4 ms·

My 49 hours in a Baltimore cell – for being a reporter

25 points by antman 12y ago

joshstrange 12y ago
This and the story like it [0] from a day or two ago disgusts me. I really hope that people go to jail for denying these people their rights (fuck their state of emergency) but since they are police officers we'd sooner see an actual ham sandwich indicted [1]. I really couldn't give a fuck what justification they are using for keeping these people this long, IMO there is NO circumstances under which this should be permissible. Indiscriminately pulling people off the street and locking them up for over 2 FULL days turns my stomach as it should everyone. Even during the a work week I could probably take that in stride and not lose my job but the vast majority of people could not and so they have to ask themselves "Can I risk losing my job over this protest?" which is a question no one should ever have to ask themselves. To make matters worse the people who are most at risk for job loss are the same people who live with cops shooting their friends/family/neighbors with no repercussions. This is sickening and if Freddie Gray wasn't a good enough reason to riot (yes, I fully condone these riots. "A riot is the language of the unheard - MLK Jr", no one gave 2 shits when they were just protesting. Also America's fucking history has it's roots in rioting and overthrowing the government. What makes it right then but not now?) then cops stomping all over our rights should be. We now live in a world where gangs known for their violence show more maturity and level headedness than the cops they are protecting [2]. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9478544 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9478544 [1] http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/11/25/sol_wachtler_the_judge_who_coined_indict_a_ham_sandwich_was_himself_indicted.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/11/25/sol_wac... [2] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/27/the-bloods-and-crips-anti-cop-ceasefire-in-baltimore.html http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/27/the-bloods-...
- EpicEng 12y ago
  >This is sickening and if Freddie Gray wasn't a good enough reason to riot (yes, I fully condone these riots. "A riot is the language of the unheard - MLK Jr", no one gave 2 shits when they were just protesting. Interesting that you quote MLK in your support of these riots. He understood why people were rioting, but he also understood that it is, at best, an ineffective tactic and, at worst, counter-productive to the overall cause. Riots aren't a good thing. The people being hurt here are mostly A) the rioters, and B) business owners. You're not changing anyone's mind with this sort of thing. I'm not disagreeing with your outrage, but I do think that supporting riots is going too far and is, honestly, extremely short sighted.
  - joshstrange 12y ago
    The fuller quote is: > But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. What I see is the media condemning the riots with much more fervor that that with which they condemn the reasons for the riots (if they even bother to touch on that past "Freddie Gray" which is only the straw that broke the camels back and not by far the only reason). > I'm not disagreeing with your outrage, but I do think that supporting riots is going too far and is, honestly, extremely short sighted. And I'd love to be proven wrong but honestly, what other recourse do these people have? I'm all for "violence is not the answer" but I think that statement needs an exception for when violence is already being used against the people you want not to be violent. For example, violence would NOT be the answer for a library fine you thought was in error but this isn't even just financial/economic hardship, (yes that's a part of it but that's been going on for decades) no now the police are being caught (make no mistake, this has been going on for a LONG time and just now are we seeing footage of what most people who live in these areas already know is happening) on camera and not being punished which allows the discussion to go from "Well maybe it's happening" to "It's happening". So what I'm trying to say is I think violence IS the answer when violence is being used against you. It would be one thing if this was only motivated by economical reasons but this is because people are DYING and largely NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE. It is because of that that I feel I have no recourse but to support the riots. I look at it like this, what would you say to a young black man whose friend was just killed by the police and he knows there will be no repercussions? Who the fuck am I to tell him not to riot? Who am I to tell him "It gets better" when it clearly does not? Who am I to condemn him for saying "Enough is Enough"? In fact I think it's short sighted to not look at history and see that there has been quite a lot of non-violent protesting of this with no change. Insanity is, after all, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I think MLK Jr saw this and that's what lead him to say "a riot is the language of the unheard". So who is to blame here? The people inciting violence because they've been backed into a corner and can't take it anymore or those of us who made them "unheard" by refusing to listen to them or do anything to help them? I saw it's us who are more to blame (and yes I include myself in that group). PS: please note I'm not trying to direct any of this towards you. I really would like to have a discussion on this. That said I am livid that this is even happening (Ferguson/Baltimore not this discussion, we need MORE of these discussions) and I won't apologize for that.

25 points by antman 12y ago

This and the story like it [0] from a day or two ago disgusts me. I really hope that people go to jail for denying these people their rights (fuck their state of emergency) but since they are police officers we'd sooner see an actual ham sandwich indicted [1]. I really couldn't give a fuck what justification they are using for keeping these people this long, IMO there is NO circumstances under which this should be permissible. Indiscriminately pulling people off the street and locking them up for over 2 FULL days turns my stomach as it should everyone. Even during the a work week I could probably take that in stride and not lose my job but the vast majority of people could not and so they have to ask themselves "Can I risk losing my job over this protest?" which is a question no one should ever have to ask themselves. To make matters worse the people who are most at risk for job loss are the same people who live with cops shooting their friends/family/neighbors with no repercussions. This is sickening and if Freddie Gray wasn't a good enough reason to riot (yes, I fully condone these riots. "A riot is the language of the unheard - MLK Jr", no one gave 2 shits when they were just protesting. Also America's fucking history has it's roots in rioting and overthrowing the government. What makes it right then but not now?) then cops stomping all over our rights should be. We now live in a world where gangs known for their violence show more maturity and level headedness than the cops they are protecting [2]. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9478544 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9478544 [1] http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/11/25/sol_wachtler_the_judge_who_coined_indict_a_ham_sandwich_was_himself_indicted.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/11/25/sol_wac... [2] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/27/the-bloods-and-crips-anti-cop-ceasefire-in-baltimore.html http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/27/the-bloods-...

EpicEng 12y ago
>This is sickening and if Freddie Gray wasn't a good enough reason to riot (yes, I fully condone these riots. "A riot is the language of the unheard - MLK Jr", no one gave 2 shits when they were just protesting. Interesting that you quote MLK in your support of these riots. He understood why people were rioting, but he also understood that it is, at best, an ineffective tactic and, at worst, counter-productive to the overall cause. Riots aren't a good thing. The people being hurt here are mostly A) the rioters, and B) business owners. You're not changing anyone's mind with this sort of thing. I'm not disagreeing with your outrage, but I do think that supporting riots is going too far and is, honestly, extremely short sighted.
- joshstrange 12y ago
  The fuller quote is: > But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. What I see is the media condemning the riots with much more fervor that that with which they condemn the reasons for the riots (if they even bother to touch on that past "Freddie Gray" which is only the straw that broke the camels back and not by far the only reason). > I'm not disagreeing with your outrage, but I do think that supporting riots is going too far and is, honestly, extremely short sighted. And I'd love to be proven wrong but honestly, what other recourse do these people have? I'm all for "violence is not the answer" but I think that statement needs an exception for when violence is already being used against the people you want not to be violent. For example, violence would NOT be the answer for a library fine you thought was in error but this isn't even just financial/economic hardship, (yes that's a part of it but that's been going on for decades) no now the police are being caught (make no mistake, this has been going on for a LONG time and just now are we seeing footage of what most people who live in these areas already know is happening) on camera and not being punished which allows the discussion to go from "Well maybe it's happening" to "It's happening". So what I'm trying to say is I think violence IS the answer when violence is being used against you. It would be one thing if this was only motivated by economical reasons but this is because people are DYING and largely NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE. It is because of that that I feel I have no recourse but to support the riots. I look at it like this, what would you say to a young black man whose friend was just killed by the police and he knows there will be no repercussions? Who the fuck am I to tell him not to riot? Who am I to tell him "It gets better" when it clearly does not? Who am I to condemn him for saying "Enough is Enough"? In fact I think it's short sighted to not look at history and see that there has been quite a lot of non-violent protesting of this with no change. Insanity is, after all, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I think MLK Jr saw this and that's what lead him to say "a riot is the language of the unheard". So who is to blame here? The people inciting violence because they've been backed into a corner and can't take it anymore or those of us who made them "unheard" by refusing to listen to them or do anything to help them? I saw it's us who are more to blame (and yes I include myself in that group). PS: please note I'm not trying to direct any of this towards you. I really would like to have a discussion on this. That said I am livid that this is even happening (Ferguson/Baltimore not this discussion, we need MORE of these discussions) and I won't apologize for that.