U.S. Justice Department Will Investigate Baltimore Police Over Freddie Gray Treatment

The U.S. Justice Department will investigate whether the Baltimore Police Department engaged in a pattern of unconstitutional policing, said law enforcement officials on Thursday.

A request was made by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake for the Justice Department to investigate.

This came soon after the Baltimore state’s attorney filed criminal charges against six officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray.

Gray died April 19 after being injured while in police custody. Gray’s death set off large demonstrations, arson and looting.

At a policing conference earlier on Thursday, the Baltimore police commissioner, Anthony W. Batts, said he did not object to an outside investigation, and said that he was committed to reforming the Police Department.

He said he recognized that Baltimore residents did not trust the city to make changes voluntarily, states the New York Times.

“I am willing to do anything it takes to win that trust back,” he said. “If it’s D.O.J., whatever it takes.”

The situation has dominated Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch’s first days in office, as the riots broke out in Baltimore on her first day on the job.

“The situation in Baltimore involves a core responsibility of the Department of Justice — not only to combat illegal conduct when it occurs, but to help prevent the circumstances that give rise to it in the first place,” said Ms. Lynch on Capitol Hill on Thursday.

If the Justice Department finds that there was a “pattern or practice” of discriminatory policing, it will ask that the police department make sweeping changes.

If the police department declines to do so, the matter could land in front of a federal judge, who could force changes within the department, writes ABC News.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/freddy-gray-doj-announces-federal-probe-entire-baltimore/story?id=30899279

Right-Wing Talk Show Host: Obama May Arm U.S. Gangs For Race War

RWW blog

Does this seem a little far-fetched to you?

Recently, the right-wing publication WND published an article titled “Savage: Obama may arm U.S. gangs for race war.”

World Net Daily is a right-wing news publication and Michael Savage is a right-wing radio talk show host.

Warning of a coming “race war,” Savage appeared as a guest on Alex Jones Infowars program Monday, and said President Obama would “deputize and arm gang members such as the ‘Crips and the Bloods’ to keep order in American streets,” writes World Net Daily.  Do his comments seem over-the-top?

“Remember my last book, ‘Stop the Coming Civil War’? Guess what. It started,” said Savage.

“Has there been a civil war? Yeah, it’s a slow-burning civil war. What do you think we are looking at here? It’s a race war. These are their shock troops, they don’t have the brown shirts yet, they don’t have the armbands, but soon Obama could deputize them. Isn’t that a natural army for him, Alex? Take the Crips and the Bloods, give them a green uniform and give them a weapon and they’ll keep order in the streets. Won’t they?”

WND claims that Savage’s ideas are not unlike that sparked by critics of then-candidate Obama’s plan, announced at a 2008 appearance in Colorado Springs, to create a “civilian national security force.”

“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we set,” Obama said at the time. “We’ve got have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”

Savage told Jones that Obama has “the gangs on the streets on his side, he’s got them awakened, he’s got them armed – they’re armed to the teeth with illegal weapons.

“You’re going to see more race war right up until the Labor Day of 2016 for an obvious reason,” he said, referring to the presidential election.

Agreeing with Jones that Obama’s “agenda is succeeding,” Savage warned: “The guillotines are ready, the guillotines are ready and they are greasing the blades. How much more successful can they be? Internment camps? I mean, what is next with this group of maniacs?”

Savage said Americans “can’t count on the military to protect them from Obama because his administration has purged military leaders who were competent to do so,” writes WND.

“One general after the other was purged like Stalin purged them, only instead of shooting them first they smeared the generals,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s going to come down to the camps, the internment and the martial law,” Savage said, mercifully. “…I think it would upset the economy and the world.”

Is Michael Savage not kind and understanding?

He claimed that Obama won’t declare martial law or force people into internment camps “just yet” because “they’re going to take the street garbage and they’re going to take the illegal immigrants and they’re going to warp the entire election.”

Nice of Savage to refer to people as “street garbage.”

“He’s the smoothest conman America’s ever seen in the White House…He’s performing along the lines of any other ‘petty dictator,’” Savage said. “He is Al Sharpton with a ‘smoother act.’”

Are these statements by Michael Savage questionable?

(Updated article)

http://www.wnd.com/2015/05/savage-obama-will-arm-u-s-gangs-for-race-war/#f8WfIU0F82EZVevG.99

What Is Currently Going On In Baltimore?

It has been about a week since the worst of the riots in Baltimore.  What has been recently going on?

Protests have been largely celebratory since State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced charges against the six police officers involved in Freddie Gray’s arrest, states The Baltimore Sun.

The announcement by the city’s top prosecutor came as a shock to many in the Baltimore Police Department.

The police department officially handed over the case to Mosby’s office last week but will continue to investigate Gray’s death, Commissioner Anthony Batts said.

Gray died April 19, a week after his arrest.

Hundreds rejoiced and sang outside City Hall on Sunday, and many residents attended special worship services across the city, writes The Baltimore Sun.

Crime unrelated to the protests spiked last week, despite the additional police on duty and heavy National Guard presence.

Eight homicides and 12 shootings have been reported across the city since Tuesday.

Outside of the city, observers are looking at how the events in Baltimore will play into presidential campaigns. Former Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor Martin O’Malley said the tensions that erupted into riots last week would be central to his presidential campaign, should he decide to run for office.

The New Republice writes that members of the city’s rival gangs—the Bloods, Crips, Black Guerrilla Family (BGF)—say they’ve declared a truce and vowed to bring peace to their communities.

Many people in the city wonder what might be the long term economic impact to Baltimore after the riots destroyed some businesses, and left many outside the city with a negative image.

Baltimore Curfew Lifted

Baltimore has lifted its overnight curfew that was imposed after riots sparked by the death of a Freddie Gray while in police custody, states The BBC.

National Guard troops are now pulling out of the city, writes the BBC.

The curfew was put in place on Tuesday, after protests over Freddie Gray’s death turned into rioting.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32573694

Baltimore Police Officers Charged In Freddie Gray’s Murder

Six Baltimore Police officers who were charged Friday in the death of Freddie Gray: Officer Caesar Goodson; Lt. Brian Rice; Sgt. Alicia White; Officer Garrett Miller; Officer William Porter; and Officer Edward Nero.

According to The New York Times, the officers who were arrested, three white and three black, include a lieutenant with 17 years on the force, several near-rookies and a woman who had just been promoted to sergeant.

The most serious charges were brought against Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr., who was driving the van that carried Mr. Gray to a police station after his April 12 arrest. Along with involuntary manslaughter, Officer Goodson, 45, was charged with “second-degree depraved heart murder,” which means indifference to human life.

According to The Baltimore Sun, the other officers were charged with offenses that included involuntary manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, second-degree assault, false imprisonment and misconduct in office. The officers were taken into custody Friday and released on bail.

More Rallies Planned On Weekend

Baltimore headed into a weekend of rallies on Saturday after six police officers were charged for the arrest of a 25-year-old black man, who died in a hospital after being assaulted by police and taken away in a police van.  Whose death led to rioting earlier in the week.  Reuters described the mood as “jubilant.”

Demonstrations are expected to continue around the United States through the weekend, and a massive rally is planned for Baltimore city hall with marchers leaving from the Gilmor Homes housing projects where the victim, Freddie Gray, was arrested.

Many in the largely black city erupted with joy on Friday after the officers were charged with crimes ranging from murder to assault and misconduct in Gray’s death on April 19th from severe spinal injuries while under police custody at a hospital.

Baltimore has largely followed the 10 p.m. curfew put in place after unrest that broke out after Gray’s funeral. Dozens of buildings and vehicles were burned, 20 police officers were injured and more than 200 people were arrested in that unrest.

U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings, who represents the area where Gray died and has worked to calm Baltimore’s streets the past four nights, said he was glad to see charges filed.

“It feels good, it’s a relief,” he said. “They have to let it play out. It will take time. But so often there are no charges and the process never begins.”

Is There Hope In Baltimore?

Sam Seder

Is there hope in Baltimore? And if there’s no hope, what do we do about it?

The Baltimore Riots

Secular Talk

The Huffington Post calls the recent Baltimore riots “the worst outbreak of rioting in Baltimore since 1968.”

The L.A. Times states that at the recent riots, more than 235 people were arrested, including at least 34 juveniles; 15 buildings were set on fire; 144 vehicles were destroyed; about 20 police officers were injured, including one who was hit in the head with an object and remained hospitalized Tuesday.

At least one civilian was in critical condition as a result of a building fire.

Public schools closed Tuesday, keeping nearly 85,000 children out of classes. Schools are to reopen today, Wednesday.

(Updated article)

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-baltimore-riots-tuesday-20150428-story.html#page=1

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/28/baltimore-protests_n_7160006.html

Is ‘Liberal’ The Same As ‘Anti-Establishment?’

Is “Liberal” the same as “violent” or “revolution” or “anti-establishment?”

Kyle Kulinski video.

Berkeley, CA Cops Surround Protesters

David Pakman video.

Police brutality at UC Berkeley is caught on video.

The video (posted under the Youtube name bagheera) gives this information:

“At 5PM on 12/6/14, hundreds of UC Berkeley students and Berkeley residents began a peaceful march from Sproul Plaza to the Berkeley Marina to protest the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and countless other brown and black youth at the hands of police. Along the way, police set up barricades and fired rubber bullets and smoke bombs, shattering one student’s knee and causing another student to have a seizure…”

“This video begins with riot police forcing students south down Telegraph, which only caused more Cal, Berkeley High, and City College students to join the struggle. The demonstrators were pushed all the way down Telegraph by waves of tear gas until they reached the border of Oakland, where the riot police finally dissipated.”

More:

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/12/08/protesters-march-in-berkeley-for-third-straight-night-over-police-brutality/