You Go Girl!

I was wondering where the parents of these children were also...

If the parents were the ones forming the lines this would have been taken care of in a hurry!

Sorry to see this happening in your city. Sorry to see people who take advantage of tragic situations like this and destroy their own businesses and credibility too. We have had our share of this in Los Angeles and know quite well how bad things can get.

I hate to say it... but we haven't seen anything yet. There is a stew that continues to be stirred.

Hope you're safe Murray

Safe here. We live in the suburbs, Glenn; although I go into the city several times a week on business, as well as for entertainment and dining. Baltimore will be a great city again, and soon. These kids forget that there are cameras everywhere. They'll see the inside of a jail in short order.

I am so sorry for this situation,Murray, and hope it doesn't get worse.
But, for a cop break to break someone's back enough to sever it? C'mon. So terrible. For everybody.Our papers tell of 'rough rides' in police vans , for instance. Things that never occur to law-abiding people.

Murray,

Yes there are cameras everywhere. But there are no consequences of any importance. The greater consequence comes from being busted by a mom or dad who catches them. Unfortunately, they (mom or dad) are "generally" part of the problem, and sometimes not through their own fault. So there is nothing to fear. Mom or Dad will be down to retrieve these youth's the next morning to dust them up to go and terrorize their teachers again. Some social psychiatrist will get them off the hook because conditions created the problem. They are not accountable for their actions.

By the way, when I mentioned a stew brewing, I wasn't meaning just Baltimore. It is in every metropolitan city of the United States. It's just waiting on a flash point. Law and Order is the new villain and victim of cameras everywhere. Much of it is their own fault.

Your Mayor could have handled this much better too.

If it was a white community where cops simply shot or killed in other ways people that were
pulled over without warrants, the riots would have been far worse.

It is like comparing the blood thirsty Europeans for centuries to the smaller uprisings currently in the ME.

Lets not point the figure so fast at the victims. We would be far more angry if it was us. And by the way the cops would
be up on charges immediately. No questions asked.

As for that mother she loves her son, I get it.

Dave

Good for her! I have two sons and if I ever witnessed either participating in something of this sort, I would kick their 6' 5'' buts! No questions asked either!

Nepal....Murray if I might for only one post....

My parents on Sundays sometimes take me to the Taste of India in West Hartford.
Dad loves curry. The restaurant's management and staff are from Nepal.

Last Sunday early in the afternoon dad called ahead to see how the staff were. He was
concerned about them. They love him and know him well. Thankfully none of their
immediate family members died.

We went last Sunday later in the day to eat there. Dad and mom spoke to the owners about
what was happening. Mom said the owners seemed shaken. My parents seemed a little
perplexed. I thought for a moment and compared to Sandy Hook. That shooting a couple of years
ago left Connecticut in tatters for days.

I am on the police's side in that they have a terribly hard job. I know that, but if your community
was struck the anger would be tremendous.

We have had two wars directly out of 911. We have had the Arab Spring indirectly out of 911, and with that
spring we are involved with military action throughout the ME.

We were angry as hell after 911. I knew I could kill for the first time after 911. It was not my family. It was not
my neighborhood. It was my country. I knew I could kill.

Push people they will push back.

Dave

David,

The victim in this case is a mother who has a son that stepped out of line and started destroying her community. The victims of this tragedy are the people in the community who have to try and recover from the madness of a few who stole their cars, trashed their businesses, and destroyed some living places.

It's like burning down your own house because the neighbor did something out of line. Reason is a by-line.

Nepal? 911? Arab Spring? What?

The victim is the African American community. And if it were you Glenn you'd be far more upset than they are.

Dave

.

Hats off to that mother. She has been hashtagged as #momoftheyear" all over the internet but no one still knows who she is as of this morning. I would react the same way at least with some ear pulling thrown in for good measure.

While some blame the parents for the way these kids are behaving and I agree to a point, the bigger influence is mob mentality. There comes a point in a teenager's life when they willfully ignore any moral teachings the parents have instilled and make (usually bad) decisions without parental input in the false belief that they are adults now. Even though we can't clearly see the boy's face, we can certainly see the mom's-he won't be living that down any time soon.

I heard on our local news that the police are getting ready for the May day march. This is in the Seattle area. Usually when something like what's going on now happens, the Emerald City behaves less like a gem and more like shameful display of riots and marches. The last time; which was only a few months ago, they chanted, "Put away your gear, there's no riot here." Not true.They blocked freeways and some rioting did happen. 

There is a cancer in our country called entilism and that garbage thinking needs to end. The end starts in the beginning with the parents at home. Training from birth that you have to work for what you get and nobody owes you anything. Training from birth that the way to solve problems isn't through violence and crime. 
Good on that woman for doing that with her kid, but one parent isn't enough. Not that this woman is doing this, but choosing to start disciplining kids at that age is too little too late. 
This entilism isn't just happening in poor communities. It's everywhere in every community. Some rich and/or middle class kids get things handed to them because the parents had to get it the hard way and don't want their kids to have to go through that. That's stupid. If you help a bird get out of its shell, the bird will die. They have to do it for themselves. It's that work that gets them prepared for living. 
For poor communities it's handouts too. Welfare and free healthcare. Ya, they've got it tough from the get go, but totally free handouts aren't the answer. It breeds selfishness and entilism. 
For both: why work for something when it's given to you? 
Training up a child in the way they should go or the way they shouldn't go has the same answer - they will never turn from it. 

She has been found :http://www.cbsnews.com/news/baltimore-mother-toya-graham-on-why-she-smacked-son-i-dont-want-him-to-be-a-freddie-gray/

There is more than one side to every story.
Police breaking a suspect's back is not ok.
Using the above incident as an excuse to loot, burn, and throw cinderblocks & rocks at police, firefighters and fire trucks is not ok.

Here in suburbia, my dentist - yes, dentist - educated, upper middle class with nice well behaved, well educated kids - had a son who was hired to babysit on New Year's Eve. She was telling me she was concerned about him driving home from the babysitting gig and getting pulled over by the police and having her son get beat up because of "who we are." (hispanic) She was considering not allowing him to babysit.

This is disturbing. My dentist should not be afraid of letting her son drive home from babysitting gigs because he might get pulled over by the police and seriously injured. That's not law enforcement, that's... I don't even have words.

I'm white. I don't have to worry about that... I hope. But my son refuses to cut his hair, he looks pretty disreputable right now. He's a good kid, not at all a criminal, but what if he gets pulled over by the police after he gets his drivers' license? Is the next stop the emergency room (or, injuries that normally require a trip to the emergency room), but he gets thrown in a jail cell instead of getting medical treatment? I honestly don't think our police force would do that, but...

African Americans are being treated as subhuman, try that with any of us.

When the Irish got off the boat during the Civil War they were conscripted immediately.
There were riots in NYC. What else would you expect?

If you can not see it from the other side, then you only know half the story. And it is probably
the wrong half.

Dave

There is a cancer in our country called, entilism and that garbage thinking needs to end.

Jani,

All the major industries and corporations depend on that in many different ways. The powers that be
want that money. Other wise it would have stopped. All stripes of welfare are generally spent to the last
dime with major corporations or the smaller businesses that buy from the major corporations. In econ
there is a multiplier effect that creates velocity for those govt monies. Our society is not just built on
hard work, but on making capitalism work. The multiplier effect is necessary for a fully functioning
economy.

Besides if you look at who gets what, it is the elderly, the disabled, the school education budgets, the college
loans, the medical programs ie medicare, medicaid and now O care along with mainly white young women who
get pregnant. Oh and vets. So which group would you cut the most? Remember those dollars end up with major corporations
all day long making the US far more competitive in the global market.

Addition: the working folks and the major corporations get the highway road system which probably costs more and the
military protection for their assets. So in reality everyone is on the take. It is our govt and our money, why not?
Are people only suppose to fork over money for the wealthy to keep their banks alive?

Dave

David,

You don't know anything about me or my involvement with the African-American community.

We still have to take responsibility for our actions towards others and learn to address where the problem is, not create another one. Destroying the property of others in your own neighborhood is not a reasonable response... no matter what race you are. The Mother in that video saw "what was working to grab her life" (when she was growing up) working in her own son and attacked it the best way she knew how. With the force of love and dose of anger that it deserves.

Many of the causes of these problems cannot be adequately discussed without getting into political debate so that soap box theories can be explored.

Glenn,

I never said I know you. Why would I?

I agree two wrongs dont make a right.

Push people they push back. Treat people as sub human and they will kill.

You'd be just as angry.

Dave

This problem is much complicated then some of the people might think based on this incident.
It goes way back to the history. One thing I know I can say as a minority that the violence is not the answer.
Maybe I can say it because of my experiences were more positive.
I held many good jobs that were offered by white America.
I always thought this truly is a land of opportunity that anyone willing to work hard your life will have a reward.
Although some of my ethnic group told me that is not so, and mentioning racial profiling and all, but People are people. I think it is important to learn to deal with this issue more civilized way from both parties. That means we need to educate people about the history why people act the way they do and There are a lot goes into this so we can understand the whole picture, instead of going one direction to the other.
We are living in a capitalistic country as David mentioned. We have different values set, different challenges economically, and socially.

Your words David,

"And if it were you Glenn you'd be far more upset than they are." How would you know how I would handle myself?

Everyone does not have the same reaction. Pushing back is fine, but destroying your neighbors business is not, nor is it correct to define that as "pushing back". Teenagers being used (incited by cowards on the internet) to throw rocks at police officers is not going to get the point across. It is a random act of violence and those teens are fortunate that the officers didn't "react" with lethal force.

Having the attitude that the African-American community (or any community) must funnel their anger in an animalistic fashion, and not in a measured and controlled way, is in itself a stereotype that is racist. I reject that theory.

She acted that way out of fear. I hate to see any parent hitting their child. She's not a hero, she's a parent who overreacted in a very tense and difficult moment.

Glenn, to use a snippet of what you said, to me the very idea that reacting to rock-throwing with lethal force is an appropriate response from law enforcement is what is wrong in the first place.

Cynthia,

They (Law Enforcement) didn't react that way... but they could have. That is the point. In some parts of the world children this age are carrying major weapons and involved in warfare. That's what they were being "used" for in this instance, by people who incited them but stood back while they did the dirty work.

As for the parent... she is a hero in my book. Not pretty... but effective. Reacting that way out of fear,motivated by love, should be a more normal way for a parent who wants to save their child from destructive behavior. The child will survive. The moment will be remembered in a more grateful way if and when maturity has arrived.

I love a mother who holds their children accountable and doesn't constantly make excuses for their bad behavior.

I've seen how a white cop can treat a black man first hand. I was hanging out with a black friend. We drove to his apartment to do homework; which was near the college we went to. After I discovered that his intentions were not to do homework, but something else, I asked if he could take me back to the school. He did. I wasn't in danger at any point, but it wasn't cool that he played on my innocence. He was just a college guy to me and he respected my request.
As we were driving back, he got pulled over by a white cop. He was asked to get out and sit on the curb, his trunk was searched, and I was asked if I wanted to be with the guy. I told him that I was fine and the guy was harmless. He asked if I was sure and I said, yes. We are just going to the college and that we were students there. Could he have seen that this guy didn't have good intentions because he is trained to do so or was he harassing the guy?
When we got back into the car. I appoligized for the cops behavior. I was embarrassed to be white in that moment, but maybe that cop was right to search him. Maybe I wasn't as safe as I thought I was. Maybe I looked more disturbed about the situation than I realized. He's trained to know human behavior and being a man himself saw that that boy was up to no good and I was just too young and stupid and naive to realize it.
That was thirty years ago.

I am as white as white can be. Clean cut, strawberry blonde, blue eyes and fair skin. Many of my friends were black back then. I dated a few, rode the city bus with a few of them and witnessed first hand how they were treated because they were with a white girl. Anything from gawking to racial slurs. I always stood up to it, but it was scary sometimes. I also endured racial slurs spoken at me by black people.

A year later, I worked for an ambulance company and had a patient in my ambulance who was hog tied and laid on my Gurnie face down. He had minor injuries. A cop rode with us. The patient was a young black man and looked like a lamb to the slaughter. I asked what he'd done to deserve this. The cop said he had shot at police officers during a bust. Nobody was seriously hurt. I did all that I normally do with my patients and treated him like a human being. When we got to the prison hospital, the other officers involved joined us. They began to talk about this guy and verbally mistreat him (racial slurs included) while he still lay face down on my gurnie. It was unprofessional and down right wrong and I told them so. I said, "How dare you speak in this manner. I don't care what he's done. He's still a human being and as long as he's on my gurnie and in my care, you will not speak to him or about him in that way. Who do you think you are?"
All these men were over six feet tall and I was a petite 5' 6" spitfire in steel - toed boots. They all stood up straighter and looked at me with disbelief. I told them that it wasn't necessary to have four cops on one hog-tied man and to go and have a seat and I'd let them know when I was done with my job and they did except for one because the man was under arrest still.
Then, I asked the young man, if he was alright and said, "I'm sorry you are being treated that way. There is no excuse for that."
I later sat down next to the cops to do my paperwork and told them what they did was wrong. They said, he shot at cops and we don't stand for that. I told them that they had to follow the law just like everybody else and just because you wear a badge that doesn't give you a right to treat someone like an animal.
I rode my bike to work sometimes and one time, while riding home, I accidently ended up in the edge of Compton. It was early morning and a black woman yelled at me from across the street, "What are you doing in my neighborhood." Her stance was very agressive and I was glad to be on a bike and not walking. My foot didn't touch the ground until I was in a safe neighorhood. It is more dangerous for a white person to be in a black neighborhood than the other way around. Still to this day.
If I wasn't wearing a uniform (that looked an awful lot like a police uniform) myself I wouldn't have gotten any of those words heard, I'm sure. Later, one of the cops apologized to me and I told him that I wasn't the one who needed the appology.
This was in Los Angeles area. Three years later the Rodney King situation happened and scary, lawless rioting, looting and burning, and a death of an innocent white man happened by being yanked out of a car and a brick thrown at his head.

During my time at that ambulance company we had doors slammed in our face because we were mistaken for cops even when there was clearly an ambulance parked nearby. We also had to change out of uniform before driving home because of freeway shootings and our uniforms making us look like officers.

With all that said, cops have a very dangerous job and they are only human. It doesn't give them an excuse to break the law or use excessive force. Those cops should get into trouble and do, but cops aren't the enemy either. We need them and most are good cops.

This is an issue on both sides. On all sides. Bad cops ruin it for a lot of people including good cops (I have a story about that too), but blaming a society and just taking things in your own hands isn't the answer. Feuding about rights and what we deserve will get nowhere. Wearing the slavery of your ancestors on your sleeve isn't the answer. Being a vigilante isn't the answer. Supremacy isn't the answer.
Change needs to happen and that starts with forgiveness first and then educating children. Those children grow up to be leaders and policy makers. We need to educate in schools, but more importantly, at home. Unfortunately people as a whole are selfish. Many are broken souls. Parents included and don't have good parenting skills. Change will be slow if it happens at all.

Jani,

Most of it is about the haves v the have nots. Race or other factors such in Ireland and Northern Ireland are about getting your
hands on the money and shoving people aside. Race is just one way of saying you cant have anything because it would
cost me.....and mine.....

It is about money.....jobs...and ultimately power. It makes us all the poorer.

Dave

The woman is in terror of losing her son to this anger and fear. She loves her son is all I see.

I do not see a hero. I see a society that caused a lot of pain on all sides.

Dave