Protests against the death of Freddie Gray have spread to New York City, where hundreds of people have gathered in solidarity with the Baltimore protesters.
Umaara Elliott, one of the New York rally organizers, said she encouraged the message protesters in Baltimore were trying to send. "Anger can be justified. I don't think that public property should be more important than bodies, than the fact that 80 percent of Freddie Gray's was severed. I don't think that a CVS should be more important than his spine and the fact that his family won't be able to see him again," she said.
All of the 400 years of racism and exploitation of minorities by this country are coming home to roost, along with the decades of neglect of poor neighborhoods in our cities.
The NYT Editorial Board draws parallels between the 1960's race riots and today, saying that some of the same conditions are fueling the unrest today.
Combine extreme inequality, an extreme high school dropout rate, and a systematic pattern of police brutality spanning decades:
Proof can be found in a meticulously reported investigation by The Baltimore Sun of lawsuits and settlements that had been generated by police-brutality claims. “Over the past four years,” the investigation noted, “more than 100 people have won court judgments or settlements related to allegations of brutality and civil rights violations.” The victims included a 15-year-old boy riding a dirt bike, a 26-year-old pregnant woman who had witnessed a beating, a 50-year-old woman selling church raffle tickets, a 65-year-old church deacon and an 87-year-old grandmother aiding her wounded grandson.
President Obama says that solutions require constant engagement; we cannot leave once the riots are over.
Mr. Obama was right on the mark when he observed on Tuesday that tensions with law enforcement had simmered in African-American communities for decades and now seemed to be bursting into view once a week.
“This has been a slow-rolling crisis,” he said. “This has been going on for a long time. This is not new, and we shouldn’t pretend that it’s new.”
He also said that addressing the problem would require not only new police tactics but new policies aimed at helping communities where jobs have disappeared, improving education and helping ex-offenders find jobs. The big mistake, he said, is that we tend to focus on these communities only when buildings are burning down.
Education is critical to creating opportunities to succeed. It's too bad our politicians focus on standardized testing at the expense of creating opportunities for our young people, finding highly qualified teachers, and improving facilities that have been neglected for years.