Anarchy in Baltimore

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What happened Monday night in Baltimore, the Economist reported, “is perhaps best described not as a riot but as anarchy”:

Though there are police lines, there are few protesters or people fighting the police or hurling stones. Indeed, where the police are lined up, the people standing around are mostly taking photos on their phones. Drive a few blocks in any direction, though, and suddenly it feels lawless. Groups of young men, boys really, wearing bandanas and hoodies, stand on street corners next to derelict buildings, staring at anyone passing, and occasionally throwing projectiles at cars. Young women hurry home carrying bags of stolen loot: food, clothes, and bottles of beer and liquor. On the occasional street here and there cars burn freely. Shops, of which there are not many in this abandoned corner of the inner city, are ravaged, their windows smashed, their shelves picked over. Cars hurtle through red lights at high speed, music blaring, boys leaning out of the windows. And everywhere the intense smell of smoke and the buzz of helicopters overhead.

The Baltimore Sun reports:

As night fell, looters took to Mondawmin Mall and a Save-A-Lot and Rite Aid in Bolton Hill, loading up cars with stolen goods. About 10 fire crews battled a three-alarm fire at a large senior center under construction at Chester and Gay streets, as police officers stood guard with long guns. . . .
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake declared a curfew across the city starting Tuesday and for the next week, from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. for adults and 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. for children aged 14 and younger. She drew a distinction between peaceful protesters and “thugs” she said engaged in rioting Monday intend on “destroying our city.”
“It’s idiotic to think that by destroying your city, you’re going to make life better for anybody,” Rawlings-Blake said.

(“Idiotic”? Ma’am, these are Democrat voters you’re talking about.)

At Rawlings-Blake’s request, Gov. Larry Hogan signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency and activating the Maryland National Guard. . . .
The governor is sending 500 state troopers to Baltimore and requesting as many as 5,000 officers from neighboring states, he said in a press conference.
“I have not made this decision lightly,” Hogan said. “The National Guard represents a last resort.”

Of course, if the National Guard can’t restore order, President Obama could deploy the 82nd Airborne Division, or maybe order some Predator drone strikes against the rioters, but we probably don’t want think about that “last resort.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates offers intellectual excuses for the rioters:

Rioting broke out on Monday in Baltimore—an angry response to the death of Freddie Gray, a death my native city seems powerless to explain. Gray did not die mysteriously in some back alley but in the custody of the city’s publicly appointed guardians of order. And yet the mayor of that city and the commissioner of that city’s police still have no idea what happened. . . .
The citizens who live in West Baltimore, where the rioting began, intuitively understand this. I grew up across the street from Mondawmin Mall, where today’s riots began. My mother was raised in the same housing project, Gilmor Homes, where Freddie Gray was killed. Everyone I knew who lived in that world regarded the police not with admiration and respect but with fear and caution. People write these feelings off as wholly irrational at their own peril, or their own leisure. The case against the Baltimore police, and the society that superintends them, is easily made . . .

Right. Liberals must blame “society,” despite the fact that the “publicly appointed guardians of order” answer to a “society” (i.e., the citizens of Baltimore) who in 2012 gave 87% of their votes to Barack Obama. Yet it is predictable that, to people whose politics is a simple devotion to (a) electing Democrats and (b) supporting liberal policies, the evidence of failure leaves them angry, confused and hunting for scapegoats. Democrats cannot be blamed, nor can the party’s most loyal constituents be held responsible, and the possibility that liberalism is itself the problem — well, no, thoughts like that never cross the mind of someone like Ta-Nehisi Coates. His worldview is completely fact-proof and immune to the influence of logical deduction.

This is the political gospel of modern liberalism: People who vote 87% Democrat are never to be blamed for anything they do wrong. And really, the liberal asks, isn’t “wrong” kind of a judgmental word when applied to the peace-loving citizens of Baltimore?





 

128 comments

  1. Anarchy is literally the most inaccurate word you can use to describe the riots. When was there anarchy? The government existed the whole time. The riots were because of state violence, and then not stopped because of state incompetence.

  3. To me the basic philosophical question here is no different than with radical Islam. Sure, as decent human beings we can all try to understand the reasons or even the so-called “root causes” of this behavior. We can say “there but for the grace of God go I” and so forth.

    But at some point, we have to recognize a threat for what it is, and take measures to end it. Police standing by passively while exuberant punks throw stones at them is not going to address the threat; as with Islamic terrorists, it will just embolden them.

    One other angle to consider here: even aside from the philosophical and moral justifications, liberals are creating a totally different visual narrative of events. On Twitter, I saw one photo of a “protester” facing off against a line of cops, and the lib sheeple were comparing it to Tiananmen Square.

    So once again, no matter what happens in the city itself, the story is already written in the minds of the Left. And so continues the decline.

  4. Democrat run and controlled Baltimore did a worse job with explaining Freddie Gray’s death than Ferguson officials did with Michael Brown…why aren’t these Democrats being held accountable?

  5. […] This story makes no sense.   I am definitely not justifying rioting and mayhem, but how does a 25 year old man go into a police van and come out with his spine almost severed and with injuries that shortly thereafter killed him?  I am inclined to give the police the benefit of doubt, but a case like this one (at least with what little Baltimore P.D. has released) quickly erodes that sentiment. The Baltimore P.D. won’t even disclose why Freddie Gray was arrested in the first place. Baltimore’s handling of Freddie Gray’s death makes Ferguson’s initial public relation effort in connection with the Michael Brown shooting look downright competent. Instapundit: As Baltimore burns, O’Malley speaks out and Hillary talks about bumper stickers, Hope and Change, and Loretta Lynch’s first test Wombat: Baltimore erupts in riots Katie Pavlich: Mom slaps son TOM: Anarchy in Baltimore […]

  7. I’m just a simple Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer Protester. I’m confused and frightened by your civil society.

  8. This is by design. The powers that be stand by while “protesters” are given “room to destroy.” What are they destroying? The answer is quite simple: all vestiges of civilization. The reason? To eliminate the middle class and assume control. There was no slip of the tongue with the Baltimore mayor. Rather, the mask slipped. She has let it be known: it is every man for himself in Baltimore.

    Coming to a city near you.

  9. You answered your own question. The anarchy was the “not stopped” part. You have to look at the facts, and not just the concepts.

  10. These people who had their businesses and neighborhood destroyed were forced to pay for “protection” from the police, who did nothing. In an anarchist society, people could have paid for private security. Also, more people are likely to be armed in an anarchist society. This would prevent people from destroying property. Anarchy never existed in Baltimore. I am looking at the facts.

  11. The end result of decades of the Great Society where women are rewarded for having children without the benefit of marriage and men are rewarded for not marring their baby mama. All the while being feed the pablum of self-esteem and being told it is the white man fault they haven’t accomplished anything.

  12. No, you’re insisting on an abstract concept of a theoretical political system that doesn’t exist outside of failed states like Somalia. The word also has an everyday meaning that you are working very hard to ignore.

  13. Somalia is also not in anarchy. It’s a failing state, like you say. I don’t think you have taken the time to look into the definitions of the “state” and “anarchy.” I agree with you that I am avoiding the everyday meaning of the word anarchy. This is because it has erroneously become synonymous with chaos. Chaos which seems to be caused by big government.

  14. I’m sure the very same cops standing around watching the ‘protest’ would have come down like a ton of bricks on any shopkeep that attempted to defend their property.

    The parasites are more important than the hosts.

  15. Have they considered taking off and nuking it from orbit, as it’s the only way to be sure?

    That’d be a real ‘last resort’.

  20. Welcome to the future, where every city is Detroit and the answer to every question is: “shut up if you know what’s good for you.”

  23. They told me that if I voted for Mitt Romney, there would be race riots in major US cities. And they were right!

  25. I’m starting to believe that the progressives actually want an anti-white/anti-cop war. I pooh-poohed it for a long time, because that’s just crazy; but it’s already a shooting war with casualties, and their behavior is consistent.

    Qui bono, and how?

  26. In the far future, Charlton Heston will awake from hypersleep, look around and say “Eh, it’s not so bad. At least I’m not in 21st century Baltimore.”

  27. These mobs and their acts are not spontaneous. They are contrived and coordinated.

    This is “community organizing.”

  28. Christ, you’re such a racist turd. You can add that to your psychotic hatred of homosexuals. This country is ill intended when it comes to minorities, and there is no better example of this, especially in Baltimore, than our failed War on Drugs, which is really just a war on the poor, and disproportionately targets African Americans.

  30. The vulgar insult actually applies to you. Your psychosis causes you to insult anyone with an attachment to reality.

  33. The opposite is quite well documented for anyone that cares to read. You on the other hand, have shown you are driven by hate of all that is decent.

  34. Facts speak for themselves when it comes to Jeanette and this countries history toward minorities of all kinds.

  35. To the benefit of those who seek to finally collapse the last shreds of the republic and implement the Democrat end game, i.e., the facade of majority rule by uncivilized animals in the beginning, but ending with a police-state and dictatorship, maybe?

    Ultimately, that is what will happen worldwide, as was foretold a couple of thousand years ago and more. Collapsing the U.S. as a superpower would surely get the ball rolling quite nicely, wouldn’t it? Perhaps the next item on the menu will be a partial economic collapse on 9 Elul (September 13 IIRC) this year? Certainly we’re living in prophetic times.

  36. These riots started at least several years in Baltimore. ”Unruly youths” forming flash mobs and playing the knock out game on weekends at the inner harbor district. That’s when the city actually lost control. Baltimore, like many cities, never really recovered from the 68 riots and it won’t recover from this. Community leaders insist that the solution is more investment, pointing out that many communities don’t have a single grocery store. I’m sure that’ll change as soon as the smoke clears.
    On the other hand Baltimore has always had a ”tough” police force, a characteristic that hasn’t changed when it’s demography flipped to ”minority majority”. It pays out in an inordinate amount of brutality charge settlements. That is probably much more meaningful data than per capita traffic stops.

  39. Michael Mayfield was shot in the head while sitting in a car in Baltimore last year

    Baltimore, in 2013, had the fifth highest murder rate in America. The victims and the perpetrators were overwhelmingly black, judging from lists of the victims and accused. Here is a list http://goo.gl/72sT9F of the 217 homicides from 2014. Look at the high number of black shooting victims. Among them was Michael Mayfield,a 17-year-old member of Edmondson-Westside High’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps who played baseball and was a “youth ambassador” and peer mediator. He was shot in the head while sitting in acar outside his grandmother’s home and the suspect is described as black. The murder is believed to be a case of mistaken identity. The 2014 death tolls also includes Allan Foster, a 56-year-old black retired roofer who helped organize the March of Dimes’ annual Great Chesapeake Bay Swim.

    http://goo.gl/y1czBv

  40. Is there any situation where they might be responsible for their actions, or do you seek perpetual escape from that?

  41. First sentence: Ad hominem epithet.

    Second sentence: Non sequitur.

    Third sentence: Non sequitur plus a bonus misdirection!

    Really, you need a new hobby.

  43. I’m starting to believe that the progressives actually want an anti-white/anti-cop war.

    Of course they do. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be bending over backwards to validate those who burn the businesses of innocent citizens.

  47. Originally, “anarchy” meant “without a ruler”. These days, it means “without rules”.

    Our problem is that the rulers are ruleless. The thugs are merely following their example.

  49. The cops, the local D.A. and the Dept. of Justice could do a lot more to quell these outbreaks of guerrilla leftism.

    Check out what happened after the Vancouver Stanley Cup riot in 2011:

    Douglas Quan (Postmedia News): Vancouver riot investigators turn to U.S. lab to sift video evidence

    As a result of that investigation, “As of July 2013, police have recommended 1,204 criminal charges against 352 suspected rioters.” (Source: the wikipedia article linked above)

    And that was forensics in 2011. I’d imagine video forensics have come a long way since then. Also, security cameras are finally starting to record in higher-definition (some are already recording in HD).

    The above items underscore the weak performance (also known as absence of duty) of Eric Holder in stemming the huge increase in the number of black rioters since barack became the president. A real Justice Department would have assisted local cops in quickly finding and prosecuting the perpetrators of these mobs.

    And by the way, wearable and disguise-able bluetooth-based wireless video cameras are already available. They aren’t HD yet, but they are much higher resolution than a lot of older iPhone cameras. You disguise them, and carry a modern “smartphone” and you can dress like one of them and wade right into the situation, grabbing video and audio for a forensics team.

    Here’s a current example – still clunky, but manageable:

    1080P HIDDEN COVERT SOPHISTICATED GLASSES DVR HD SPY CAMERA

    http://www.deluxecctv.com/images/products/detail_2503_large_728_glhqclear1080.jpg

  50. Siegel argues that in the mid- to late-1960’s America’s cities were traumatized by riots and the threat of riots on the part of their alienated African-American residents. The liberal elites then coming into power — defeating conservative white ethnics and ushering in the era of liberal domination of the cities — responded, in Siegel’s view, by taking an enormous gamble. Convinced that black poverty justified black anger, they abandoned the stern principles of personal responsibility that their predecessors had advocated and instead created a vast social welfare system premised on the idea that dependence on government is healthy. Siegel calls this ”the riot ideology,” and he blames it for two phenomena that have bedeviled cities ever since: a crime explosion that he terms ”a rolling riot” and a huge government expansion that drove taxes so high that they chased out private industry and led to fiscal disaster. https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/10/05/reviews/971005.05beinert.html

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