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Tuesday 28 April 2015

Baltimore

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Diapers, chips and sweet tea. One scary thug, alright. (Cropped to protect his identity.) #Baltimore #BaltimoreRiots: image via Only Human @leahmcelrath, 27 April 2015


Mondawmin teacher asked for this to be shared. Pass it along.#Baltimore: image via Sarah Pinsker @SarahPinsker, 27 April 2015


This obese adult was captured throwing rocks at high school students today in #Baltimore: image via Ferrari Sheppard @stopbeingfamous, 27 April 2015


Malcolm X on "riots". Critical. #Baltimore
: image via zellie @zellieimani, 27 April 2015


Stunning photo from #baltimore today by @byDVNLLN sums up #FreddieGray: image via Smell the Tea @SmellTheTea, 25 April 2015

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If they cant hear you scream louder if they don't feel you make them feel you #ripfreddiegray: image via KnownNobody @byDVNLLN, 26 April 2015
 
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Standoff. Police keep pepper spraying this unarmed man. And he remains still. Mondawmin: image via deray mckesson @deray, 27 April 2015


Officers, alley. Baltimore: image via deray mckesson @deray, 27 April 2015
 

SWAT just rolled up. That was wild. Baltimore: image via deray mckesson @deray, 27 April 2015


It's smoke everywhere at North and Pennsylvania. Baltimore: image via deray mckesson @deray, 27 April 2015


Gay and Federal. Baltimore: image via deray mckesson @deray, 27 April 2015
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This: image via deray mckesson @deray, 27 April 2015

A protester rides his bike in front of a police line at North and Pennsylvania avenues on Monday. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun).

A protester rides his bike in front of a police line at North and Pennsylvania avenues on Monday: photo by Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun via Washington Post, 27 April 2015
 

Gas mask on, fist in the air. Riot police behind plumes of smoke. (by AJ+'s @Darielm) #BaltimoreRiots #Freddie Gray: image via AJ+ @ajplus, 27 April 2015


Wow...this picture #Baltimore #FreddieGray: image via Brittany Lewis @Buttercup_B, 27 April 2015


Jesus Christ this photo #Baltimore #FreddieGray
: image via Stephen Belcher @sycobuny, 25 April 2015


Such a powerful shot. #Freddie Gray: image via Washed McGee @_CaptainJohnson, 26 April 2015
 

To #Baltimore soldiers: Stand tall. stand strong. Protest is necessary for an answer: What happened to #FreddieGray?: image via Raqiyah Mays @RaqiyahMays, 25 April 2015
 

#BREAKING Photo: Looters steal billions of dollars, destroy businesses, leave thousands homeless: #Freddie Gray: image via Rs=2GM/c2 @AnarchoPhysics, 27 April 2015

8 comments:

TC said...

Randy Newman: Baltimore (live, 1978)

Nina Simone: Baltimore (The Wire)

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

". . . And better and yes and yes and more and yes and yes and yes and yes and more and best and better and most and best and better and most and more and more and most and better and yes and yes."

-- Gertrude Stein, from "Business in Baltimore"

kent said...

Great work TC. I'd almost forgot that song about a city I've always felt kindred to (Al Kaline?). You'd be surprised how many TC fans still reside there (believe me, I know them). Keep us clear about what makes sense. k

TC said...

Many thanks to Kent, Steve and Gertie.

A dark or at least vacant day for fans of human life in Baltimore... all bent out of shape, and feeling real empty.

Origami

Mose23 said...

Angela Davis, California State Prison, 1972

TC said...

Duncan,

Unfortunately events show that the underlying conditions of oppression in this country on which Angela Davis spoke out so clearly and articulately more than forty years ago remain largely in place to this day, but the heroic example of struggle she has carried on is also ongoing and at least as relevant as ever.

She has remained an active and principled voice on the subjects that matter most.

Mose23 said...

She's one of the few who has the guts and the critical sense to "question the meaning of this sanctification". For all their undoubted courage, the uses of such figures as Mandela and Malala Yousafzai is deeply suspect.

The struggles in Ferguson and Baltimore matter in so far as they are collective struggles: "The solidarities are what produced hope".

Hearing Angela speak always brings out the proper Marxist in me.

TC said...

That would be the response of any principled intelligent person who is aware of history.

That what's happening here is the stirring once again of a collective struggle is the salient observation.

The powers massed in resistance are however now stronger and more entrenched than ever.

In a long view, the critical moment of resistance would appear a necessary step. All credit to the underclass of Baltimore for their patience, courage and battle-savvy-ness, bought by years of blood and tears.

May the energy and hope of the young carry them through what promises to be a long and arduous action.

Lacking those virtues, the best one can offer is a witnessing.

Not forgetting that for the majority of whites with jobs, all this isn't really happening.

In this once "progressive" now ultra-gentrified area, out here on what used to be called the "left coast", protests against the police-industrial state are back-page filler in the shameful "major" newspaper -- the front page of which is permanently devoted to the two "issues" of primary local interest, tech triumphalism and gay anything.

Oakland has a new mayor, who has come out with an angry statement condemning property damage that occurred over the weekend in May Day protests in solidarity with Baltimore.

This is the argument: a broken window at an imported car dealership constitutes a threat to the social order.

In Baltimore, people are still sitting in jail for breaking windows, unable to make bail that's been set at twice that set for the police now under charge -- yet walking free.

Who in any case have the enormous resources of the police union to see to it they get the best legal defense money can buy.