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\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/center><\/p>\nI really don’t have anything to say. But I can quote.<\/p>\n
Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Nonviolence as Compliance<\/a>“:<\/p>\n
Now, tonight, I turn on the news and I see politicians calling for young people in Baltimore to remain peaceful and \u201cnonviolent.\u201d These well-intended pleas strike me as the right answer to the wrong question. These well-intended pleas strike me as the right answer to the wrong question. To understand the question, it\u2019s worth remembering what, specifically, happened to Freddie Gray. An officer made eye contact with Gray. Gray, for unknown reasons, ran. The officer and his colleagues then detained Gray. They found him in possession of a switchblade. They arrested him while he yelled in pain. And then, within an hour, his spine was mostly severed. A week later, he was dead. What specifically was the crime here? What particular threat did Freddie Gray pose? Why is mere eye contact and then running worthy of detention at the hands of the state? Why is Freddie Gray dead? <\/p>\n
The people now calling for nonviolence are not prepared to answer these questions. Many of them are charged with enforcing the very policies that led to Gray’s death, and yet they can offer no rational justification for Gray’s death and so they appeal for calm. But there was no official appeal for calm when Gray was being arrested. There was no appeal for calm when Jerriel Lyles was assaulted. (\u201cThe blow was so heavy. My eyes swelled up. Blood was dripping down my nose and out my eye.\u201d) There was no claim for nonviolence on behalf of Venus Green. (\u201cBitch, you ain\u2019t no better than any of the other old black bitches I have locked up.\u201d) There was no plea for peace on behalf of Starr Brown. (\u201cThey slammed me down on my face,\u201d Brown added, her voice cracking. \u201cThe skin was gone on my face.”)<\/p>\n
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 \u201ccorrect\u201d or \u201cwise,\u201d any more than a forest fire can be \u201ccorrect\u201d or \u201cwise.\u201d Wisdom isn\u2019t the point tonight. Disrespect is. In this case, disrespect for the hollow law and failed order that so regularly disrespects the rioters themselves.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Baltimore Bloc:<\/a><\/p>\n
It has been 15 days since Freddie Gray was stuffed into a Baltimore Police Department van and no officer, elected official or agency has taken any responsibility for his subsequent death or the policies that allow it to stand.<\/p>\n
Therefore, we continue to witness the further erosion of the already broken relationship between Black communities and law enforcement.<\/p>\n
The truth is that our region\u2019s elected officials have not seen it as politically useful to act on the long-standing issues of police violence in Black communities. What we are witnessing today is the crossing of a tipping point by communities that have remained unheard for far too long. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Baltimore United For Change<\/a> is fundraising for Legal\/Bail Support for Baltimore protestors.<\/a> If you support the protests, I would think that even a small donation would help.<\/p>\n
And another writer (pdf<\/a>):<\/p>\n
America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard.<\/p>\n
And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I really don’t have anything to say. But I can quote. Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Nonviolence as Compliance“: Now, tonight, I turn on the news and I see politicians calling for young people in Baltimore to remain peaceful and \u201cnonviolent.\u201d These well-intended … Continue reading
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