he decided to come after thinking about his college-aged daughter.

“I’m trying to do everything in my limbs, everything in my power, to make this a better world for her,” said Patterson, holding up his black and white drawing of Freddie Gray. The drawing shows Gray being hoisted from a police van to heaven by two angels.

“I’m here to do what I can. Police brutality is as old as the 1950s, the 1960s. It’s still here,” he said.

BELOW IS A VIDEO OF THE ARREST OF FREDDIE GRAY IN BALTIMORE: VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED

(AP)



5 Responses

  1. 1. There are no Yidden in that area on a Motsei Shabbos this time of year.

    2. He was a petty criminal who apparently was injured through negligence (he should have had a seat belt on, didn’t, and that led to a fatal injury, probably caused by the police not taking him to the hospital as soon as he was injured). The police were responsible for him wearing a seat belt while being tansported, and were responsible for taking him to the hospital when he was injured. Clearly civil negligence (much to the delight of the lawyers), and possible manslaughter.

    3. If he was other than African American, it would just be another statistic (and a source of parnassah for the tort bar).

  2. Nine out of ten black homicides are committed by blacks, but no riots result. It’s cause to trash a city, though, for these descendents of the greatest failure to integrate animals into civilized society in global history if they feel a white man was at fault. Anyone remember Crown Heights?

  3. #3- Actually many of the police in trouble are black. The person was only a petty criminal (unlike Ferguson where he was trying to seize the officer’s gun) and was not resisting arrest. He was healthy when arrested, and died in police custody due to what was at best negligence. The police normally get in trouble in such situations since they have no real defense. The guy was a non-dangerous criminal under police control, and died due to police incompetence (involving not wearing a seatbelt, and not noticing the guy was dying).

    Crown Heights involved a deliberate decision of the police (under the direction of Mayor Dinkins and Governor Cuomo) not to protect Jews from violent attacks. The political decision to allow a pogrom was made at the highest levels – and is probably why neither was reelected, and why their parties lost the elections for many years to come (New York only getting a Democratic mayor in 2013).

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