Riots in Baltimore the last two weeks come as a very delayed reaction to the death in police custody of a young, unemployed black man. The press hasn't been emphasizing this as a white cop/black male issue so much, perhaps because Baltimore has a police force that is 50 percent black (along with the police commissioner) and a political leadership that is majority black. Over the last few weeks, that leadership has performed as badly as Ferguson's did.
What really happened to the original victim? As is usual in these cases (see Ferguson), the facts take a long time to seep out.
It has been discouraging to read about Baltimore lately. It is a good, authentic city with a lot of history. Of course some of that history is violent. Lincoln has to travel through Baltimore in disguise to get to his inaugural in 1861. I lived there briefly in the 1980s. Fun place--I drank my share of "Natty Bows"--but you had to stay on your toes.
I post this article as one of the few I've read lately that doesn't blame race for every problem. A Journalist who has lived there for 30 years
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