Searching for the causes of the Baltimore riots
- By Mitchell Blatt
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E-mail China.org.cn, May 5, 2015
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Protesters march from City hall to the Sandtown neighborhood on May 2, 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland. Freddie Gray, 25, was arrested for possessing a switch blade knife on April 12 outside the Gilmor Houses on Baltimore's west side. According to Gray's attorney, Gray died a week later in the hospital from a severe spinal cord injury he received while in police custody. State attorney Marilyn Mosby of Maryland announced that charges would be brought against the six police officers who arrested Gray. [Xinhua photo] |
Lost in the conversation about police brutality in Baltimore is a conversation about the underlying causes of the riots.
Freddie Gray died after severing his spine apparently in the back of a police car. The police, according to the indictment of the six officers involved, arrested him for no reason, and then didn't give him timely medical treatment. But this doesn't explain or rationalize the rioting, which besides injuring dozens of police officers was mostly direct at civilians.
At least 140 vehicles were burned and 15 buildings, including a community center being built by East Baltimore's Southern Baptist Church, a CVS pharmacy that the mayor campaigned to get built, and many mom-n-pop liquor stores, convenience stores, and pizzerias. Essam el Ghannam, the owner of Papa Pizza, says that protesters threw lighters at him and tried to set him on fire before burning down his store. New York Times reporter Ron Nixon wrote that gang members were there directing rioters to loot Chinese and Arab-owned stores.
The rioters' choice of targets — and the local government's inability or unwillingness to protect local citizens and their businesses — reflects a disturbing reality in the course of city riots. The violence is mostly directed at innocent people, and disproportionately at innocent minorities.
Twenty three years ago, Los Angeles was a war zone with riots that started again after a controversy involving police. It started on April 29 after the police officers involved in the arrest used batons on Rodney King after a high speed chase. But the targets were again primarily civilians, and this time, Koreatown was under siege. Korean entrepreneurs took their own responsibility for self-protection, patrolling their stores with riffles and shotguns.
In Ferguson, Mike Jacob, the owner of Sam's Meat Market, and his friends, having gotten no help from the police, went to the store with guns, to defend what was left of it after it had been looted a second time.
Many Chinese I meet in casual conversation say they fear the large number of guns in America, but incidents like the riots of 1992 are examples of times when people needed guns to defend themselves and their property.
Unfortunately, law enforcement can only do so much in a riot. First, they may be too slow to react. The National Guard is only sent in after violence has gotten bad enough. Second, many in the public call for restraint. Many criticized the Ferguson police for using tear gas, but without using force, how will they control rioters? Missouri Governor Jay Nixon reportedly told the National Guard to stand down the night Officer Wilson was not indicted, even though he had forewarning from incidents of looting prior to the decision.
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