Baltimore

And you say we libs don't care about black-on-black crime.

 

Black officers can be be pieces of shit as well. Has anyone said anything different?

 

I thought the narrative was about evil white cops not understanding that black lives matter.

 

Of course not.

This case does not look good at all.

I'm just trying to figure out why in a city with an African-American Mayor, an African-American City Council President, an African-American prosecutor, an African-American Police Commissioner, and a Police force that is nearly 50% African-American, the killing of an African-American drug dealer by a group of cops that was half African-American, protestors burned down a senior center built by an African-American church to protest racism, and the white power structure.

 

Seriously, race was the issue that overrides this case -- and others, like Ferguson -- was it not? Isn't that why people have been protesting? Because the racist cops stop people and hassle them or injure them or kill them just for being black? Because they crack down on black neighborhoods?

So why are these black cops, under a black commissioner, mayor, etc., doing that? Can it be that this wasn't really a racial issue after all?

In all seriousness, I don't know the answer. Just wondering what this is all about.

 

At least five other people or their families have alleged they were harmed in the back of a police van since 1997, with several winning judgments or settling with police. Three were paralyzed by the ride, according to a recent review by The Baltimore Sun.

In one case, a 43-year-old plumber arrested for public urination was handcuffed and put in a van in good health but emerged a quadriplegic. He told his doctor he was not buckled into his seat and after a sharp turn he was "violently thrown around the back of the vehicle as [police officers] drove in an aggressive fashion," according to a lawsuit.

The man died two weeks later of pneumonia caused by his paralysis, and his family initially won a $7.4 million award after a jury agreed three officers were negligent. It was reduced to $219,000 by Maryland's Court of Special Appeals because state law caps such payouts.

Two more men allege 'rough rides' in Baltimore police van - Baltimore Sun

 

Did you read the interview David Simon did with Bill Keller for his Marshall Project? Start there.

 

None of those people are in a position of responsibility.

 

I believe this was linked earlier in this thread, but if not, read it please.

David Simon on Baltimore’s Anguish | The Marshall Project

 

So, it's all this guy's fault:

 

I used to think Martin had real potential. He had charisma. He was legitimately interested in fixing some of Baltimore's problems. But all the shit you see in The Wire with Carcetti is 100 percent true. He chased skirts a ton. He dicked over friends. He decided at some point he really wanted to be governor. Then president. And he steamrolled everyone and everything in his way and stopped playing his fucking banjo and downing Guinness and started schmozing reporters at Politico, who can't resist mentioning his name as a presidential candidate over and over, even though he has no real love or support IN HIS OWN STATE much less in Iowa or New Hampshire.

Anyway, the story of Baltimore is a lot more complicated than O'Malley's bullshit, or "dur dur dur everyone in power now is black, so what's the big deal?" posts. Here is another good place to start. It's decades and decades of institutional racism.

The long, painful and repetitive history of how Baltimore became Baltimore - The Washington Post

 

Well, I guess that's to be expected in a Red State, in the deep South.