Baltimore Riots

Really, I'm pretty sure we all know about it by now, so it doesn't need much introduction. Black youth Freddie Grey ran from the cops, they pursued him, injured him in the process, later denied him medical treatment, then Freddie went into a coma and died a week later.

The city is up in arms and rioting, some people are burning stuff down and destroying property. Others are looting. Three gangs united, police in full riot gear marches down streets, volunteer clean-up workers, the whole works.

Views on this?

Damaged property is fixable and replaceable. People who have been murdered are not.
Hundreds of black men have been killed already since the year started, and nobody seems to care UNLESS riots are involved. In which case everyone gets on their high horse and condems them (Which is funny because a lot of the stuff in this country is built on soil soaked clean with the blood of African Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans whom we enslaved, commit genocide against taking their land in the process, and whom we employed as cheap labor and put in concentration camps).
I'm not saying damaging other peoples stuff is okay, but it's a lot more okay than some of the stuff Americans have done in the past, and I haven't heard anything of anyone getting hurt, besides those that the police have tear gassed and what not.

So in short, less focus on damaged property, more focus on murdered people.

I was watchin the Vice livestream last night when Melonie came on, and I loved the positive message she had to share, that people are coming together to clean up and stuff like that. It's hard to keep cool heads in a situation like this, where the line between right and wrong is so blurred, so I really have a lotta respect for people like the protester in that video who was making sure none of the other protesters provoked the police, or the kid who was handing out water. I guess at the end of the day our prayers gotta go to everyone - protesters, police, high school kids, business owners, even the rioters, that they stay safe and work towards a future where stuff like this don't happen!

The big deal is simply this.

Modern Japanese had all their property taken away and they were put into concentration camps during World War 2. Completely wrong. How many Japanese are burning down buildings and rioting and looting to prove a positive message that they are innocent?

Everyday African Americans are killing other African Americans in Detroit and Chicago in their gang violence. How much is that talked about?

How much is it talked about when a black cop kills a young white kid? And trust me that does happen almost as often as the black kids being killed.

Where is the justice there?

You have people who are using this stuff as an excuse to loot and destroy property. You cannot tell me destroying businesses, stealing merchandise, smashing cars, lighting fires, is proving anything. In fact it is spitting on the graves of the innocent African Americans that have been killed wrongly. It takes the focus off of those incidences, and now all we see is people looting. That is the focus. Not on the killings.

Two wrongs don't make a right. And saying what the looters is doing is right, or "more" right then what happened HUNDREDS of years ago when people try to equate this crap to slavery, is just silly. Lets get back on bringing justice to those who are killed, WITH the justice system. Not acting like thugs.

Tensions are high, that is completely understandable. People protesting and everything is completely understandable to me. Not burning crap down and acting like lunatics. Martin Luther would be rolling in his grave seeing his fellow African Americans acting like this.

/probablynotapopularopinionbutbutthehellwithit

*Martin Luther King; Martin Luther was white and several centuries before the Civil Rights movement :p

I don't agree with what the looters are doing, and if they're going to break stuff, they should stick to government buildings, not take it out on their own community. But, the police in general have a lot to answer for, and nothing is ultimately going to come of this, like always. The problem is with the police as a power structure, more so than any particular batch of racist/violent cops.

I kinda of assumed everyone would know I am talking about Martin Luther King. :P

I am kinda tired and my brain literally just fried and went blank as I typed out his name and I kept wanting to type it as Martin Luther Jr and finally I was like eh screw it they will know who I am talking about.

The way my step-father put it, the police force are for people who couldn't be a soldier, but wanted to be put in a position of authority and power. A position to control people. There are people that join to protect, but those are in fewer numbers.