Dead Zone II

Related: Dead Zone 

Ground zero is Baltimore:

"National Guard activated as violence shakes Baltimore; Rioting erupts after funeral; National Guard activated; curfew imposed" by Sheryl Gay Stolberg New York Times  April 28, 2015

BALTIMORE — Maryland’s governor activated the National Guard on Monday and the city of Baltimore announced a curfew for all residents as a turbulent day that began with the funeral of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, the nation’s latest symbol of police brutality, ended with rioting by rock-throwing youths, arson, looting, and at least 15 police officers injured.

Well, be it contrived provocations by agents as suspected or not, the coming martial law based on racial division appears to be coming true.

The violence that shook the city broke out in the late afternoon in the Mondawmin neighborhood of Northwest Baltimore, where Gray’s funeral had taken place. Angry residents threw bottles, rocks, and chunks of concrete at officers who lined up in riot gear with shields deployed. Cars were set on fire, store windows were shattered, a CVS drugstore was looted, and the cafe inside a century-old Italian deli was destroyed.

Again, if not provoked by agents with people joining in it signals massive unhappiness all around in a society with a growing economy and all that other good stuff. 

By nighttime, the chaos seemed to be competing with a push for calm. Looters pulled junk food from convenience stores within a few blocks of police in riot gear and cars that had been set ablaze. At the same time, young men in black T-shirts from a local antiviolence group urged their neighbors to go back inside. A large fire burned in east Baltimore, consuming a partly built development project of the Southern Baptist Church that was to include housing for the elderly. Authorities did not say immediately if the fire and earlier violence were connected.

Governor Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency, and the Maryland State Police, who took command of the response, said they would ask for 5,000 law enforcement officials from the mid-Atlantic region to help quell the violence. Some National Guard units were to arrive Monday night, with others deploying on Tuesday in armored Humvees.

The baseball game got cancelled :-(

In Washington, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, on her first day on the job, briefed President Obama, who in turn called Hogan. The governor said Obama urged him to have law enforcement officers exercise restraint, and he assured the president they would. “But,” Hogan added, “I assured him we weren’t going to stand by and allow our city of Baltimore to be taken over by thugs.”

Unless they are the guys in the riot gear with shields or certain organi$ed crime rackets.

City officials said schools would be closed Tuesday for the safety of children.

Who will then be used as cannon fodder after being lied into more wars.

At City Hall, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, sounding exhausted and exasperated after days of appealing for calm, announced that a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew would be imposed for a week beginning Tuesday. The city already has a curfew for juveniles under age 17.

“Too many people have spent generations building up this city for it to be destroyed by thugs,” she said. “I’m at a loss for words. It is idiotic to think that by destroying your city that you’re going to make life better for anybody.” The police said that at least 27 people had been arrested.

Oh, I agree. Destroying property, you can count me out!

The police said early in the day that they had received a “credible threat” that members of various gangs had “entered into a partnership to ‘take out’ law enforcement officers.” But officers kept a low profile in the neighborhood during the Gray funeral. The police also said that a flier circulated on social media called for a period of violence Monday afternoon to begin at the Mondawmin Mall and move toward City Hall downtown.

Gee, who would want to put that out and I'm sorry, I'm not buying that paragraph.

Warned by the police of possible violence, the University of Maryland campus in downtown Baltimore closed early, as did the mall. The Baltimore Orioles postponed their home game against the Chicago White Sox. The Baltimore police vowed the authorities would take “appropriate measures” to keep officers and the neighborhood safe. Fifteen police officers were injured, some with broken bones, and one was unresponsive, according to the department. 

Poor cops, and see how the talk has SHIFTED from Freddie Gray with the BROKEN NECK to RIOTS! And..... WHO BENEFITS from the MA$$ MEDIA SHIFT?

Pastor Jamal Bryant, who delivered Gray’s eulogy, came back to the neighborhood after the burial Monday afternoon to appeal for calm. He said he would send teams of men from his church, the Empowerment Temple, to help keep the peace.

“This is not what the family asked for, today of all days,” Bryant said. “For us to come out of the burial and walk into this is absolutely inexcusable.” He said he was “asking every young person to go back home,” adding, “it’s frustration, anger and it’s disrespect for the family.”

Gray’s death on April 19, a week after sustaining a spinal cord injury while in police custody, has opened a deep wound in this majority-black city, where Rawlings-Blake and Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts — both of whom are black — have struggled to reform a police department that has a history of aggressive, sometimes brutal, treatment of black men.

Gray was chased and restrained by police on bicycles at the Gilmor Homes on the morning of April 12; a cellphone video of his arrest showed him being dragged into a police transport van, seemingly limp and screaming in pain. The police have acknowledged that he should have received medical treatment immediately at the scene of the arrest and have also said that he rode in the van unbuckled.

After his arrival at the police station, medics rushed him to the hospital, where he slipped into a coma and died. His family has said that 80 percent of his spinal cord was severed, and his larynx was crushed.

Use your investigative capacities as a human being: They put the guy in a choke hold and broke him.

The death spawned a week of protests that had been largely peaceful until Saturday night, when demonstrators scuffled with officers in riot gear outside Camden Yards, the baseball park. Authorities attributed the scattered violence that night to outsiders who, Rawlings-Blake said, “were inciting,” with “ ‘Go out there and shut this city down’ kind of messaging.”

I wonder who they were.

But the violence Monday was much more devastating and profound, a blow for a city whose leaders had been hoping Gray’s funeral would show the nation its more peaceful side. At the New Shiloh Baptist Church, Gray lay in an open white coffin, in a white shirt and tie, with a pillow bearing a picture of him in a red T-shirt, against a backdrop of a blue sky and doves, with the message “Peace y’all.”

But as the day went on, the mood changed. The violence appears to have begun inside the Mondawmin Mall. Erica Ellis, 23, who works in a Game Stop store there, said the mall was shut down at 2 p.m., not long after Gray’s funeral cortège left for his burial.

She said she went outside and saw a line of police officers and hundreds of young people who started throwing rocks and bricks. But police did not respond immediately, she said. “The police officers were trying as hard as they can not to hurt the people’s children,” she said.

At the corner of North Fulton and West North avenues, looters could be seen breaking into stores and walking out with cases of food and water while hundreds of police officers in riot gear gathered about four blocks away.

My feeling is that looting is for bankers, on general principles. Don't degrade yourself.

When a pair of police cruisers tried to enter the area, young men threw bottles. Several of the men wore surgical masks. Some carried baseball bats, others carried pipes. While several people held signs that read “Stop the war,” protesting peacefully, the rising chaos surrounded them: a broken-down BMW sat empty in the middle of the street, shards of glass from convenience store windows lay on the pavement, and a young man carrying bolt cutters walked by.

Residents looked on aghast. Not far from the Gilmor Homes, Chris Malloy said he was angry at the police and the looters — all at once.

“All they had to do was march, but they did this,” he said, sounding disgusted, as the CVS store burned nearby. “You can take stuff out of the store, but why do you have to burn it down?”

Maybe they saw the size of the paycheck.

--more--"

"Somber protest held outside Baltimore wake for Freddie Gray" by Jessica Gresko Associated Press  April 27, 2015

BALTIMORE — Mourners filed for hours Sunday past the casket the man who died after sustaining serious injuries in the custody of Baltimore police, somberly paying respects after a night of violent protests.

Throughout Sunday afternoon, a steady stream of people entered the Vaughn Green East funeral home for a wake for Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old black man who died a week after an encounter with police left him with grave spinal injuries.

Then he must have been a beloved man, and I can only wish we could all be so blessed in death.

Mourners also gathered outside. Some held up signs that read, ‘‘We remember Freddie’’ and ‘‘Our Hearts Are With the Gray Family.’’

A number of mourners like Tina Covington, 46, said they didn’t know the family but came to express their condolences. Covington said she has a son near Freddie Gray’s age.

‘‘It hits home. . . . It’s a reality check,’’ Covington said.

The comments came after some Baltimore protesters smashed out police car windows and storefronts on Saturday.

At a service earlier Sunday at Empowerment Temple AME Church, pastor Jamal Bryant told churchgoers, including members of Gray’s family, that ‘‘somebody is going to have to pay’’ for the young man’s death.

Oh, he's the one who incited things -- and then tried to calm them down!

Gray died April 19, one week after police officers chased him through a West Baltimore neighborhood and dragged him into a police van.

Bryant told churchgoers that if ‘‘you’re black in America, your life is always under threat.” Bryant also talked about the violence that erupted Saturday night during what began as a peaceful demonstration attended by more than a thousand people.

According to the Baltimore Police Department, 34 people were arrested and six police officers sustained minor injuries.

Representative Elijah Cummings, who represents Baltimore’s Seventh District, told CBS’s ‘‘Face the Nation’’ on Sunday that there is deep frustration over the case.

‘‘Mr. Gray died a week ago. And I think the thing that upset so many people was the fact that here’s a young man. We still don’t know exactly why he was arrested,’’ Cummings said. ‘‘We do know that he was hollering out for aid. He was not given aid after being arrested. . . . A lot of people are very, very frustrated as to trying to figure out what happened here, and it’s very upsetting.’’

Police acknowledged Friday that Gray should have received medical attention at the spot where he was arrested — before he was put inside a police transport van handcuffed and without a seat belt, a violation of the Police Department’s policy.

Authorities have not explained how or when Gray’s spine was injured.

I think I did. Seems pretty obvious.

--more--"

"Peaceful protest march dissolves into vandalism, arrests in Md." by Sheryl Gay Stolberg New York Times   April 26, 2015

BALTIMORE — A largely peaceful protest over the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who suffered a spinal cord injury in police custody, gave way to scattered scenes of chaos Saturday night as demonstrators smashed a downtown storefront window and damaged police cruisers, while officers broke up skirmishes and made arrests near Camden Yards.

Hours earlier, a racially diverse and mostly calm crowd of demonstrators marched through the streets, clogging intersections, carrying signs, and shouting, “All night, all day, we’re gonna fight for Freddie Gray!” Some had come from New York and Ferguson, Mo., and local authorities had warned against “outside agitators’’ coming to stir up trouble.

I actually agree with them. To whose advantage?

The demonstrators traveled from West Baltimore, from the squat brick public housing development where Gray was arrested April 12, through the downtown harborfront, before massing on a plaza at City Hall, where one of the speakers told the crowd he would release them in an hour, adding: “Shut it down if you want to! Shut it down!”

Daily protests have swept across the city since Gray died last Sunday, but Saturday’s turnout was among the largest.

Related:

"Until Friday, efforts to pinpoint how and when Mr. Gray was injured had focused on what happened inside the van, with a lawyer for the officers involved playing down the suggestion, based on the cellphone video, that Mr. Gray had been hurt before he was placed inside. The police have acknowledged gaps in the timeline involving three stops made by the van. According to Police Department accounts, at the first stop, officers placed leg bars on Mr. Gray, who they said had become irate; the second stop was made to pick up another arrestee. At the third, Mr. Gray had to be picked up off the floor. Mr. Gray’s family said that his spinal cord had been 80 percent severed, and that his voice box had been crushed."

As well as the part "in the video where he can be heard asking for assistance while being on the ground and screaming while being dragged to the police van," being called a “rough ride.” Whole lot of worthwhile print surrounding it but that is a much as I was going to draw. I'm going to let the update roll instead.

The trouble began when a group of protesters, as many as 100 by some accounts, split from the main group near the end of the protest and went on a rampage — throwing cans, bottles, and trash cans at police officers and breaking windows in some businesses. As the breakaway group reached Camden Yards, where the Baltimore Orioles played the Boston Red Sox on Saturday night, they were met by police officers in riot gear.

There were reports of damage to some cars parked at the baseball stadium. As the game went into extra innings, the public address system initially warned spectators not to leave the ballpark because of the nearby violence.

As protesters blocked the corner of Pratt and Light streets, a major downtown intersection, the police urged demonstrators to remain peaceful. Its Twitter feed reported “isolated pockets of people from out of town causing disturbances downtown.’’

The police said people were throwing items at officers and several of their cars had been damaged. The Associated Press reported two people were injured in the disturbance and about a dozen were arrested.

The department spokesman, Captain J. Eric Kowalczyk, told a television station the police were determined to protect the protesters’ rights to “peaceful expression,’’ adding, “Our strategy from the beginning has been to make sure that people have the opportunity to voice that frustration that they’re feeling.’’

The main protest drew a racially diverse crowd. Organizers included the New Black Panther Party, the World Socialist Party, and the Peoples Power Assemblies. There were also scores of college students among the several thousand who joined the march, along with children and seniors.

A people's protest?

“I want outside people to come in,” Carron Morgan, 18, a first cousin of Gray, said as he watched people gather Saturday afternoon at the Gilmor Homes to listen to the first of the day’s speeches. “But I want them to understand that we don’t want to harm any police officers. We just want justice.” Morgan, a student at Baltimore City Community College, said he had helped plan the protest. Asked what he expected from it, he said: “I just hope that before the funeral, the state and the federal government step up and bring these police to justice.”

I wouldn't be counting on that. We've seen this movie before.

The funeral for Gray, 25, is scheduled for Monday.

On Friday, the Baltimore police commissioner said his officers should have sought medical attention for Gray much sooner than they did, but that admission, the first from police officials, was not enough to satisfy the protesters. They continued their demands for the firing of six officers involved in Gray’s arrest and the resignation of the commissioner, Anthony W. Batts.

The six officers were suspended with pay while the Baltimore Police Department carries out a criminal investigation. The Justice Department also is reviewing the case for possible civil rights violations. Gray’s family has hired a third party to conduct an independent investigation.

In her first public comments since Gray’s death, his twin sister, Fredricka, appealed for calm as she appeared with the mayor at a conference Saturday night.

‘‘My family wants to say, can you all please, please stop the violence?’’ she said. ‘‘Freddie Gray would not want this. ... Violence does not get justice.’’

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Also see: Freddie Gray’s sister calls for peace after violent protests

What started all this?

"Police lapse cited in Baltimore death" Associated Press  April 25, 2015

BALTIMORE — Freddie Gray should have received medical attention at the spot where he was arrested — before he was put inside a police van, authorities said Friday.

Baltimore police have come under intense scrutiny after Gray was taken into custody and suffered an unexplained spinal injury that led to his death. Six officers have been suspended with pay as local police and federal authorities investigate.

Commissioner Anthony Batts said the investigation is being refined and the picture is getting ‘‘sharper and sharper.’’ He did not elaborate.

As for calls for his resignation, he said: ‘‘That’s not going to happen.’’

Then maybe he should be fired.

Deputy police commissioner Kevin Davis said Friday that Gray should have received medical attention at the spot of his arrest. Bystander video shows Gray screaming as officers carried him to a van, his legs appearing limp.

After a week of protests, people angry over the death promised their biggest march Saturday, when they would try to ‘‘shut down’’ the city.

They appear leaderless. 

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The resurrection of Occupy?

Don't worry, the authorities are investigating:

"US will investigate death of Baltimore suspect; Family hopeful more scrutiny provides answers" by Peter Hermann and Lynh Bui Washington Post  April 22, 2015

BALTIMORE — The Justice Department said on Tuesday that it will conduct a civil rights investigation into how a 25-year-old man suffered a severe spinal injury while in the custody of Baltimore city police officers and later died.

The federal probe comes one day after the city’s mayor and police commissioner promised to wrap up their own investigation into Freddie Gray’s death by May 1 and allow prosecutors to decide whether criminal charges are warranted. The two investigations can run simultaneously.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said in a statement that she welcomes the additional scrutiny to help ‘‘get answers to the questions so many of us are still asking’’ about the case. ‘‘Any effort that adds additional transparency and builds community trust in this process is welcomed,’’ she said in the statement.

Will it really do that? The cover up will work?

Dena Iverson, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said in a statement that federal officials have been ‘‘monitoring the developments in Baltimore’’ and that it ‘‘opened this matter and is gathering information to determine whether any prosecutable civil rights violations occurred.’’

Gray died in a hospital Sunday after lapsing into a coma. Police have said they are not yet sure whether Gray was injured during his arrest or while he was in the back of a police van. Officials have said the officers involved have denied using force during or after the arrest. Six city police officers have been suspended during the investigation.

Gray’s cousin, Carron Morgan, 18, said the family welcomed federal investigators. ‘‘It should get us some answers,’’ he said as friends and relatives prepared for a candlelight vigil Tuesday. ‘‘The people are highly upset because of how police treat us around here and how . . . Freddie died.’’

Residents in West Baltimore remained angry but calm Tuesday. Several hundred protesters took to the streets, but there were no violent incidents. A large group of protesters gathered at the Gilmor Homes, where Gray was arrested, and at the nearby Western District police station, confronting and shouting down officers.

Police, meanwhile, handed out fliers asking any witnesses to Gray’s April 12 arrest to come forward.

Some residents and council members have complained police have been too slow to release information and fell short at a news conference Monday, when they could not explain how Gray sustained injuries.

On Tuesday, Maryland’s two senators and three members of Congress cosigned a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder urging him to help ‘‘to restore public confidence in the Baltimore Police Department.’’

Representative Dutch Ruppersberger, Democrat of Maryland, said that ‘‘not only does Freddie Gray’s family have a right to know the facts, so does the public.’’

Representative Elijah Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, who has lived in West Baltimore for 33 years, said the country is ‘‘at a critical moment where the public has a tremendous distrust for the police’’ and an independent probe is needed for credibility.

This is all damage control by authority.

Cummings said he is most angry with police officers who he believes are either remaining silent or not telling the truth. ‘‘Somebody in that group of policemen knows what happened,’’ he said. ‘‘I do not believe they have the right to remain silent about how this gentleman was so severely injured that he died.’’

Cummings said he backs police when they urge reluctant witnesses to help solve crimes, ‘‘and now I am asking one of these police officers to come forward and tell us what happened.”

The Justice Department also launched civil rights investigations into the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and the chokehold death of Eric Garner in Staten Island, N.Y. Those cases have come to symbolize growing distrust and tension between law enforcement and African-American communities.

It's not just African-American, it's all of us and I resent the racial wedge being applied.

In Brown’s case, federal authorities declined to prosecute officer Darren Wilson. They ruled the shooting justified, but offered a scathing review of the police.

And yet the media got everyone all worked up.

Related: Michael Brown’s parents sue over son’s death

The ‘‘narrative is the same,’’ and ‘‘it’s all part of the journey.’’ Weird thing to say.

The Ferguson department, they said, exhibited bias practices aimed at arresting residents to generate revenue. The Justice Department’s report on Garner’s death has not yet been released.

The Justice Department already is conducting a review of the Baltimore Police Department’s practices after the mayor and police commissioner invited the agency in last fall. Officials were concerned with a high number of settlements in lawsuits alleging police abuse or unjustified arrests.

Baltimore police have acknowledged that Gray suffered a severe spinal injury but have said they do not know how it happened.

A cellphone video from a bystander shows officers on top of Gray and then dragging what appears to be his limp body to a van used to take detainees to holding cells.

--more--"

The suspensions are like a paid vacation:

"Volunteer deputy charged in shooting plans vacation" by Justin Juozapavicius Associated Press  April 22, 2015

TULSA, Okla. — A 73-year-old volunteer sheriff’s deputy plans to vacation in the Bahamas while facing a second-degree manslaughter charge in Oklahoma, his attorneys told a judge Tuesday, drawing immediate criticism from the family of the man he killed.

Robert Bates pleaded not guilty during the hearing in Tulsa district court. The former insurance executive has said he confused his handgun for a stun gun when he shot Eric Harris after the suspect ran during a sting investigation involving gun sales.

Bates’s lawyers told the judge that Bates, a reserve deputy with the Tulsa County sheriff’s office, and his family planned to take their previously planned vacation ahead of his next court date in July.

Harris’s family criticized the trip, saying it sends a message ‘‘of apathy with respect to the shooting and Eric’s life.’’

Bates was charged after the sheriff’s office released video of the shooting, in which he is overheard apologizing for shooting the suspect.

Harris’s family has questioned whether Bates was qualified to conduct police work. Their attorneys allege that the Tulsa County sheriff’s office violated several of its own policies by not keeping a permanent record of Bates’s certifications and allowing him to carry his personal handgun after training on another weapon.

Sheriff Stanley Glanz said Bates — his longtime insurance agent and former campaign manager — had been properly trained and passed annual firearms certifications required by the state.

And even if he had not, friend/sheriff waved 'em. 

--more--"

Going on vacation, which is where the coverage will also be going (sorry).

Ex-deputy with Lou Gehrig’s disease not guilty in killings
Arizona sheriff describes investigation into judge’s wife

"Police sent to prison for using Taser on disabled woman" Associated Press  April 28, 2015

COLUMBIA, S.C. — One small-town South Carolina police officer was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison, and a second to a year and a day for unnecessarily shocking a mentally disabled woman with a Taser at least eight times.

Officer Franklin Brown of Marion received the longer sentence because he shocked 40-year-old Melissa Davis after she had been handcuffed in April 2013. The other Marion officer, Eric Walters, stopped Davis early one morning to see whether she had broken into a home. Neither Walters nor other officers have explained how the incident escalated so quickly.

Davis was in court but began sobbing as Walters apologized, and was escorted out by her family.

Federal judge Bryan Carwell said the two officers through one bad action ruined the good work of thousands of honest officers.

The officers shocked Davis without giving her time to follow their orders, federal prosecutors said. Walters and Brown pleaded guilty in October to deprivation of rights.

After Walters Tasered Davis, he determined she did nothing wrong and was removing the Taser probes from her back. But Brown noticed one of Davis’s hands had slipped from her improperly applied handcuffs and ordered everyone to move away and shocked Davis again, even though she was not trying to fight or escape, according to court papers.

Davis has filed a civil suit seeking a minimum of nearly $2 million.

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While down in South Carolina, it looks like disinfo is misinfo. Either that or they just made a mistake, and that is certainly possible. I'm not perfect and am sure I've been wrong in the past. Life is a never-ending process of learning, and when you think you know it all that is when you do not. You need to do your own research and decide for yourself. I can offer you my opinion, guidance, and analysis but you need to decide for yourself what you think is the truth.

Time to bring it all back home:

"Neighbors said they had seen people coming in and out of the house at all times of the night. “Over the summer, a really shady guy moved in and changed the atmosphere of the building,” said K.B., 44, who provided only her initials because of the nature of the incident. The former longtime tenant moved out of her unit in the fall. “That pushed me to run instead of walk out of the door,” she said. “The building became loud and obnoxious.” K.B. said the building was once peaceful but that changed when people began visiting the house at 3 and 4 a.m. Police have increased patrols, but across the street from the shooting scene a small sign nailed to a utility pole reads, “This is a D.A.R.E. to resist drugs and violence community.” 

When they are coming at 3 and 4 in the morning, yeah, drug house. 

Man eludes State Police after two-hour search
Man barricaded in office at Fuller mental health center
Boston police arrest 3 after chase, recover gun in Mattapan
Boston officer injured during violent struggle with suspect
Boston officer placed on desk duty after shots fired

Drunk cop didn't shoot.

Fact is you are probably better off not calling the police because it's always a wrong number.

"Forum in Roxbury looks at police, community ties" by Jeremy C. Fox Globe Correspondent  April 17, 2015

Members of Boston’s African-American community called for an end to what they described as a double standard, with one set of rules for police officers and a second set for citizens, during a meeting with law enforcement officials Thursday evening in Roxbury.

I don't think be trained by Israelis is helping. We are all Palestinians now.

Police departments should be more diverse and have more inclusive cultures, and the public should have greater oversight of police use of force, said those gathered at a town hall meeting at the Dudley Square branch library. 

See: Boston Police oversight panel needs more independence

The event was organized by Jamarhl Crawford, an activist and publisher of the Blackstonian online community newspaper, to address longstanding concerns about policing within Boston’s communities of color.

Dorchester resident Terrance Williams said he had experienced police abuse of power as a young man living in Mission Hill during the 1989 investigation of the murder of Carol Stuart, whose husband, Charles, had claimed she was killed by a black gunman. It was later revealed that Charles Stuart had killed his wife.

“Now, where there’s a crime that’s in the neighborhood, the cops want you to testify against your brother, your sister, your uncle, or whoever it is,” Williams, 46, said. “But they [police] won’t want to testify against somebody who they’re riding along with, even though they know it’s wrong.”

Thursday’s meeting came amid heightened attention to relationships between police and communities of color, following recent high-profile killings of several unarmed black men by law enforcement officers in the United States.

**********

Louis Elisa, a former president of Boston’s NAACP, expressed frustration that little has changed despite decades of efforts. Elisa, 65, called for more black officers at the highest ranks of the Police Department and gang and narcotics units.

“It’s a big difference between being in a community where you feel like the police are there to protect you or that they’re there to occupy you,” he said....  

They are, as mentioned above.

Dianne Wilkerson, a former Massachusetts state senator, said that in the past, it has often taken judicial action, rather than just good will, to bring about change....

Why should we take the word of a crook?

Some at the forum, attended by more than 200 people, suggested that those within the community who take a combative approach to relations with police can make tense situations more difficult....

That has been noted before.

--more--"

Related: Boston Youth Peace Conference to discuss hot issues of the day

Brookline officer pulls over driver, helps to deliver baby

N.Y. police chief says tension has eased

Ever since the assassinations!

The other side:

"James Best, 88; actor was sheriff in ‘Dukes of Hazzard’

RALEIGH, N.C. — James Best, a prolific character actor born in Kentucky and best known for playing the giggling and inept Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on ‘‘The Dukes of Hazzard,’’ died April 6 at age 88.

His wife of 29 years, Dorothy, said Mr. Best died in hospice care in Hickory from complications of pneumonia.

Mr. Best starred on the television series that ran from 1979 to 1985. He was the lawman futilely chasing the Duke cousins, often in the company of his droopy-faced basset hound Flash. Mr. Best employed a battery of catch phrases in the role, as well as memorable laugh that was comically villainous.

‘‘I acted the part as good as I could,’’ Mr. Best told The Charlotte Observer in a 2009 interview. ‘‘Rosco, let’s face it, was a charmer. It was a fun thing.’’

He also acted in movies including ‘‘The Caine Mutiny’’ and ‘‘Rolling Thunder,’’ and he appeared on ‘‘Gunsmoke’’ and ‘‘The Andy Griffith Show.’’

--more--"

Time to take the Stand:

"In 2011, after a professional lifetime of scholarly writing, Mr. Steinbruner wrote his first novel, ‘‘The Secular Monastery,’’ which was self-published. The story was about a professor who is asked by the president to investigate what appears to be a terrorist attack on a government laboratory that was using a smallpox virus in controversial experiments."

Truth is stranger than fiction:

"Irwin Schatz, 83; rare critic of Tuskegee study" by Sam Roberts New York Times  April 24, 2015

NEW YORK — Nobody knows how many people read the December 1964 issue of the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, but apparently only one, Dr. Irwin Schatz, was so appalled by one of its articles, about a syphilis experiment using uneducated black men in Tuskegee, Ala., that he wrote the study’s author to protest.

“I couldn’t believe what I had read,” Dr. Schatz, who died April 1, wrote in an e-mail in 2013 to Civil Beat, an online newsletter in Hawaii, where he had moved to teach. “But the message was unmistakable.”

“These researchers had deliberately withheld treatment for this group of poor, uneducated, black sharecroppers,” he added, “in order to document what eventually might happen to them. I became incensed. How could physicians, who were trained first and foremost to do no harm, deliberately withhold curative treatment so they could understand the natural history of syphilis?”

That would give me misgivings about getting some. At least they didn't sterilize them. Or feed them radioactive oatmeal.

*********************

No one ever responded to Dr. Schatz’s letter, written in 1965, but its discovery in 1972 helped frame a national debate over patients’ rights that generated new standards for research involving human subjects.

The Tuskegee clinical study had been conducted by the US Public Health Service since 1932 to reach underserved black rural populations. But it was not widely known outside the scientific community.

We are from the government and we are here to help.

In 1972, on the basis of information from Peter Buxtun, a health service interviewer turned whistle-blower, the study was revealed by The Washington Star. Dr. Schatz’s letter was found by The Wall Street Journal in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

Of the 600 men enrolled in the study, about two-thirds had already contracted syphilis. All were told that they had “bad blood,” but none were given penicillin, even after it became a proven treatment for the disease in the 1940s.

The study raised questions not only about denial of treatment but also about racial discrimination and morality in the aftermath of medical experiments by the Nazis during World War II.

The letter was passed to a coauthor, Dr. Anne R. Yobs of the Centers for Disease Control, who wrote in a memo to her bosses: “This is the first letter of this type we have received. I do not plan to answer this letter.”

In 2009, the Mayo Clinic recognized Dr. Schatz with a Distinguished Alumni Award. A nominating letter praised his courage because “criticizing an investigation which was overseen by some of the leading figures in the American Public Health Service was an action that was, to say the very least, potentially harmful to his career.”

Irwin Jacob Schatz was born in St. Boniface, Manitoba, in 1931. His parents ran a kosher-style restaurant in Winnipeg....

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NDUs:

"Troops and marchers fill streets of Baltimore; Citizens clean up after looting; Obama rebukes use of violence" by Sheryl Gay Stolberg New York Times  April 29, 2015

BALTIMORE — Armored vehicles lined this battered city’s main thoroughfares and thousands of law enforcement officers and National Guard troops poured in to maintain order Tuesday, while residents toting brooms and trash bags turned out in droves to help keep the peace and clear broken glass and debris from a night of rioting and arson.

As a citywide curfew went into effect at 10 p.m., hundreds of people remained in the streets of Northwest Baltimore as religious leaders urged crowds to go home.

Not to impugn the high quality content and morality of religious leaders(??), but long ago there were rumblings regarding the government using them as contact groups to control the people during upheaval. Preach to the flock, obey the government. 

I'm not endorsing looting or violence of any kind, far from it (more on that later), but these frauds should be outed. Church leaders -- we have found -- are just as corrupt as all the rest. 

There were scattered reports of arrests; a group hurled rocks and bricks at police. The mood seemed tense, and many people, upset over the curfew, did not want to go home.

I can understand that. Doesn't feel like freedom, first off (clue: it isn't; it's the exact opposite and what "we" criticize enemies for). Second thing is I see all the commotion being caused by a few agent provocateurs, it's a playbook we have seen since the 1960s if not before, and its old. Remember, it was not long ago that antiwar groups were being infiltrated and spied on.

Earlier Tuesday, demonstrators marched through the streets, chanting, “All night, all day, we’re gonna fight for Freddie Gray!” — a reference to the 25-year-old black man whose death, from a spinal cord injury sustained in police custody, set off the unrest. As the group made its way downtown, it was noisy, but peaceful.

That's another thing you need to look at: the propaganda pre$$ coverage. Is it sympathetic? I like to compare two groups, the agenda-pushing fondness for gays, immigrants, global-warmers, and coup-supporting critics of enemies, and the coverage doled out to Occupy and antiwar crowds (insulting when covered if at all). Tells you a lot about where the protests themselves or the commotion -- re: violence -- is coming from. 

On Tuesday night nearly 1,000 people gathered at the Empowerment Temple AME Church, where about 500 religious leaders of different faiths called for healing. Members of the audience spoke about a litany of problems plaguing the city and called for better policing, policies to create jobs, and better schools.

I hear all that, wonder how it can be true with an economic recovery underway and the wealthy lavishing their love on us all. 

Throughout the day, people of all ages and races — growing to a crowd of more than 500 people — had converged at the intersection of Pennsylvania and West North avenues in blighted West Baltimore, where a CVS drugstore had been looted and burned. As rifle-toting officers in riot gear blocked the street, a group of men formed a human chain, putting themselves between officers and some angry young people.

Okay, I can understand that. I was, too, as a youth. Heck, I was angry when I began blogging and now I'm a jaded old man. I hardly print a swear anymore, and no colorful metaphors and diatribes as in the past.

What I'd rather focus on is the all ages and races. Sort of runs contrary to the overall tone of division coming from the jew$paper.

At one point, the crowd sang “Amazing Grace.” But tensions did flare briefly, when someone in the crowd threw bottles at the line of police officers.

What you do, if you are around them, is grab them and call 'em out! Yell, I got 'em, I got 'em. Chances are he will be government agent or police. Same if you were to attend, say, a baseball game and someone threw something onto the field. The crowd all points at the a-hole.

“It’s sad, this don’t make no sense,” said Clarence Cobb, 48, one of many neighborhood residents who, describing themselves as brokenhearted, came out to survey the wreckage and clean up. “It comes to a point where you just got to take pride in your own neighborhood. This makes us look real bad as a city.”

And WHO benefits?

Debate erupted over whether Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake had waited too long to ask Governor Larry Hogan to send in the National Guard — and whether the city police, who confessed to being outnumbered and outflanked a day earlier, were underprepared.

Yeah, the poor overarmed cops were under threat, gotcha.

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With schools closed and camouflage-clad National Guard members patrolling the streets, Baltimore struggled Tuesday to find some sense of normalcy.

Now pushing the everything getting back to normal $tatu$ quo?

The Baltimore Orioles, forced by the unrest to cancel a game against the Chicago White Sox, announced the teams would play Wednesday at Camden Yards — but without fans, because the ballpark would be closed to the public.

But not private? The corporate sponsors and their owners gonna be in the suites? Will it be on TV?

I have to say the unprecedented situation feels like a martial law to me. They are taking the home games this weekend to Tampa, and this action really turned me against protesters (blog editor firmly plants tongue in cheek).

In Washington, President Obama, making his first public remarks on the crisis here, denounced the rioters as “criminals and thugs” and said there was no excuse for the violence.

I'm not endorsing the looting or rioting at all; however, this guy is really not the person to be saying such things. I mean, violence isn't the answer unless he's waging wars overseas, and as for those criminals and thugs, how about heading on up to Wall Street to see real looting in action instead of taking a kickback payoff called a law enforcement fine. After six-plus years, this guys act has grown real stale, although he's a perfect pairing with the Ray Lewis rant. Unbelievable that a guy who got away with murder and whose reputation was delivering devastatingly violent hits on the football field is preaching to the kids. Violence is not the answer! Now please, a moment of silence for the war machine before kickoff. Thank you.

He sought to distinguish it from the largely peaceful demonstrations that have unfolded since Gray died on April 19. Speaking in the Rose Garden, Obama said he understood people “want answers,’’ and that the Justice Department was working with local law enforcement to find out what happened to Gray.

Yuh-huh.

But, he said, “When individuals get crowbars and start prying open doors to loot, they’re not protesting, they’re not making a statement — they’re stealing. When they burn down a building, they’re committing arson.”

Okay. 

Of course, when it is some mud hut in the hills of Pakistan or Afghanistan, or some desert squat in Yemen, it's let the U.S.-supplied or directed airstrikes go. Not called arson, although I'm sure the whoosh-bang results in same. 

As for the looting bit, my comments above stand. I suppose it is okay if you devise faulty financial products, bet against them to your own benefit while advising clients to buy, cleaned up on both ends with big bonuses and the seizing of fraudulently foreclosed-upon homes, and then had to pay back a pittance while avoiding criminal charges is not technically looting. 

Have you seen Paulson's palace, btw? How would you like to be buried there, huh?

The police had begun gearing up for the violence Monday afternoon after word spread across social media of a call for high school students to “purge” — an apparent reference to the 2013 action horror movie “The Purge,” whose plot revolves around one night a year when crime is legal and police, fire, and medical emergency services are unavailable.

They tried to fly in help to no avail.

The police said Tuesday that what they expected to be a demonstration by high school students had quickly evolved; Gray’s death set off a string of peaceful protests, although a march downtown did spark scattered violence Saturday night. But it renewed long-simmering tensions between residents of this majority black city and a police department that has a history of aggressive, sometimes brutal, behavior."

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Related: The Baltimore Riots: The Stunning Comments By Orioles Owner's Son

Also see: Woman grazed by bullet in Roxbury

Wasn't a cop that fired.... was it?

UPDATE:

"12 Unanswered Questions About The Baltimore Riots That They Don’t Want Us To Ask
By Michael Snyder, on April 28th, 2015 Why did the Baltimore riots seem like they were perfectly staged to be a television event?  Images of police vehicles burning made for great television all over the planet, but why were there abandoned police vehicles sitting right in the middle of the riot zones without any police officers around them in the first place?  Why was the decision made ahead of time to set a curfew for Tuesday night and not for Monday night?  And why are Baltimore police officers claiming that they were ordered to “stand down” and not intervene as dozens of shops, businesses and homes went up in flames?  Yes, the anger over the death of Freddie Gray is very real.  Police brutality has been a major problem in Baltimore and much of the rest of the nation for many years.  But could it be possible that the anger that the people of Baltimore are feeling is being channeled and manipulated for other purposes?  The following are 12 unanswered questions about the Baltimore riots that they don’t want us to ask…

#1 Why are dozens of social media accounts that were linked to violence in Ferguson now trying to stir up violence in Baltimore?…

#2 Who was behind the aggressive social media campaign to organize a “purge” that would start at the Mondawmin Mall at precisely 3 PM on Monday afternoon?…

#3 Even though authorities had “credible intelligence” that gangs would be specifically targeting police officers on Monday, why weren’t they more prepared?  On Tuesday, the captain of the Baltimore police tried to make us believe that they weren’t prepared because they were only anticipating a confrontation with “high schoolers”…

#4 Where were the Baltimore police on Monday afternoon when the riots exploded?  During the rioting, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said that the “disappearance of the police for hours this afternoon is something that is going to haunt this city for decades”.

#5 Why are police officers in Baltimore claiming that they were instructed to “stand down” during the rioting on Monday afternoon?…

#6 Why was the decision made ahead of time to set a curfew on Tuesday night but not on Monday night?

#7 Why were so many police vehicles conveniently parked along the street in areas where the worst violence happened?  After the destruction of a number of police vehicles on Saturday night, the Baltimore police had to know that they were prime targets.  So why were there even more police vehicles available for rioters to destroy on Monday?  And where were the cops that should have been protecting those vehicles?

#8 Why is an organization funded by George Soros stirring up emotions against the police in Baltimore?

#9 Why is CNN bringing on “commentators” that are promoting violence in Baltimore?…

#10 Why did Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake initially tell reporters that a decision was made on Saturday to give “those who wished to destroy space to do that”?

#11 Why were rioters given hours to cause mayhem before a state of emergency was finally declared on Monday?  Maryland Governor Larry Hogan seems to think that Mayor Rawlings-Blake waited far too long to declare a state of emergency.  Just check out what he told one reporter…

#12 Does the fact that the mayor of Baltimore has very close ties to the Obama administration have anything to do with how events unfolded during the riots?  The following is from Infowars.com

And why did it take Barack Obama several days to publicly condemn the violence in Baltimore?  Why didn’t he stand up and say something on Monday when the riots were at their peak?

Something doesn’t smell right about all of this.  Much of the violence could have been prevented if things had been handled differently.

In the end, who is going to get hurt the most by all of this?  It will be the African-American communities in the heart of Baltimore that are already suffering with extremely high levels of unemployment and poverty.

I wish that we could all just learn to come together and love one another.  Over the past few days, I have seen a whole lot of “us vs. them” talk coming from all quarters.  This kind of talk is only going to reinforce the cycle of mistrust and violence.

Sadly, I believe that this is just the beginning of what is coming to America.  The following are some tweets that show the mayhem and destruction that we have been witnessing in Baltimore the past few days…

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Further answers: 

The Baltimore Riots: HERE Is The Real Truth About These Riots - A Set Up By The Government Themselves! 

Is Freddy Gray a fiction and fraud? Judge the proof for yourself.