Oh Look Violent Protests-Well who didn't that see coming? (Baltimore: 2013, college)

[pwduvall]

Originally Posted by DubyaM

Celebrating the criminal sub-culture as victims. Many "perps" now demand medical attention as a matter of course. It is possible to make oneself arrest-proof.

I am a white guy in Baltimore. A few years ago the police shut down the block and sent the SWAT team to a house that I owned and was working on. When they knocked on the door and told me that they wanted to search it, I asked if they had a warrant. They said they didn't need one because I had let a shooting suspect into the house. So I asked if a policeman had seen me do this. He said yes. Then I asked if this policemen was on site. He said yes. Then I asked to speak to this policeman.

At that point, knowing that he had been caught in a series of lies, he asked for a voluntary search. Seeing the SWAT team outside, and knowing that I might be shot by them if it this became a "barricade" situation, I agreed to the search. After I opened the door, the SWAT team rushed in with shotguns and dogs. As soon as they were in the house the police ordered me outside. This is the point that I expected the police to beat the crap out of me so I did everything to try to avoid that fate. I walked slowly with my hands up at all times, let them search me and run my ID (I have never been arrested.) At this point they detained me for a couple of hours while they searched the house. I was very dehydrated because this was a 90 degree day but, of course, there was no hope for getting a bottle of water or anything like that.

At one point, I asked the cop who had been assigned to watch me I they planned to arrest me. He asked why they would do that. I said that if the police really believed the shooter was in the house and it tuned out to be the only one there, wouldn't I have to be the person that they were looking for? He just laughed and walked away. I will never know what they were really up to but they found absolutely nothing in the house and eventually ordered me back into the house. About an hour later I opened the door to see if the police had left and the ordered for me to shut it. Eventually, about five hours after the whole thing started, the left without telling me that they were pulling out.

Since the house that I was working on didn't have any food or any container to put water in (my contractor kept throwing all the water cups away) I had very little access to food and water for five hours on a hot day. If the police has detained or arrested me and hauled me away in the police van, I could have easily spent several more hours with no water ended up with a medical emergency. As you know, the police do not respond when their prisoners have medical emergencies, so I or anyone else facing the same circumstances could die. As it was, it took me months to recover my heath and I hardly slept for a week afterwards.

I kept thinking that the police could have arrested me for a shooting just to cover up their incompetence and hundreds of wasted man hours (there seemed to be dozens of police there.) Or the could have beaten me and then arrested me for assault and resiting arrest. Either way I would have ended up with a felony arrest and possibly lost my job. Even if the charges were quickly dropped, my credibility would have been destroyed to such an extent that my employer would have to let me go (even if they didn't really want to.)

Bottom line: I'm a white guy that doesn't trust the cops even a little bit. Black people see their actions as racism but all of us need to use extreme caution around them.

[bfkidd]

We only knew about this from watching the game on masn when they were talking about the fans were not being allowed to leave due to safety concerns. I wish we could have seen the local coverage.

As an out-of-towner but in O's territory we typically go to the Saturday Night/Sunday day games every year. It is not a cheap trip but being able to catch 2 games and with all the attractions on the harbor it has always been worth it.

Luckily this time they were playing the sox and we'd rather avoid their fans. There were also reports of protestors getting into fights with (presumably sox) fans.

When you see riot police combatting crowds on Pratt st. it makes me think twice about where to go and spend my vacation $$$. It just makes the city have a worse reputation than it already has.

[pokeable]

Originally Posted by EdwardA

The only negative could be mental. What happens if suburbanites stay away? As it stands now downtown retail is mixed. If folks stay away from Camden turn out the lights. I wouldn't be surprised if they move Camden Park to the suburbs like the Braves are doing in the coming years.

Count me as a suburban-ite who will be forgoing our weekly trip into Baltimore for brunch/dinner.

No point in getting caught in a one hour traffic snarl, with a broken window to boot. Will stay out in Howard County or goto Frederick/Bethesda/Annapolis.

FWIW unless Mr. Gray had previously undiagnosed severe cervical stenosis/prior myelopathy/spondylolisthesis, only trauma would explain his injuries. The cops did it.

[BMoreJuice]

@ pwduvall:

Thanks for sharing your story, that's unbelievable.

[debold4215]

I don't condone the violence and there are always a few knuckle heads in a crowd this big. I followed everything on the news but stayed away from the stadium even though I had tickets for the game. Given the history of violence in the city, the demonstration could have been much , much worse. I commend the citizens and the police for remaining so calm despite all of the tension.

[debold4215]

Originally Posted by Jermaine88

All for a dead drug dealer..


Breaking windows of the gallery,
Attacking random motorist, tourist going to the baseball game.
Destroying random cars...
try to rush into camden yards.
Tossing fences at the cops..
Blocking people from getting to and from work and or generally living their daily lives..

Live on WBAL right for a few hours, FoxNews had the national coverage.
I'm assuming CNN and NBC isn't seeing anything that they are wanting to share cause it's going against their narrative.


I'm sure this will clear up by Monday just in time for them get back to work......LOLOLLOL

If only they were this motivated for the other 200+ murders every year.
It's entertaining.

I for one would like the residents of Baltimore protest the overall violence in the city. Police brutality must be a serious problem in the black communities and why would they protest so much over the death of a drug dealer. I couldn't help but wonder how many people died of overdoses on the drugs Gray dealt. Still, overall, I think the violence during the demonstrations could have been much worse.

[GiGi603]

Originally Posted by pokeable

Count me as a suburban-ite who will be forgoing our weekly trip into Baltimore for brunch/dinner.

Me too. I decided against going to the Farmer's Market this morning. So much for supporting the City.

[MikMal]

Originally Posted by Infinite_heights77

...Question? Why should protest only be peaceful? ....

Because most times the violence is against people and property that had nothing to do with what they are "protesting".

[designer_genes]

Originally Posted by GiGi603

Me too. I decided against going to the Farmer's Market this morning. So much for supporting the City.

Oh dear lord. I went to the Farmer's Market this morning and it was absolutely fine. You wouldn't even know anything had happened except for maybe an extra cop or two hanging around.

Seriously people, I think we're being a little hysterical here.

It's almost comical to me that when things like this happen that should elicit broader conversations about race relations and justice in America, all people can do is whine about the effect on their commute and that they couldn't get to the Whole Foods downtown to buy their kale chips yesterday. Talk about first world problems.

All things considered, these protests were actually very peaceful. I am not condoning any violence or law breaking that went on, but it was a small minority of the folks out there that were making trouble and ruining it for everyone. And very often, those individuals aren't actually a part of whatever cause people are out there for - they just use the crowds and the atmosphere as an excuse to cause problems. For the rest, they are angry. As they should be. And it is their constitutional right as American citizens to say so.

[LoveToRow]

Originally Posted by designer_genes

Oh dear lord. I went to the Farmer's Market this morning and it was absolutely fine. You wouldn't even know anything had happened except for maybe an extra cop or two hanging around.

Seriously people, I think we're being a little hysterical here.

It's almost comical to me that when things like this happen that should elicit broader conversations about race relations and justice in America, all people can do is whine about the effect on their commute and that they couldn't get to the Whole Foods downtown to buy their kale chips yesterday. Talk about first world problems.

All things considered, these protests were actually very peaceful. I am not condoning any violence or law breaking that went on, but it was a small minority of the folks out there that were making trouble and ruining it for everyone. And very often, those individuals aren't actually a part of whatever cause people are out there for - they just use the crowds and the atmosphere as an excuse to cause problems. For the rest, they are angry. As they should be. And it is their constitutional right as American citizens to say so.

You're not condoning violence or law breaking, but you are making excuses for it.