Baltimore and What Happens After the Riot

There’s a lot to report on, and infer about, what happened in Baltimore last night.

A protest over the death of Freddie Gray, who was critically injured in police custody, started peacefully with thousands marching through downtown streets before the demonstration turned violent and volatile.

The chaotic scene Saturday night prompted the first public remarks from Freddie Gray’s twin sister, who pleaded for peace at a news conference alongside the mayor.

“My family wants to say, can you all please, please stop the violence?” Fredricka Gray said. “Freddie Gray would not want this.”

Given there’s no way to do it all justice in any meaningful way — who understands what it’s like to be in the storm when they’re watching it on TV (sorry, Twitter)? — but there are few questions that bear noting now.

First, it is true that riots solve exactly nothing. There was apparently a rather well organized (ahem) peaceful protest in the afternoon that went wonky as the sun began to go down. But the question is this: did anyone think that that peaceful protest would disperse peacefully in a city that takes great pride in being the home of The Wire? This is a city that is heavily segregrated, both racially and economically, so the disenfranchised will exploit an opportunity to be heard, even if the way they speak is coarse, selfish, and patently ineffective. The surprise that the riot happened was most surprising.

Baltimore is a city essentially decimated by really terrible progressive policies that have allowed the government to grow and over-regulate so heavily that new industry has essentially been stifled, while corruption has become just a part of the fabric of city governance. It is a place where the one percent sit in ivory towers and lord over and judge a city that is the fruit of the policies they espouse.

Speaking of, these same one percenters — and I haven’t seen the numbers but I’m almost certain that can be broken out by race — take great pride in their shock at a heavily militarized police force that, for all intents and purposes, is just a part of the ungodly federal subsidies that city receives in the form of the 1033 Program that hands out surplus military supplies to local police agencies.

The idea was that if the U.S. wanted its police to act like drug warriors, it should equip them like warriors, which it has—to the tune of around $4.3 billion in equipment, according to a report by the American Civil Liberties Union. The St. Louis County Police Department’s annual budget is around $160 million. By providing law enforcement agencies with surplus military equipment free of charge, the NDAA encourages police to employ military weapons and military tactics.

1033 procurements are not matters of public record. And the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), which coordinates distribution of military surplus, refuses to reveal the names of agencies requesting “tactical” items, like assault rifles and MRAPs — for security reasons, a spokesperson for DLA told Newsweek via email. One can only trace “tactical” items as far the county of the requesting agency. In the case of Ferguson, that means St. Louis County.

The limousine liberals hate the idea of the militarized police — are shocked and saddened by the death of a Freddie Gray — but then ask any of them who live in Baltimore how they felt about those guys in blue holding back the tide of a very angry mob. My guess is they were breathing a sigh of relief they were equipped with the weaponry they had.

Finally, the lack of news coverage — something that was suggested to me was actually a good thing, and perhaps in a way it is — does something I think fundamentally dangerous: it employs the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality to a situation that endagered our police officers and otherwise peaceful citizens. To look away is irresponsible and possibly immoral. Now, many of those reporters were actually at the White House Correspondents Dinner, and I’m with Sonny Bunch on this one: bully for them. I’m sure it was fun and I would have enjoyed myself had I been there. But…I mean, this is your job guys. It’s why you get to sit in rooms and drink wine and eat good food and hob nob and feel important. But this is what I was seeing about your concern for the community down the road and your respect for your chosen profession:

I’m at the #WHCD, and not a single person has had any idea what I’m talking about when I mention #Baltimore. Literally nobody here cares.

— Christopher S. Brown (@chrisbrowntv) April 26, 2015

Finally, and it’s the hardest but likely the most imprortant, there seems to be no great thinker to answer any of these questions once the revolution occurs (I’m being tongue in cheek. Kind of). It was suggested to me that we now longer educate people with the kind of potential for great thinking to use those skills. We teach intead to the Common Core. Which isn’t exactly known to be the best at examining and addressing difficult problems with no easy answers. In fact, it does the opposite: provides difficult solutions to questions with easy answers.

And so we are left promoting the coolness of The Wire, hating the brutality of the cops, but relying on it when The Wire decides to riot.