The Revolution of Bodymore, Murdaland

Bricks in hands, knives, purse-snatchings, and the cutting of firefighters' hoses being used to put out the flames in a looted CVS store. This is the Baltimore of late that the media is showing, and it is certainly scary and certainly true--- but it is also a limited view. In casual conversation with strangers, on the internet, and in the news the one word I've been hearing repeatedly is "riot," but this might not be the fairest label. First of all, it must be understood, that the majority of people taking to the streets of Baltimore right now are acting peacefully and it is only a sliver of protesters perpetrating the violence (not unlike the sliver of law enforcement whose heinous actions build a negative reputation for law enforcement as a whole in the U.S.). For those calling on the people of Baltimore to behave more like the participants of the Million Man March and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, I defy you to point out concrete differences in these three pictures, other than the backgrounds.

 At this point, it has become so trite to be angry about the death of a black man at the hands of police in America that most people to whom I've spoken don't know Freddie Gray's story-- a travesty considering his death, though shrouded in mystery, is arguably the most wrongful and unjustified of all in this recent string. So, pray tell, what is a minority segment in a population supposed to do when there is repeated and long-standing proof of serious, violent oppression and little more done about it than widespread usage of a few hashtags?

As an internet geek (aka a person born in 1989), I've seen the question posed countless times by non-Americans what exactly it would take for Americans to revolt. We are well aware that the NSA (at least) is infringing on our basic rights to privacy; we are aware that our government goes to great lengths to punish any individual trying to expose its crimes against humanity (though many seem to have forgotten about Chelsea Manning, surely we recall a man by the name of Edward Snowden); we are aware that our government is willing to sacrifice our natural world in the name of profit (Keystone, anyone?). We know all of these things and do very little about them, and people from elsewhere wonder why. Yet here we are, staring a more urgent problem right in the face, and some of these same people are wondering why there is a reaction of violence. Over the past few days MLK's path of non-violent resistance has been called for innumerable times. Yet even he, beacon of peace and civil disobedience, understood that "A riot is the language of the unheard." In the United States and France in the late 18th century, in 1915 in the city of Van when Armenians fought back against the Ottoman Empire, even five years ago in Egypt and Tunisia, violent upheavals were called Revolution. Why then, today, are we so quick to call this a riot?

The issue of criminality and racially-motivated police brutality is massive and complex, particularly in Baltimore, and it would be foolish for anyone to try to dissect it in a few days. But if there is anyone who can offer a smart and informed view of the situation at hand, it is surely David Simon, probably best known as the creator of The Wire and overall Baltimore crime expert. In his always beautiful blog "The Audacity of Despair," Mr. Simon has called on Baltimore's violent protesters to "Turn around. Go home" so as not to diminish the potential progress that could be made by civilly fighting back in Freddie Gray's honor.  This is sage advice from someone who knows Baltimore inside and out; but let us not forget, while we rush to label any and all riotous behavior needless and destructive, that damage to people is always bad but damage to a flawed and unjust system is not. Of course we all want the "riots" to stop before people get seriously hurt, but the oppression being fought hasn't stopped without people getting hurt and it might do some good to remember that anger spilling over into the streets, such as the 1992 L.A. riots, have sometimes resulted in actual change.