Race and the Freddie Gray case
Anyone who follows the news knows by now that of the six officers who have been charged in Freddie Gray’s death, it is an even split in terms of race: three are white and three are black. The most severe charges are expected to be lodged against the van driver, who is black.
They look like America:
You might ask, so what? And I’d agree. Black or white, the important thing is what they did (or didn’t do).
But I can’t help but reflect that this case might have gone down differently if this information about their races had come out earlier. But although their names were released early on, their races were not. Not only that, but most of the speculation I read prior to learning their races indicated, or at least hinted or guessed, that they were all white. Typical is this article that appeared in the April 22 Atlantic:
Six officers have been suspended with pay and placed on desk duty in the Gray case, and while the Baltimore Police Department didn’t specify their races, the three officers in the clip arresting Gray all appear to be white. One thing that separates this case from, say, Ferguson or North Charleston is the demographics of those in power. It’s true that whites are overrepresented in the Baltimore Police Department compared to the city’s overall population, but black and white officers make up roughly equal proportions of the force. In addition, both Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Police Commissioner Anthony Batts are African Americans.
Well, it turns out the races of the accused reflect almost perfectly the racial makeup of the police department. So one would imagine racism has nothing to do with this case, right? But I doubt we’ve heard the last of the “racism,” charge; the black officers probably will be excoriated as race traitors. Black police officers often have a difficult time working in black communities for that reason—like the kids who speak with too careful an articulation or who do too well in school, they are often seen as betrayers.
These police officers will almost certainly become the focus of a great deal of hatred. I watched a number of interviews of people in the crowd after it had been announced that the six were being charged, and not only was there a holiday sort of jubilation, but every person I heard interviewed said that he/she was sure the six were guilty. Not just that they thought it, or suspected it, but that they were certain, and it didn’t seem as though any possible evidence imaginable could be presented at the trial that could conceivably exonerate them in their eyes.
It was something like a reverse OJ Simpson phenomenon.
I also wonder what would have happened had Freddie Gray been white, with the same set of fact circumstances otherwise. Would there have been much of an outcry?
Or what if all the officers had been black; would that have defused the protests entirely? Or would it not have mattered?
Or what if all of the officers had been white? Don’t you think that, as in the Ferguson case, we would have heard right from the start, incessantly, in every single headline, that Gray’s death was caused by white officers?
It seems clear that these six officers were charged now in order to placate the mob. Mosby could have waited; more evidence could have been gathered, but she knew what the political ramifications would have been. Instead we have this sort of thing:
In Baltimore, before the racially and economically diverse crowd in City Hall plaza, Black Lawyers for Justice president Malik Shabazz praised Mosby for her decision, and called on the citizens of Baltimore to protect her.
“Every prosecutor should have such backbone,” he said. “Every prosecutor should have such spine.
“We’ve always got the cuffs on us,” he continued, “now the real criminals have the cuffs on them. Make sure no harm comes to this black woman who is prosecuting these police officers, because if any harm comes to this prosecutor while she is prosecuting this case we will hold Baltimore and America thoroughly accountable.”
When the mob gets what it wants, it feels even more powerful. “Justice” should be a response to the mob, according to the mob [emphasis mine]:
…Kweisi Mfume, the former congressman and president of the NAACP, who said the charges are a response to the passion and fury of young Baltimore residents.
I had guessed early that not all the officers were white. It was the dog that didn’t bark.
Mfume is not much different from the State’s Attorney General.
They have both politicized the allegations (former) and the charges (latter) for these 6 individuals.
Extremely dangerous precedent (for Marilyn J Mosby) in having done so.
Very dangerous indeed…
“….To the youth of this city: I will seek justice on your behalf. This is a moment, this is your moment. Let’s ensure that we have peaceful and productive rallies that will develop structural and systemic changes for generations to come. You’re at the forefront of this cause. And as young people, our time is now.”
Marilyn J. Mosby
_______________________________________
For the position of Attorney General, it is vital to maintain a neutral approach. One not infused with any political tone or theme. That is exactly what this woman has injected into this process. Into the job she holds.
Not unlike the Attorney General for the United States government, this woman is clearly establishing politics as elemental to her role.
And that is nothing short of pathetic. And dangerous.
Not unlike the Attorney General for the United States government, this woman is clearly establishing politics as elemental to her role.
And that is nothing short of pathetic. And dangerous……
“We took our men from Texas, Kentucky, and Virginia; from the mountains and the backwoods and the plains.
We put them under orders…guerrilla fighting orders, and what we lacked in numbers, we made up in speed and brains.
Both Rebs and Yankee strangers, they called us ‘Mosby’s Rangers.’
Both North and South they knew our fame. Gray Ghost is what they called me; John Mosby is my name.”
~Maj John Singleton Mosby~
43rd Bttn,1st Virginia Cav.
Soon!
RACE has been vocalized from the outset, further evidenced by the above quote from, The Atlantic:
“It’s true that whites are overrepresented in the Baltimore Police Department compared to the city’s overall population, but black and white officers make up roughly equal proportions of the force. In addition, both Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Police Commissioner Anthony Batts are African Americans.”
_______________________________________
Given that this publication was highlighting racial roles, they failed to mention:
1.) Police Chief is black
2.) The president of the City Council is BLACK.
3.) Every member on the City Council is BLACK.
4.) The man who heads up the training of every officer in Baltimore, is BLACK.
5.) The former mayor, who is now serving prison time on corruption charges, is BLACK.
What The Atlantic also failed to mention in its April 22 article is the political makeup of Baltimore. Fifty years of democrat party rule in the City of Baltimore.
Every individual mentioned above is a Democrat.
Of course, this overwhelming representation by one party rule in a city besieged with racial strife, poverty, incredibly poor student performance in schools, black-on-black crime, high unemployment is not considered to be important enough a variable to mention by the Liberal and Leftist media sources.
It’s simply not newsworthy to do so…
Time to get back to Ballet…
Time to get back to Ballet…
Specially the fouetté part ….
Wait for it; how long before the same publications, political hacks, and race professionals will be going before the cameras and complaining that predominately black neighborhoods are not adequately policed, and that black residents are the victims of out-of-control crime resulting from police negligence? And lack of federal investment.
Everyone, including the Charlatan-in-Chief, knows what the root issue is. Fifty years of misguided policies have brought us to this. The Baltimore poster woman with six children, and no father(s) identified, exemplifies the problem.
Read this morning that Clinton’s ballyhooed “welfare reform” had an escape clause. Any woman who had a child under the age of two did not have to work to receive assistance. Obviously the answer is to make sure you have a child under the age of two, until your daughters are old enough to contribute their own babies to the extended family enterprise.
I think what started as ‘cops are racist’ has now turned into ‘cops are bad.’ So no longer is the problem the white officer, but any officer b/c they use too much force, ‘like’ to hurt people and are looking for ways to overreach their authority in order to harm ‘the poor.’
This is a disturbing trend to see. If there is an encouragement to start attacking the police because they are all see as ‘bad’ and ‘corrupt,’ then some places are going to be in serious trouble.
One thing to keep in mind is that the left does not have any real principles, except power and only power.
So in one week or situation they argue one way and reverse themselves the next week if it advances their goal.
It’s one reason conservatives have a hard time with gotchas, there is are no principles to get them on.
J’accuse…!
K-E, I have been watching this trend for several years. The hard left, in conjuction with certain subsets of internet rabble, are basically trying to create their own dystopia. Key aspects of that are:
1) Disarm law-abiding ordinary citizens;
2) Defang or destroy entirely local institutions which have any vested interest in looking after the rights and well-being of local populations such as local goverment and police forces;
3) Protect criminals from any remaining attempts to force them to behave as responsible, productive members of civilized society, by normalizing criminal behavior and basically blaming all criminal behavior on criminal’s victims;
4) Divide populations by every possible demographic to create constant social dogfights and hostility between everyone;
5) Centralize power by use of these circumstances, which enriches and empowers a small elite over an ever-poorer, ever-more-violent mass.
The fact that the hard-left ants doing the heavy lifting on Internet forums are going to be worst hurt by all this – no one is going to be less ready to deal with what they’ve cheered the creation of than they – is ironic but not a consolation.
“every person I heard interviewed said that he/she was sure the six were guilty. Not just that they thought it, or suspected it, but that they were certain, and it didn’t seem as though any possible evidence imaginable could be presented at the trial that could conceivably exonerate them in their eyes.” neo
That is because their ‘certainty’ is based in a ‘deeper’ belief, that America is irredeemably guilty (inculcated for decades by the Left) and cops are America’s representatives. Cops don’t even have to do anything, it’s guilt by association. Thus the random attacks on cops across the nation.
But it now extends beyond cops, anyone who supports America is guilty by association, regardless of whether they’ve ever physically harmed a black person, our support for America condemns us.
If all the officers had been black and Freddie Gray been white, with the exact same circumstances, the majority reaction among blacks would have been ‘good, he got what he deserved’.
Clarityseeker,
All of the facts you mention are impediments to the leftist ‘narrative’ that The Atlantic supports.
“I think what started as ‘cops are racist’ has now turned into ‘cops are bad.’ K-E
Yes but ‘cops are bad’ is just a way point to ‘America is bad’ due to its white privilege because ‘whites are bad’. That is the subtext to all of Obama’s comments on racial strife. Obama’s nomination and then election gave him the Presidential ‘bully pulpit’ and he’s been “speaking truth to power” (white people) ever since and sending the underlying message that now, black people are in charge!
Beware and take care:
Proportionality is the ultimate refuge of the diversity-loving, divide-to-conquer Left, their ultimate way, but also last way, to hang on to power if/when the tide turns against them.
The “disproportionate” hue and cry grows ever louder.
By this reasoning (if it can be termed such), the Baltimore PD should be 2/3 black instead of almost half black. By extension of said reasoning, 25% of the black cops should be thugs to achieve proper proportionality.
The passion and fury of the mob, backed by the establishment of the left, is a dangerous combination that will lead to the 2nd civil war. Full blown war is but a few years away at most.
The inner city blacks have been told for generations that they are the victims of the evil racist white man and they believe it. On a local talk radio show a black caller claimed that the Ferguson policeman chased down Michael brown and shot him as he was trying to surrender. When the radio host said that was false, the caller proceeded to call him a liar and a racist. That is the mentality you are dealing with.
This may just get more and more interesting. The driver is the one charged with murder? For what? Slamming on the brakes? Hitting a curve at speed. Good grief, paddy wagon drivers have been doing that for many, many decades. Here’s a suggestion to the upset black Baltimore youths: Try putting on some Big Boy Pants, for Godsakes.
I regret to observe that black American male slaves were bred for brawn, not brains. As anyone familiar with dogs and their breeding knows, it takes only a few generations to alter a dog breed forever. Irish setters were, for example, a fine bird-hunting breed until breeding for their gorgeous color and looks took priority over performance and yielded high-strung twitty useless dogs commencing a few generations ago when women breeders got going. Or cocker spaniels. Or…Great Danes. Or Borzois. Or….
You cannot make dumb dogs smarter, no matter what you feed them or give them. It might take 30 generations of dedicated breeding of the setters for intelligence and hunting abilities to recover their utility. I do not think we can do that with blacks.
Social planners are like economists in making broad assumptions about humans. Economists presume rationality. Social planners presume normalcy: Educate them, “give” them more opportunities.They do not presume median IQs in the 80s plus the abilities of jumping and running and physical strength. but we don’t need field hands any longer.
It is ironic that the left love to exercise coercive political power over everyone else but pretend to hate the policemen who are called on to do violence in their behalf. There are two possible explanations. First the left want to nationalize the local police since they think that the less power resides at the local level the more effective the left can use violence to force their ideas on their domestic enemies. Second, the police are targeting criminals among designated victim groups and need to be redirected to fight their enemies the middle class Bourgeoisie.
Sadly the police have a hand in their own demise,
being highly Unionized,no doubt they vote time & time again for the Leftist on the ballot, & they pay for it by becoming the scapegoat !
The Left are scorpions !
Caterpillar Says:
May 4th, 2015 at 5:06 pm
I regret to observe that black American male slaves were bred for brawn, not brains.
%%%%
Test after test has clearly demonstrated that African Americans are dramatically smarter than their African cousins — those very clans/ tribes that their forefathers were abducted from.
It is a TOTAL falsehood that slave owners engaged in breeding programs.
Such fancies are often speculated upon by those who couldn’t possibly have any ‘ground truth’ to work from.
The antebellum reality was that no matter what the master said — the guys and gals got together — same as always.
The economic cost of destroying property — slaves — was far too high to even get started. The two options: whippings or sale “down the river” were used.
Slave castration WAS extensively used — universally used — by Muslim ARABS. That’s why you don’t see any descendants of mixed matings in the entire MENA.
BTW, it’s ‘against Islam’ for any Black to marry any Muslim Arab woman. Indeed, in that caste ethos, Muslim Arab women may ONLY marry Muslim Arab men.
Yes, yes, yes, as practiced, Islam is as caste oriented as any scheme ever to come down the pike… with Saudi Arab males at the apex of the scheme — if you’re of a Sunni (Wahabbist) bent.
&&&&
The real shocker is that Black Americans fit right in at the CENTER of human global norms. Their only notable outlier being one heck of a sun tan. Most of humanity is some shade of brown/ tan. Whites are quite the extreme minority… as the major races go.
[ Some human races are so tiny – population wise – that the ‘experts’ refuse to recognize that they are indeed separate races. The San of southern Africa are exemplars in this regard. The DNA distance between the San an all other races is vast by any standard.]
&&&&&&
The REAL story of Black culture is that it’s not an urban culture.
Urbanity didn’t come to Africans — in any form — until the 20th Century. (exceptions granted)
MANY of the ticks that cause Blacks to come under the purview of the local police department are entirely driven by rural impulses embedded in the human DNA.
At the absolute top of the list: Black men do not wish to stay indoors — and around the house. That’s a woman’s place and role… universally in Africa.
The ultimate insult: call a Black man a “house boy.”
You’ll have a fist fight, or worse, in extremely short order.
&&&&
As for the cops: they can’t understand WHY the same perps keep coming out in the open — loitering and all the rest.
Folks, that’s living, rural style, going all the way back.
How do you think crackers became known as crackers?
By hanging around, guy style, at the cracker barrel; probably eating Uneeda biscuit… and getting drunk.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/581650
Our universal problem is that DC figures that we are all round pegs and the world is full of round holes — and that man is universal.
As IF!
I should have said that American slaves were SELECTED for brawn. Like blert said, they were capital assets. And selection enables reproduction.
Lynch mob mentality. To the last molecule.
“We want to hang some of the Hated Group from the nearest lamppost! Hell, just grab anybody, as long as they’re ______s!”
“It seems clear that these six officers were charged now in order to placate the mob.”
I find it interesting that everyone, myself included, look at the mobs of the KKK and simply call it for what it was – Evil. But when the same mob actions appear to be taking place in the minority community no one seems to want to call it out. We make excuses and reasons for adults acting poorly.
I look for Baltimore to burn when these cops are found innocent if the trial is relocated. If they are tried in Baltimore the verdict will be guilty- Off with their heads.
As a “cracker” I admit I just don’t get the minority mindset. I can take a recent immigrant from Kenya and they are motivated to get an education, job and contribute more than they take from society. But if I go to an inner city, all I hear about is how they can’t get ahead due to something that happened 200-300 yrs ago. And whitey owes this to us. How people like Ben Carson, Walter Williams or Thomas Sowell are just Uncle Toms. Never taking the time to actually listen to what they are saying. But let a charlatan like Jessie Jackson or the tax-cheat speak and its considered gospel.
I guess I just don’t understand. Just like in another venue when some US liberals bought the Israel greenhouses so the Palestinians could be self sufficient. And the first thing they did was to destroy them. Makes no sense to me but then what do I know. 🙁
Unfortunately CVS is rebuilding the burned out pharmacy. If there are no concrete consequences to one’s actions, why not continue those actions when one feels the need?
Molly @ 5:56 PM – –
What many folks do not realize is that local law enforcement has been transforming into a national agency for the leftist agenda for many years now. The union aspect of the transformation is the glue which makes it all possible, fostering as it does the us against them mentality.
The transformation is always based on some warm and fuzzy, non-contentious issue which is ratcheted up as news stories present the opportunity.
Animal cruelty A mere 99.75 % of the population is horrified by animal cruelty. But the SPCA – – a law enforcement agency with a built-in conflict of interest because it is also a fund-raising 501(c)(3) agency – – ought to be investigated nationally to determine to what extent it is acting on behalf of PETA and with the help of PETA and of other “animal rights” organizations whose more explicit goal is the abolition of animal ownership, farms and private enterprise generally. How many criminal cases brought by the SPCA are a public smearing campaign intended to demonize a person and to extort a result?
Domestic violenceA mere 99.75 % of the population is horrified by domestic violence. But a national investigation should be conducted to determine to what extent these cases used to be regarded as mere family squabbles and immature behavior. How many of these cases can only result in destroying a family, leaving embittered results, and one party having the cudgel of a protective order? To what extent are domestic violence units guided by a man-hating and family-hating philosophy?
Driving while intoxicatedA mere 99.75% of the population is horrified by fatalities and injuries directly caused by inebriation. But what exactly is the cost-benefit in DWI prosecution? For example, out of annual fatalities, what percentage is the drunk driver himself, or the equally drunk passenger who got into the care with the drunk driver? What percentage is left over? To what extent are these laws overkill used to hassle and beleaguer average, otherwise law-abiding Americans and give them a taste of harsh, often life-destroying prosecution?
The list can go on – – the phony and futile “war on drugs,” the “environment,” traffic “safety” laws.
These areas are all highly propagandized and politicized on a daily basis. They have assumed a position of invulnerability. No questioning is allowed, no prosecution is not sacrosanct, no ethical rule (such as forbidden prosecutor’s public statements) needs be obeyed. What – – are you infavor of torturing animals and beating wives?
Just as the media, academia, charitable organizations, government bureaucracy and what else (familiar to the folks on this site) have been taken over by the left, so too local law enforcement, if not over taken by the left, has been immensely influenced by the leftist agenda. The takeover is happening now, and it is close. No American institution is not a target for takeover or destruction.
The self-righteousness, the arrogance, the sense of law enforcement as punishment from the get-go, all this is part of the package.
This is not about race, except to the extent the left falsely makes it so. This is about law enforcement as the punitive humiliation of citizens, the attitude that citizens are assholes and garbage. This is about greater division and distrust fomented by design.
Like the jihad lads, is it any surprise that quite a few public servants are enthralled by officially sanctioned Zero Tolerance?
The NAACP’s honesty, while rare, is refreshing, and welcome. The charges filed by Mosby are politically motivated.
This is from Gateway Pundit:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bal-freddie-gray-arrest-documents-drawn-up-for-wrong-people-20150504-story.html
If Mosby had any integrity she’d resign. The press is disgusting too.
n.n @ 10:41 AM
There is no question these charges are politically motivated, and most likely overcharged and might very well go unproven, although I would not bet on the latter.
But folks have to understand, politically motivated charges are not unusual. Law enforcement is ultimately a politically driven enterprise. It takes a prosecutor of very high character to resist having his objectivity overcome by politics.
I am guessing that everyday some prosecutor somewhere is flat out violating the ethical rule not to discuss cases publicly (I am not going to state the rule).
Why? Because it gets on the news and is cheered by the public and makes the prosecutor look like a hero to his intended audience. Whether anyone notices depends on whose ox is getting gored.
What Mosby did was despicable, and entirely typical and usual everywhere there is a prosecutor without high character. When is anyone disturbed by the local prosecutor condemning an accused on tv before trial? More likely cheering.
Our entire society has become more retributive and more willing to cast stones. That only changes when someone unexpectedly becomes a subject of the unfairness and realizes with horror that there is zero, nothing, which can change the dynamic.
As a Goldwater Republican, I really did not like Richard Nixon. He truly lived up to his philosophy: conservatives get the rhetoric, and liberals get the action. That was not an observation, it was his political policy.
Then the left viciously and unfairly attacked him and quite consciously gloried in the chaos they brought to this country as a result. Conservatives were forced to defend the person who opposed them and their interests in a sneaky, dishonest way. It was a very distasteful position to be in, and tainted conservatives as a result.
To some extent, the same thing happened with Bush, who was no conservative and who manipulated conservatives insensibly. Folks thought that the misleading word in “compassionate conservative” was compassionate. But the phrase had an entirely different purpose, to project Bush as a conservative when he was not. It was extremely clever and successful, and most conservatives fell for it.
For the non-Left to be backed into a similar circumstance with Gray, Baltimore, police and race is a win-win for the Left.
We need to get government out of education entirely, except for payment. We need to get the unions out of government and law enforcement. We need to abolish the laws which enable the Left to influence society, including charitable laws. We need to make political careers unappealing.
But the left controls the narrative, better than Pravda or Izvestia, more entertainingly and more subtly. So there is never a chance to look at the big picture. Hell, how much of local news is a mindless unwitting reflection of the leftist narrative?
So often the left tells the non-left to jump, and the non-left jumps just as high as it can.
There was an interesting incident in Baltimore yesterday. The police went to arrest a young man and he fled. He had a gun in his pants that fell out or he threw away and when it hit the ground it discharged. The guy fell down and the pursuing police caught him and took him off. Numerous eye witnesses claimed the police shot him in the back as he was running away. One female was crying and claimed she saw the racist police shoot the black guy in the back. The whole incident was captured on surveillance camera and it plainly shows the police didn’t have their guns out and never fired a shot and the black guy had a gun which went off as he was fleeing. All those eyewitnesses claimed they saw what never happened.
Tonawanda:
Can the difference be characterized by a difference in conscience?
For example, it is scientific fact and, more so, self-evident knowledge, that a human life evolves from conception/fertilization to a natural, accidental, or premeditated (i.e. conscious) death. Yet people have accepted and feel comforted by a fantasy (i.e. spontaneous conception) and amorality/immorality (e.g. “viability”) of pro-choice (i.e. selective) policy that enables them to terminate a human life with prejudice.
While there can be intelligent and legitimate discussion about compromises on many issues, their demand for elective abortion (i.e. sacrificial rites) unequivocally and irretrievably taints their motives. Not only do they tolerate, but actually normalize or promote human sacrifice. A wicked solution to a “wicked problem”.
It’s notable that Obama acknowledges the merit of reduced abortions, but is uncharacteristically unwilling or uninterested to explain why in straight terms. So, he recognizes that abortion terminates a human life, but is still perfectly willing and capable of promoting the rite under a pro-choice or selective religion.
– – –
Speaking of Nixon, I recall his establishment of the EPA (a dual-use agency if there ever was one). The irony of the environmentalists (not conservationists) is that they support and defend environmental unprincipled disruption through an industry’s life cycle from recovery to reclamation. Out of sight and out of mind in China, etc.; and obfuscated or shielded actions at home (e.g. solar ovens, windmill gauntlets); thereby giving rise to so-called “green energy”. The same legerdemain performed at home by feminists with a veil of privacy hanging over the abortion industry.
– – –
The cognitive dissonance should be deafening, and yet it is not. It is merely the annoyance of a buzzing fly that is easily swatted and heard no more. A large and substantial minority of humanity is amoral/immoral and opportunistic. Perhaps it’s deference to ego, but atheists are not universally trapped in this web. I wonder what causes and sustains this schizophrenia; or perhaps it’s just a brute realization of survival of the fittest.
n.n.:
You may think it’s self-evident knowledge, but even the major religious traditions of the world have disagreed historically and even today. There has been endless debate on the topic even within religions (when does human life begin in terms of the soul, for example, which is a major part of the argument). Here’s a brief summary of each religion, but there’s lots more information available.
A brief survey of the history of debate/disagreement on the topic is here.
Abortion on demand at any stage of pregnancy, however, seems to have been forbidden by the vast majority of religions, as far as I know.
The media, academia and politicians are demanding the cops must wear body cams-wander if we could get a rule that all elected persons(politicians)must wear a body cam 24/7? If the camera is off for 15 seconds or more the politician is automatically impeached. Would that help?
Blert said:
“Test after test has clearly demonstrated that African Americans are dramatically smarter than their African cousins – those very clans/ tribes that their forefathers were abducted from.”
Maybe there are such tests — but I doubt it. African-Africans are zooming by African-Americans at an ever-increasing rate. Tiger Mom picked Nigerians as one of the eight most successful immigrant groups in America.
African-Caribbeans have been ahead of African-Americans for generations now.
Even in areas where Afican-Americans have historically dominated, e.g., sports, African-Africans are supplanting African-Americans. Look at the names on a college football or basketball team next season. Why? More discipline, more dedication, more hard work.
Either it’s cultural or it’s all the white DNA African-Americans inherited!
If you want to follow this case, check out http://theconservativetreehouse.com/.