The is his tweet. He works for Fox News. I mean, dude?
Charles V Payne
✔@cvpayne
Mom of the year in Baltimore...my mother would have did same thing...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVTlYvi35Xk&app=desktop …
10:22 PM - 27 Apr 2015
YouTube @YouTube
Baltimore Rioting, Looting OK According to Mayor
- Thread starter Pilgrim
- Start date
witness23
Veteran Expediter
Did you watch the Shepard Smith video yet?
Actually Fox News has interviewed quite a few different people like community leaders,(Kwame Mfume, for one, just in the past half hour) parents, and rioters themselves. Last night they interviewed a rioter who said he was pelted with bean bags by police. He showed the welts on his torso from them. The reporter finally asked him why the Police would do such a thing. The rioter said .... We were throwing bottles.
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Wow. I'm at a loss for words on that one. He has an arrest record, therefore he is bad, bad, bad, and was probably up to no good, otherwise he had no reason whatsoever to flee, so that's why they pursued him, right? So let's post this gnarly graphic of his extensive arrest history to reinforce the fact that he's a bad dood and thus deserved what he got.
Never mind the fact that the Supreme Court long ago ruled that fleeing from the police is not probable cause for pursuit and arrest, and that pursuit and arrest must be accompanied by articulable probable cause, and that "He's probably up to something," is not probable cause.
His very impressive, demonizing arrest record graphic tells only a very small part of the story. It's petty drug charges that allow the police to hassle him repeatedly. Overall, the record on Freddie Gray reveals a young man who had frequent encounters with police as they carried out their local operations in America's longest and biggest failed war: the war on drugs.
His court records, his wrap sheet, his despicable past reveals that, as the years went by, prosecutors found it harder and harder to actually convict Gray of a drug crime. Police kept arresting him. Prosecutors kept putting him on dockets. But after he was convicted of illegal drug possession when he was 18, Gray hasn't spent much time in jail or been convicted of anything. Illegal gambling? Dood was caught with "gaming cards and dice." That case was dropped. Court records show not-guilty verdicts, cases dropped, closed or put on the inactive docket. There's one "probation after conviction" for a drug charge last August, and that was dismissed, as well Those are pretty typical outcomes for someone police frequently suspect of being a street-level drug dealer.
So, if you want to speculated that his arrest record "might be part of it," I can also speculate that the police knew who he was as soon as the saw him, and he knew he police as soon as he saw them, the police decided to hassle him to see if they could get a drug charge collar, and he didn't feel like being hassled, so he ran. And because he had the uppity gall to run from them, the police pursued him, because they feel, contrary to the Supreme Court and the Constitution, "uppity gall" is articulable probable cause.
I happened across "Mississippi Burning" on TV the other night, and I know it's a movie about ancient history (feel-good nostalgia for some) and it was made in a galaxy far, far away a long time ago, but I found it interesting at how many instances and happenings in the movie, and in particular how many of the comments made by both blacks and white, could have been pulled directly out of today's news reports (not to mention forum posts). Makes me appreciate just how far we've come and how much progress we've made in this country since those early days of Civil Rights infancy. <snort>
No. He didn't. He needed to be arrested, perhaps, but something went terribly wrong. Since none of us were there, we need to wait and see how the investigation shakes out. It could be police brutality, or it could be just a horrible but unavoidable circumstance. Something needs to change, and things like body cams on cops might be a good place to start.
Nothing excuses the rioting, though.
Internment camps I say, away with the ruffians, away, away......lol. OK, it was suppose to be funny. Due to the serious nes nes of the situation, we shall not have any such ridiculous behavior, none at all. I am sending you all to discretionary school on the next bus out.
witness23
Veteran Expediter
I was being sarcastic.
Why did he have to be arrested?
Yes, body cams would be a good place to start. Although with this particular incident there wasn't a need for it, the whole thing was recorded by a by-stander.
Since none of us were there, since none of us have walked a mile in their shoes, since none of us live in a neighborhood like this kid Grey, how do you know you wouldn't be doing the same thing? Not saying it's right but it's pretty easy to say sitting in your position.
Every time there's a riot, somebody (several of them) always say that. King George said it about the rioting in Boston Harbor. The entire South said that about the Union soldiers who looted businesses, and homes, and then burned them down. Yet, people keep finding reasons and excused to riot. Clearly, there are, absolutely, reasons and excuses for rioting. Some people call it "hooligansim" or they'll say, "it's criminality, pure and simple." Some even think that if only parents had control of their kids that riots would never happen. But riots are complex events, hard to reduce to something as simple as that.
It's no surprise that established authorities, feeling attacked, see the violent behavior of their citizens in such terms. They react by becoming dismissive and punitive. The Chinese government used the same language to characterize student protests in Tiananmen Square, as did Arab leaders to describe rebellions in their countries.
Ordinary people, normal citizens, get swept up and do things that would be unlikely under other circumstances: shouting, shoving, throwing rocks, smashing windows, and, yes, even looting. But it usually takes a particular incident to get a riot started, to spark it, such as an accident or the police attacking or killing an innocent bystander. In almost all cases, though, the one commonality is an injustice. And once it has begun, the raging mob has a life of its own. Deep-seated resentments, repetitive frustrations and long standing disappointments galvanize people into action. And the mob provides cover, an anonymity that makes it easier to overcome one's usual reticence or moral positions. And it can become an exuberant experience, a freeing, almost joyful release for long suppressed emotions. It can also become manic, driven, a means of restlessly seeking new outlets. Leadership emerges spontaneously and changes rapidly.
This is not to justify the behavior of the mob, but to recognize that we all, any of us, can so easily become "hooligans" ourselves. To be sure, delinquents and petty thieves can easily join in under the cover the mob provides. But riots do not rely on criminals or "criminality, pure and simple."
Thinking that way, though, can distract from the underlying conditions that give rise to such events. The "criminality, pure and simple" is a symptom, not the cause, and focusing on the symptom as being the cause is just plain wrong-headed. They can be appeals to be heard, when normal channels don't work. They can be eruptions of rage, when frustrations boil over. They can be expressions of hope that things could change. There are plenty of excuses for rioting. Plenty.
I watched the Shepard Smith video. As I watched it, I couldn't help thinking to myself, "Who is this and what has he done with Shep?" Here was a guy, not afraid to report his opinions on stuff, trying to concentrate on reporting what is happening rather than move the narrative focus to that of those who want to focus on the symptoms, and on the "criminality, pure and simple." Here's a guy trying to rise above this type of reporting:
witness23
Veteran Expediter
So the police saw him with a switchblade and started chasing him?
Two separate questions were asked. Why was he pursued ? And why did he have to be arrested? He was pursued because he decided to run from police while in a high crime / drug trafficking area. He was arrested because he had a switchblade on him. Those are the reasons that were given according to reports .
I don't know whether his record was a contributing factor or not. With that many arrests, it would be likely they knew who he was. As mentioned, I did say I think it is part of the reason. A known person who constantly gets in trouble is always a likely target of police. I do think there were other issues at play. This police department apparently has a string of problems over many years with questionable arrests.
Does the Chinese-American community riot? Does the Hispanic-American community rise up to riot? Does any other American minority community engage in this behavior on a frequent basis? If so, I've missed it.
The right to assemble peaceably is guaranteed by the 1st Amendment to our Constitution. Inciting a riot or participating in a violent riot is unlawful for good reason. Any gains hoped for by peaceable assembly are immediately lost when the nature of the assembly becomes violent. Individuals who would cheer on the rioters are as much to blame as anyone throwing a brick or torching a building. Law and order must be maintained. More than one mighty nation fell as the result of rioting which initially seemed innocuous.
The right to assemble peaceably is guaranteed by the 1st Amendment to our Constitution. Inciting a riot or participating in a violent riot is unlawful for good reason. Any gains hoped for by peaceable assembly are immediately lost when the nature of the assembly becomes violent. Individuals who would cheer on the rioters are as much to blame as anyone throwing a brick or torching a building. Law and order must be maintained. More than one mighty nation fell as the result of rioting which initially seemed innocuous.