Ferguson and Baltimore

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Clarissa

April 28, 2015

What bothers me in the discussions of Ferguson and now Baltimore is that the conversation never seems to get past the discussion of police. People immerse themselves in debating whose father complex is more fucked up, while the horrible living conditions and the hopeless, miserable existence in Ferguson and West Baltimore are of no interest to anybody.

I can’t wait for people to stop playing the excruciatingly boring “good gumbint / bad gumbint” game and start engaging with reality. Just leave the symbolic Daddy in peace for 2 seconds and look around.

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7 responses to “Ferguson and Baltimore”

Shakti

April 28, 2015

Poverty and hopelessness is a slow motion disaster, and people are ill equipped to understand slow motion disasters. You realize that many people connect this poverty and hopelessness to a poor father complex though and many people tie the poverty and hopelessness to the bad government(s).

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1. Clarissa
  
  April 28, 2015
  
  I believe that, at this point, rummaging around in the causes is a little too self-gratifying and not very practical. If we could all agree that it is absolutely unacceptable that in a developed country in the XXIst century people should live the way they do in East St. Louis and West Baltimore, we would just proceed to changing this sorry state of affairs. And when that is done, I’m sure that fascinating research could be conducted into the multitude of reasons that caused this in the first place.
  
  Right now, we are collectively resembling a group of doctors who are observing a patient bleed out to death from a knife wound while lazily discussing how his Mommy must have not loved him enough as a child for him to end up in this bad situation as an adult. All I’m saying is, maybe let’s stop the bleeding first.
  
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Shakti

April 28, 2015

If we could all agree that it is absolutely unacceptable that in a developed country in the XXIst century people should live the way they do in East St. Louis and West Baltimore, we would just proceed to changing this sorry state of affairs.
That’s it. We don’t collectively agree that it’s unacceptable. You’ve seen this article on traffic tickets and segregation? Any measure that would alleviate poverty and misery is routinely opposed by people who vote and whose votes are counted.

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Editor (Retired)

April 28, 2015

Please see two posts on my blog today from an informed Maryland perspective (I formerly lived in Baltimore and worked for the Baltimore Sun). I’m being cautious and trying to tone down the sensationalism that everyone is getting on cable news and in social media.

What took place in Baltimore Monday afternoon and evening is not as big and bad as has been portrayed. Serious police injuries, but very few civilian injuries, and NO DEATHS. That tells you something: Police are generally exercising great restraint. Police are taking injuries and avoiding inflicting injuries. In serious riots, there are usually many injuries and some fatalities.

The unrest (choosing words carefully here) continues Tuesday night, despite an overwhelming police and National Guard presence. Until the situation cools, I believe it’s best to present developments in a straightforward manner and avoid being judgmental.

There has been looting, but most people on the streets did not participate in looting. Looting is after all, a crime against property. Young people in the streets Monday were extremely angry, yet they generally refrained from assaulting people. 235 people were arrested, many will be released without charges. 235 arrests among a city of 600,000 and a metro area of more than 2 million.

Summary: A lot of noise and fire and smoke, but only a small fraction of the population actually involved in lawbreaking.

There is much talk about causes, and searching for scapegoats. Simply remember that large parts of Baltimore are plagued by poverty and drug dealing and crime, and children have been deprived of adequate education for decades. The formerly great industrial base of the city has been completely hollowed out by globalization. All this will be raked over in detail after peace is restored. But I’m afraid the root causes are nearly intractable.

Economic and social divisions are probably as deep in Baltimore as anywhere in America. Perhaps the troubles in Baltimore will help some to better understand our severe economic, social and governmental problems. I plan to think and blog about that after order has been restored and a few days have passed.

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1. NG
  
  April 29, 2015
  
  “But I’m afraid the root causes are nearly intractable.”
  
  Not really. Those in authority choose not to act in a constructive manner. The governor said that he was sending in the National Guard as a last resort but it always looks to me as a first resort in many of the previous incidents as well as this one. Everyone talks about the “thugs and criminals” including President Obama but I always say follow the money. Checking this years’ Baltimore municipal budget, I noticed that they had a $12 million dollar surplus. So how are they going to spend this money? A property tax reduction which is a percentage of the assessed value so the wealthy get a large deduction, the middle gets a modest deduction and the poor who mostly rent get nothing. Actually they get less than nothing because the school system has a $108 million dollar deficit which will be corrected by workforce reductions of hundreds of teachers. As long as they have this set of priorities, you can expect more of the same in the future with the school to prison pipeline in full swing. I was thinking that the issues expressed in the works of Jean Michel Baiquiat during the eighties haven’t been resolved after all these years.
  
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  1. Editor (Retired)
    
    April 29, 2015
    
    I agree. Overall, we are a wealthy society, so it’s a question of, how do we use the wealth? I’m afraid most of the wealth is being hoarded by corporations and concentrated in the top one percent.
    
    Even in my D.C. suburban county, many children go to schools in trailers because the elected leaders and the taxpayers don’t have the political will to spend money to build real classrooms.
    
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    1. Clarissa
      
      April 29, 2015
      
      “Even in my D.C. suburban county, many children go to schools in trailers because the elected leaders and the taxpayers don’t have the political will to spend money to build real classrooms.”
      
      Oh God. I had no idea. 😦
      
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