I know you might hate this, but I’m going to do it anyway. I’m going to write this as a mother, as a grandmother, as a card-carrying citizen of the United States, as a goddamned human being.
I’m white, but if you dare hold that against me you’re no better than those who hold color against anyone. We’re going to talk about those stupid vandals who rampaged through their own Baltimore neighborhood the night before last, looting, burning, destroying nearly everything in sight. They were black kids and they used the funeral of a young black man as an excuse to raise so much hell we’ll be adding Baltimore once again to the list of the worst riots in the U.S.
So far, as of this writing, there have been no reported deaths–thank the light above for small favors. But vicious, creepy thugs willfully savaged an entire neighborhood, and I submit the only thing poor Freddie Gray’s funeral had to do with it was opportunity. It was their big chance to blaze their way in, using righteous protest as a flimsy excuse to riot.
Rumor has it that they were mainly teenagers, that they used social media to get the word out, that a movie fueled their fervor for vengeance. There are reports that the police themselves showed up at the school campus in riot gear and wouldn’t let the kids get to their buses to go home. They went to the neighborhood instead.
Some of the people who have lived through the cop-on-black violence in West Baltimore abhorred the rioting but tried to find ways to explain it beyond simple vandalism. TaNehisi Coates knows the area and the police activities well. He writes:
When nonviolence is preached as an attempt to evade the repercussions of political brutality, it betrays itself. When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse. When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con. And none of this can mean that rioting or violence is “correct” or “wise,” any more than a forest fire can be “correct” or “wise.” Wisdom isn’t the point tonight. Disrespect is. In this case, disrespect for the hollow law and failed order that so regularly disrespects the community.
But it wasn’t just the police and the politicians pleading for nonviolence. Freddie Gray’s family begged for it. The preachers in the community prayed for it. Neighborhood families hoped against hope for it.
If the thugs had stuck with setting police cars afire, with throwing bricks at police officers, I might have understood, but still not condoned, that kind of disrespect. They see the police as the enemy. But they didn’t stop there. They didn’t even start there. Their intent was to riot. To disrespect the community.
For 48 hours, since the riot began, we’ve heard non-stop talk about the reasons why. I won’t go into all of them, except to say that the Baltimore police are known pigs who seem to thrive on punishing black people, and Freddie Gray, the young man who didn’t deserve to die at their hands, did die at their hands. Horribly. They broke his spine, curled him up into a ball and stuffed him into their paddy wagon. They ignored his need for immediate medical care. He died in their care and nobody but him has so far paid the price.
If I lived in that neighborhood and knew what I knew about the police and about this case and about the hundreds of other cases where justice was as cruelly denied, I would want someone’s hide. Not literally, of course, but I would want retribution. I would want somebody to pay. I would protest. Loudly. I would not shut up. I would be just like the thousands of people in that neighborhood who finally have had enough and want something done now. But I, along with those thousands of others, would have respected Freddie Gray’s grieving family enough to grant their wish for peaceful protest.
Freddie Gray’s funeral sparked the riots, even though his parents and his twin sister begged for peace. Begged for it. Said it out loud many times: “Please. No violence. Please.”
But within hours of Freddie’s funeral the mourners’ remembrances of the slain young man took a back seat to the nightmarish witnessing of a full-blown incendiary riot.
The rioters (do not call them protesters) busted out windows and doors of small businesses, made off with the goods inside, and looted and vandalized a CVS drug store. They commandeered a police car, severely injured the occupants, and set the car on fire. They rampaged through a liquor store and a check-cashing store. The CVS went up in flames. More cars burned. Then more buildings. Through the night, fires roared.
And–get this–when the fire truck arrived to put out the fires in this neighborhood where families live, one of the punks pulled out a knife and spiked the hose. Twice. The water meant to put out the fire spewed like a swell fountain into the air, far from its directed target. I’m guessing the punks around him thought it was pretty cool, too. Nobody–I mean nobody–said, “Uh, not the fire hoses, idiot.”Yesterday the community came together to clean up their streets. Mothers, fathers, small children. The elders. They’re trying to put their lives back together again. They’re heartbroken. They’re ashamed. They’re angry. They know how this will look. NBC news correspondent Rehema Elllis reported that she saw women standing in front of the burned-out CVS store weeping–weeping–because they spent years trying to get a pharmacy to put down roots in their neighborhood. What are the odds that CVS–or any pharmacy–will build there again?
This is the harm that riots do. Riots aren’t protests. There is no good outcome from riots. They’re remembered into eternity as the crazed response to a bad situation, and when it happens in a black community it’s the black community that has to answer for it. The thugs, the vandals, the looters need to get that message. Making excuses for their criminal behavior doesn’t just let them off the hook, it gives them license to keep their destructive anger alive.
Toya Graham, the mother who whupped her son in front of the cameras yesterday to keep him from joining the looters showed us the way well-placed anger wins the day. Her raw desperation, hard as it is to watch, is about as heroic as it gets.
“‘That’s my only son and at the end of the day I don’t want him to be a Freddie Gray’. . .
‘Graham says after she got her son home they both watched news coverage of the demonstrations and riots on television. As images of her reaction started to go viral, Graham says comments started appearing on her son’s Facebook page, many in support of her.
‘Friends and everybody making comments and saying you know, you shouldn’t be mad at your mother, you should give her a hug,’ said Graham. [She] hopes the incident will serve as a teachable moment for her son.”
Thugs will be thugs and to hell with them. They almost destroyed this community. Almost. But the beauty of it, if there is such a thing, is that the people who live there aren’t about to let them. If something positive finally gets done in the community of West Baltimore, don’t thank the rioters, thank the people in the neighborhoods who, in spite of the destruction, choose to rise from the ashes and work to build anew.
(Cross-posted at
Ramona’s Voices)
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Copyright 2015 Liberaland
Ramona Grigg is a freelance columnist and blogger living in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.. She owns the liberal-leaning blog, Ramona's Voices, and is a contributor to Liberaland and on the masthead at Dagblog.
Kim Serrahn April 29th, 2015 at 11:23
As one grandmother to another, thank you.
Ramona Grigg April 29th, 2015 at 11:31
Thank you for agreeing!
mea_mark April 29th, 2015 at 12:24
I think it is more than just the police they see as the enemy. It is the very laws and rules that favor the rich and make it hard for the disadvantaged to survive. When violent rioters started acting out their frustrations, it was against the laws they were rebelling against. When rebelling against laws and rules everything is a target. Police brutality was the tipping point, an opportunity to express that frustration. I am not trying to say what they did was right, just that the reasoning behind their actions is probably different, and they just don’t see a peaceful resolution because of their lack of understanding.
If we don’t want to see events like this all the people need to understand how things work in America and they need to engage themselves in the process of developing their communities. Many people just don’t understand the power of the vote. The importance of civics should be one of the most important things we teach our children. It is what makes the world we live in. If we don’t engage in it and shape it, someone else will and that may not be at all be to our liking.
In the end they may be angry thugs and looters, but how did they get there? Who created them? What role did we all play in creating this situation? Calling them names and labeling them is just an attempt to absolve ourselves of responsibility.
Suzanne McFly April 29th, 2015 at 16:39
Very well put :)
Bunya April 29th, 2015 at 14:24
I disagree. How does one hide his anger, after he’s pushed to the edge? If the tables were turned and whites were constantly being stopped, beaten, jailed and/or killed because of the color of their skin, and the rest of society simply looked the other way, how long will it take before their frustrations start to show? Case in point: a black guy is stopped for possession of a gram of marijuana, he’s going to jail. A white guy is stopped for possession of a gram of marijuana , he’s given a slap on the wrist.
allison1050 April 29th, 2015 at 16:09
AND not even inconvenienced by being placed in cuffs and placed in a patrol car.
{{{HEAR THAT ROMONA???}}}
Ramona Grigg April 29th, 2015 at 18:41
I understand the frustrations. I just don’t understand rioting, destroying a neighborhood already victimized beyond belief.
mea_mark April 29th, 2015 at 19:13
The youth don’t have the wisdom that comes with age. They are angry and don’t understand why the laws are so weighted against them, just that they are. Better education about a person’s role in society and how they influence it would help alot. Unfortunately that is exactly what those in power that are filled with greed don’t want. Destroying what they aren’t supposed to is their way of saying your laws are broken and wrong. We need to teach them how to air their grievances in a productive way.
Robert M. Snyder April 29th, 2015 at 23:05
“Better education about a person’s role in society and how they influence it would help a lot….We need to teach them how to air their grievances in a productive way.”
Most boys learn these things from their fathers. 62.5% of Baltimore’s children under age 18 are living in single-parent homes. It’s great that so many preachers tried to talk with these young men during the riot. But where are their fathers?
bpollen April 30th, 2015 at 03:57
Well, statistically, somewhere around half of those 62.5% could be the result of divorce. You may have heard that is prevalent in America. Even amongst white people.
mea_mark April 30th, 2015 at 08:40
Clue, they call America the incarceration nation.
Red Eye Robot April 29th, 2015 at 15:12
I thought “Thugs” was a racist code word
allison1050 April 29th, 2015 at 16:07
Red Eye, it is the newest code word.
Ramona Grigg April 29th, 2015 at 18:24
Where I come from in the Midwest the word “thug” has been used for at least a century to mean someone who engages in a theft or similar crime without thought to who it might hurt. The word “thug” is Hindu for “thief”. It has no color attached to it.
Berkeley Suncookies April 29th, 2015 at 22:34
It does now.
allison1050 April 30th, 2015 at 09:17
Ramona really needs to get out more and or read someone else’s writings she’s 50 years behind the current lingo as bpollen has pointed out.
Ramona Grigg April 30th, 2015 at 11:39
Right. Stick with the word “thug” and you don’t have to discuss the rest of the article. Nice distraction. Are you justifying the destruction? Can you explain to the people who live there that they should just get over it. It’s all part of the “protest”?
bpollen April 30th, 2015 at 15:15
Geez, I was thinking it was simply ignorance of what you were saying that accounted for your use of the word. Your TOTALLY missing the point that people are trying to make puts that interpretation very much into question. You apparently are not actually READING what we wrote. Nobody, I repeat, NOBODY, has said that use of the word invalidates the whole article. But people have said repeatedly that you are using the new “n*gger” to describe the rioters, the looters. And you just blow RIGHT by that and go to “you don’t like my article.”
Somebody doesn’t WANT to discuss certain things, and it ain’t the commenters.
Ramona Grigg April 30th, 2015 at 17:20
I don’t care if you like or don’t like my article.. I’m just wondering why the issues in it aren’t as important as the word “thug”. I sincerely did not know it was a code word for blacks. But why allow it? Why own it? Union members have been called thugs since the day unions came into being. Here’s how they handle it:
bpollen May 1st, 2015 at 03:13
Substitute “n*gger” for every iteration of thug. And black, because as “thug” comes from the Hindu for thief, “n*gger” comes from the Spanish word for a color. Then you will see how others see it. I don’t think you had ill intentions, and I can see that you might well not have known, But, instead of accepting that you might have been provocative in a negative way as was pointed out (you obviously were going for provocative), you get knee-jerk defensive and assume that anyone offended just wasn’t seeing your brilliance. Nobody was calling for you to fall on your knees, keening “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.” Usually, when people tell me that I have been saying offensive stuff unknowingly, I apologize. You, on the other hand, when informed that “provocative” was actually “offensive,” try to distract from that by justifying it due to the its Hindu origins, attacking the messenger, advising blacks to own the word and then it will all be alright. My advice? Stop digging while your behind!
allison1050 May 1st, 2015 at 03:53
She can’t help it bpollen she WANTS to continue to live in her father’s world of 50 years ago and not come into the 21st century. You gave her a wonderful explanation of how the meaning of words evolves with the passage of time and she just went right into “you don’t like my article” mode again. I think we need to allow Ramona to continue to live in her father’s world since that’s where she seems to be most comfortable.
I’m looking forward to seeing you around the threads bpollen.
bpollen May 1st, 2015 at 03:56
I’m looking forward to seeing you around the threads bpollen.
And I you!
allison1050 May 1st, 2015 at 04:04
Thanks by the way, make your profile private for your own safety from trolls.
bpollen May 1st, 2015 at 04:28
Appreciate the advice. Done and done.
allison1050 May 1st, 2015 at 15:24
Perfect! ;o)
allison1050 April 30th, 2015 at 15:54
Did I say that I justified that behavior? Nope, don’t try and put words in my mouth Ramona ’cause that’s not going to work for ya. Get current as bpollen or someone pointed out to you the changes that take place over time with the definition of words. Your father used thug(s) in a way that’s NOT used in 2015 nor was it used that way in 2014, 2013 or 2012. Stop over dramatizing, scroll through and read the articles and not just on Liberaland, there are articles here that have dealt with this particular issue and it’s being acknowledged on most news websites. Enjoy your reading Ramona! ;)
bpollen April 30th, 2015 at 03:25
The word “mail” comes the Old French word for “traveling bag.” As you can see, the meaning of the word has morphed through time. There is a whole class of study on the origin of words – etymology. Look through your dictionary and you will find that MANY MANY words originally meant one thing and eventually meant another. “Buggy” at one point referred to a horse-drawn carriage, but now refers, in most cases to glitchy soft-or-hardware.
So, the Hindu origins of the word are superfluous. The meaning has changed in the intervening years. It’s changed from color neutral in my youth in the Midwest to becoming code for the N-word when blatant bigotry became a social and political liability. Need I point out that “nigger” is linguistic brutalization of the Spanish word for the color black? Can you honestly say that word is used solely to describe melanin levels?
allison1050 April 29th, 2015 at 16:04
Ramona, I just have a few things to say to you #1 have you ever even considered walking to a business there..my guess is no. Talking about what You would have done is totally meaningless to me and other minorities..that’s translates to me and others as “coulda, woulda, shoulda” crap. Who told You that they were “ashamed” if I may borrow you word Ramona? If you would like to see really see what day to day life is like in any minority neighborhood and feel safe, my advise would be to put on a pair of scrubs and carry a big bag and pretend that you’re doing home health care..no one would bother you nor would you need an entire contingent to go along with you and some of those very “thugs” would more than likely protect you if they thought there was going to be a problem.
Thank you
Ramona Grigg April 29th, 2015 at 18:39
I take it you didn’t really read my piece. My anger is laser-beamed at the ones who took the opportunity of Freddie Gray’s funeral to loot, burn and otherwise destroy buildings in a neighborhood that didn’t deserve to be destroyed. I used the word “ashamed” after I heard several people from that neighborhood say they hated the fact that now their neighborhood would be known only for the riot when it’s so much more than that.
I imagine because I told you I was white you’re thinking I’ve never been in a black neighborhood? I spent half my life in Detroit in mixed neighborhoods. I lived one house off of 12th Street, now Rosa Parks Boulevard. The neighborhood where the 1967 riots took place.
And by the way, my father used the word “thugs” more than 50 years ago when a bunch of white kids stole the tires off of his car. It’s hardly a new word.
allison1050 April 29th, 2015 at 21:41
By the way, “thug” is the new code word. Your color had nothing to do with what I said Ramona allow me to make that clear. And I take it that you didn’t read my response. That coulda, woulda, shoulda stuff doesn’t hold with me since it’s the same as Monday morning quarterbacking…sorry.
Bunya April 29th, 2015 at 16:26
“Toya Graham, the mother who whupped her son in front of the cameras yesterday to keep him from joining the looters showed us the way well-placed anger wins the day.”
.
And sadly, the next time Toya Graham’s son walks out his door, his chances of becoming the next Freddie Gray are 90% higher than yours.
uzza April 29th, 2015 at 19:47
The only thing wrong with those riots is that they happened in West Baltimore instead of Wall Street.
fancypants April 29th, 2015 at 22:47
if only Baltimore had a lot more mothers out there during the destruction
good article ramona
allison1050 April 30th, 2015 at 06:57
Not just this neighborhood, every neighborhood around the country. Too many “parents” allow their children to get away with bad behavior when little Johnny is small and later can’t understand why their big brats are getting in trouble. They weren’t taught about boundary lines or self control.