As Baltimore Riots

Those who rush to condemn the violent demonstrations of the lower and working classes are the first to contort and bend over backwards to excuse, justify, and “understand” the brutality of the powerful and their dogs.

Whenever I hear the wailing of the rich and their hired liars about violence and cruelty the words of Mark Twain come to mind, when speaking about the French Revolution,

“There were two “Reigns of Terror,” if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the “horrors” of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror—that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.”

Just a speculation . . .

Maybe large parts of White America don’t loudly condemn Police America for torturing and sport-killing selected or random targets from among Black America because those large parts of White America are afraid that if they express too much disapproval to Police America that Police America will turn around and say : You shut your mouth. Or you’ll be next.

Dunno if you’ve seen the statements made via Twitter today by Orioles COO John Angelos, but I think it’s well worth the few minutes. USA Today (in the sports section) has compiled the tweets. I hope maybe we’re reaching a tipping point. If the COO of a rich baseball franchise can say these sorts of things out loud, maybe the pols (and the people) are not too far behind.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/04/orioles-john-angelos-baltimore-protests-mlb

“Brett, speaking only for myself, I agree with your point that the principle of peaceful, non-violent protest and the observance of the rule of law is of utmost importance in any society. MLK, Gandhi, Mandela and all great opposition leaders throughout history have always preached this precept. Further, it is critical that in any democracy, investigation must be completed and due process must be honored before any government or police members are judged responsible.

That said, my greater source of personal concern, outrage and sympathy beyond this particular case is focused neither upon one night’s property damage nor upon the acts, but is focused rather upon the past four-decade period during which an American political elite have shipped middle class and working class jobs away from Baltimore and cities and towns around the U.S. to third-world dictatorships like China and others, plunged tens of millions of good, hard-working Americans into economic devastation, and then followed that action around the nation by diminishing every American’s civil rights protections in order to control an unfairly impoverished population living under an ever-declining standard of living and suffering at the butt end of an ever-more militarized and aggressive surveillance state.

The innocent working families of all backgrounds whose lives and dreams have been cut short by excessive violence, surveillance, and other abuses of the Bill of Rights by government pay the true price, and ultimate price, and one that far exceeds the importances of any kids’ game played tonight, or ever, at Camden Yards. We need to keep in mind people are suffering and dying around the U.S., and while we are thankful no one was injured at Camden Yards, there is a far bigger picture for poor Americans in Baltimore and everywhere who don’t have jobs and are losing economic civil and legal rights, and this makes inconvenience at a ballgame irrelevant in light of the needless suffering government is inflicting upon ordinary Americans.

@different clue, I suspect White Americans in large part don’t condemn police violence against blacks because 1) They in large part are not victims themselves; People as a matter of nature for the most part don’t concern themselves with problems that don’t affect them. 2) More that their friends and family agree with the actions of the police and would be seen as sympathetic to black criminality and dysfunction.

That being said, I think the Blacklivesmatter movement(s) would see fit to frame their protests as one of a broader problem of unjustified and unpunished institutionalized fascist police state violence against harmless citizens rather than a movement against police violence that targets blacks even though it is the reality so that they can incorporate more working class/middle class white people into the movement.

CMike:

I didn’t say anything about John Angelos’ dad, so I’m not sure how his history is relevant to my point.

I was making a statement about the John Angelos quote in Roman Berry’s post. He was blaming some unnamed “political elites” for sending jobs away from Baltimore and other cities. I would have had no issues with his quote if he blamed “business and political elites”.

What exactly would a 2nd-generation modestly wealthy sports team owner’s son have to do with making International Free Trade Conspiracy policy?

I need to work on my own tone in comments, that’s for sure. His concern may have been a bit more literal than what we’re looking at but like the man said [LINK].