Baltimore

Hi!

I have a bunch of drafts to post on my blog about things we've done the past few weekends, but it seems weird to post them without talking about what's happening in Baltimore right now!

It's been all over the news, but here's a quick summary...

On April 12, a 25-year-old African American man named Freddie Gray was arrested in Baltimore for reasons that are still unclear (he allegedly fled after seeing the cops which resulted in them chasing and tackling him).  He was slightly injured when he was put into the police van but a short time later he had severe injuries, including a fractured spine and crushed voice box.  He was in a coma for one week and died on April 19.  The six police officers involved with his arrest and injuries are currently suspended but they have not admitted to having caused his injuries.

Baltimore, like many cities across the country, has a bad history of police brutality.  This terrible event is just one of hundreds of similar stories that have taken place here over the last decade (and long before).  There have been many peaceful protests since Freddie passed away.  Last Saturday, some of the protests turned violent.  Following Freddie's funeral, which took place this Monday, April 27, there were more protests and some riots, resulting in building fires, smashed and burned police vehicles, looting, and more.

While the violent parts are mostly what is being shown on national news coverage, there is also so much positive and peaceful work going on throughout the city.  Several groups in the community, including but not limited to religious groups, gangs, and local activists, have held very peaceful events and protests.  Musicians have performed in the streets, volunteers all over are helping to clean up the areas of the city that were destroyed, and yesterday, while there was no school for Baltimore Public School students, so many places opened their doors with food and activities for children all day long.

As far as I know, all schools are back in session today.  There is now a 10pm-5am curfew in place said to last one week total (last night was the first night).  Many local businesses will lose the money that they would normally make after 10pm, so people are encouraged to especially support local businesses and restaurants in the Baltimore City area.

Like I said, this is just a(n extremely brief) summary.  I don't know so many of the details.  

Today, I drove Alex to school so he could help me at the post office on the way.  There were members of the National Guard in lots of areas (they were brought in as backup on Monday) and some areas are barricaded, but for the most part things look pretty normal.  It seems that things are getting calmer each day.  The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra just gave a free concert outside of the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and it was so nice!  It was about 45 minutes and there were tons of people there.

Here are just some of the many articles and resources that talk about Freddie, the recent events in Baltimore, and Baltimore's history of police brutality in general.

The Atlantic 

The Atlantic again 

Wikipedia 

Baltimore Sun 

I've seen many pictures of people holding a poster saying "Freddie didn't die in vain".  I hope we can make the changes necessary to end police brutality and make sure this stops happening.