

My 49 hours in a Baltimore cell – for being a reporter - antman
http://gu.com/p/483da

======
joshstrange
This and the story like it [0] from a day or two ago disgusts me. I really
hope that people go to jail for denying these people their rights (fuck their
state of emergency) but since they are police officers we'd sooner see an
actual ham sandwich indicted [1]. I really couldn't give a fuck what
justification they are using for keeping these people this long, IMO there is
NO circumstances under which this should be permissible.

Indiscriminately pulling people off the street and locking them up for over 2
FULL days turns my stomach as it should everyone. Even during the a work week
I could probably take that in stride and not lose my job but the vast majority
of people could not and so they have to ask themselves "Can I risk losing my
job over this protest?" which is a question no one should ever have to ask
themselves. To make matters worse the people who are most at risk for job loss
are the same people who live with cops shooting their friends/family/neighbors
with no repercussions.

This is sickening and if Freddie Gray wasn't a good enough reason to riot
(yes, I fully condone these riots. "A riot is the language of the unheard -
MLK Jr", no one gave 2 shits when they were just protesting. Also America's
fucking history has it's roots in rioting and overthrowing the government.
What makes it right then but not now?) then cops stomping all over our rights
should be. We now live in a world where gangs known for their violence show
more maturity and level headedness than the cops they are protecting [2].

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9478544](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9478544)

[1]
[http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/11/25/sol_wac...](http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/11/25/sol_wachtler_the_judge_who_coined_indict_a_ham_sandwich_was_himself_indicted.html)

[2] [http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/27/the-
bloods-...](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/27/the-bloods-and-
crips-anti-cop-ceasefire-in-baltimore.html)

~~~
EpicEng
>This is sickening and if Freddie Gray wasn't a good enough reason to riot
(yes, I fully condone these riots. "A riot is the language of the unheard -
MLK Jr", no one gave 2 shits when they were just protesting.

Interesting that you quote MLK in your support of these riots. He understood
_why_ people were rioting, but he also understood that it is, at best, an
ineffective tactic and, at worst, counter-productive to the overall cause.

Riots aren't a good thing. The people being hurt here are mostly A) the
rioters, and B) business owners. You're not changing anyone's mind with this
sort of thing.

I'm not disagreeing with your outrage, but I do think that supporting riots is
going too far and is, honestly, extremely short sighted.

~~~
joshstrange
The fuller quote is:

> But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots.
> It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same
> time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our
> society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that
> they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get
> attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the
> unheard.

What I see is the media condemning the riots with much more fervor that that
with which they condemn the reasons for the riots (if they even bother to
touch on that past "Freddie Gray" which is only the straw that broke the
camels back and not by far the only reason).

> I'm not disagreeing with your outrage, but I do think that supporting riots
> is going too far and is, honestly, extremely short sighted.

And I'd love to be proven wrong but honestly, what other recourse do these
people have? I'm all for "violence is not the answer" but I think that
statement needs an exception for when violence is already being used against
the people you want not to be violent. For example, violence would NOT be the
answer for a library fine you thought was in error but this isn't even just
financial/economic hardship, (yes that's a part of it but that's been going on
for decades) no now the police are being caught (make no mistake, this has
been going on for a LONG time and just now are we seeing footage of what most
people who live in these areas already know is happening) on camera and not
being punished which allows the discussion to go from "Well maybe it's
happening" to "It's happening". So what I'm trying to say is I think violence
IS the answer when violence is being used against you. It would be one thing
if this was only motivated by economical reasons but this is because people
are DYING and largely NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE.

It is because of that that I feel I have no recourse but to support the riots.
I look at it like this, what would you say to a young black man whose friend
was just killed by the police and he knows there will be no repercussions? Who
the fuck am I to tell him not to riot? Who am I to tell him "It gets better"
when it clearly does not? Who am I to condemn him for saying "Enough is
Enough"? In fact I think it's short sighted to not look at history and see
that there has been quite a lot of non-violent protesting of this with no
change. Insanity is, after all, doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting different results. I think MLK Jr saw this and that's what lead him
to say "a riot is the language of the unheard". So who is to blame here? The
people inciting violence because they've been backed into a corner and can't
take it anymore or those of us who made them "unheard" by refusing to listen
to them or do anything to help them? I saw it's us who are more to blame (and
yes I include myself in that group).

PS: please note I'm not trying to direct any of this towards you. I really
would like to have a discussion on this. That said I am livid that this is
even happening (Ferguson/Baltimore not this discussion, we need MORE of these
discussions) and I won't apologize for that.

