The absolute citywide tragedy and outpouring of pain all over the streets in Baltimore last night was another breaking point in America’s attempt to negotiate and get out from under centuries of explicitly racist state violence, which in recent years has reached a fever pitch all over America but also, notably, within Baltimore’s own system. As detailed by the Sun, the city’s paid out an astonishing $5.7 million in police violence settlements alone since 2011, to victims like:
a 15-year-old boy riding a dirt bike, a 26-year-old pregnant accountant who had witnessed a beating, a 50-year-old woman selling church raffle tickets, a 65-year-old church deacon rolling a cigarette and an 87-year-old grandmother aiding her wounded grandson.
And still, the coverage of the Freddie Gray protests—a city taking to its underfunded and nationally forgotten streets to protest a 25-year-old whose voice box was crushed and spine was snapped in the back of a police van, prompting no consequences for those police officers other than some statements that mistakes were made—has been appallingly unfair on outlets like CNN, whose chyrons have featured such lovely lines like this:
“Suspect laid to rest as cops face gang threat.” This was a party line yesterday, with Baltimore police saying they’d received “credible” word that the Black Guerilla Family, Bloods and Crips had all “entered into a partnership to ‘take out’ law enforcement officers.” The WHAT ABOUT BLACK-ON-BLACK CRIME topical feint is real, and constant, and showed up on CNN in many other ways yesterday, like in this statement from a former FBI assistant director:
Stories that come in more directly look a bit different:
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