This topic is a difficult one to write in terms of forming a fair and equal opinion. Let's get started with the basics.
What are Baltimore people rioting for...
- Equality
- Social injustice
- Death of Freddie Gray whilst in custody with police
What people from Britain should note:
Baltimore riots are entirely different from the London riots. The cause of the London riots was because police shot dead a black male carrying a re-designed fake BBM gun so that it can fire live rounds.
Baltimore riots are about the injustice of Freddie Gray; he was arrested and held in police custody, reported to be absolutely healthy and fine. Whilst in the police van, Gray was hospitalised with spinal injuries not caused by himself or any accident that may have happened that night. It was purely down to police brutality and known in America as homicide [1].
In America, we hear stories about black people being targeted by the police, hence the riots. In England, police brutality is rare and in terms of racism, it comes down to racial profiling in England - more young black males have been stopped & searched than any ethnicity in England. My old teacher did a research assignment based on racism and social segregation - she surveyed a few police departments in England asking if they would take action (stop and search, arresting etc...) based solely on how they look in terms of colour, a moderate percentage said 'Yes, they would', which is extremely illegal in terms of discrimination laws that we have now.
My view on this:
I believe that social rioting is appalling myself (look at London riots), however, social injustice is massive in America and it needs to be stopped. I saw a video recently where a black male was reportedly carrying a 'bladed article', instead of trying to restrain the person in question the police fired at the boy and then reported to the other units that he 'attacked first', when in the video, he didn't. I can perfectly understand if this was white people but they don't make it to the news.
What the media is showing right now is equally appalling; they are showing black males attacking white people that are on the scene and actually trying to make it look like the racism is the other way around, when in fact, it is quite the opposite.The picture on the left is a little child offering water to the police officers at Baltimore - something that was added on Facebook, not the press. The press can only seem to focus on condemning the black ethnicity of Baltimore which is utterly and entirely wrong. There are people that just want the riots to stop and really the media should stop trying to make them look as bad as possible. Yes, what they are doing in terms of looting, destruction and disorder is wrong but murder is unthinkable, why is it right to take a life just because you're in a position of authority?
What is the message the rioters want you to hear?
- Stop being an utter egomaniac and power tripper because you're a police officer.
- Stop being racist, targeting young black males and focusing on trying to constantly look bad.
- There is a fine line between trying to disarm a man and then just beating the utter shit out of him, it's not good and it's morally wrong.
Obama, the president of America, has actually spoken about this situation - one of the paragraphs from the article:
"President Obama on Monday took a shot at the media for its coverage of last week’s violence in Baltimore, saying news outlets too often focus only on looters and rioters rather than on those who are trying to solve the complex problems plaguing America’s cities."
What do you think?
Articles:
Baltimore riots 2015 - Wikipedia (unreliable source).
Death of Freddie Gray - Wikipedia (unreliable source).
Obama speaks out - Washington Times
Notes & references:
[1].. Homicide is used in England but only to those who are well in touch with politics and how the legal system works; to most people it is still known as 'murder'.
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