I don’t know much about the Mayor of Baltimore, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Her Wikipedia entry indicates a pretty conventional political career for a Democrat – you know: went to college, got out of college and got into government and has never left it. Some say her “space to destroy” remark is being taken out of context and I’ll go ahead and buy that – maybe she was trying to put out an idea and it got mangled in transition from mind to mouth…it does happen to us all. But, on the other hand, she’s the Mayor, not some small-time blogger, like me. Within the city limits of Baltimore, she’s the Commander in Chief in an emergency…it is to her that the law must refer when riots erupt. Within the city, she – and no one else – is ultimately responsible for the lives and property of the citizens of Baltimore. Do understand this – when the chips are down, it is to the top person everyone looks. Not the city council, not the chief of police – to the Mayor. Regardless of whether her destroy remark was out of context, the city clearly fell apart on her watch.
This reminds me a bit of Hurricane Katrina – while the MSM and the Democrats (but, I repeat myself) managed to fix in the public mind that President Bush (who bore zero legal responsibility) was at fault for the failed response, the reality was that the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana failed. The two leaders were both also rather conventional Democrat politicians who had spent most of their lives in politics – and were the kindly, public faces of the party to the electorate. But, they failed miserably. I think this is because our Democrats are rather clever in most instances – they know they need a kind face in front and so they find one. One who will do as they are told, not rock the boat and allow the nauseating sea of Democrat corruption to continue unhindered by reality. I don’t know for certain if Ms. Rawlings-Blake is as much of a zero as the Mayor and Governor were in Louisiana, but my guess is that she was elevated to the Mayor’s office by the Democrat powers-that-be not because of a sterling record of accomplishment but, rather, because of her loyalty and pliability (she signed off on a plan to fix Baltimore’s disastrous fiscal problems – and it promises to reduce a shortfall over ten years from $750 million to $400 million…which means it fixes precisely nothing and, I’ll bet, even the $300 million saved is probably due to fiscal hocus-pocus; a real leader doesn’t sign off on a solution which doesn’t solve; the difference is in what Walker did in Wisconsin – he really fixed Wisconsin’s fiscal woes).
The main thing to keep in mind outside of the particular merits of the current leaders of Baltimore is that the last time a Republican ran the city was from 1963 to 1967, and Republicans have held the Mayor’s office only 16 out of the last 100 years. Baltimore is the Democrat’s city. They own it. If there is anything wrong with Baltimore, it is 100% the fault of the Democrats. And very liberal Democrats, at that (as an aside, Nancy Pelosi’s dad and brother both served as Mayor – her brother botching the 1968 riots so badly that he was booted out of office after one term; another oddity is that at that time, as well, a Democrat mayor botched the response and a Republican Governor, Spiro T. Agnew, called out the National Guard – and, eventually, federal troops courtesy of the President – to restore order). Bottom line is that if the Baltimore Police Department is a racist oppressor, then it is made up of and run by liberal racist oppressors. I fully expect at the next election the people rioting in the streets will vote for the same people running the show today.
Astonishingly, President Obama actually used the word “thugs” to describe the rioters. Per many liberals, this actually makes President Obama a racist as the word “thug” is code for “N word”. President Obama, more true to form, did manage to place some of the blame on the GOP for the riots, claiming that GOP failure to pass his agenda has meant less money for programs to alleviate the problems which led to the riots. This in service of the ideal that only vast sums of federal cash funneled to bureaucrats can fix our problems. I actually figure the use of the word “thug” was because someone did some polling and found out that riots don’t play well for the 2016 narrative – after all, it has been a couple days and Obama is only speaking just today.
Lost in all this is the man who’s death in police custody sparked the riots (or, at any rate, provided an excuse for criminal elements to go on a rampage). Freddy Gray was no exemplar of good citizenship – but what caused his arrest is that he took off running when the police approached him. He was found with a switchblade and arrested. To be sure, running from the police is not a good idea – but I don’t find in the available information any underlying crime being committed…and arresting someone for having a knife seems a bit extreme (and you can probably thank the good liberals who run Baltimore for making sure that knife possession is illegal). Irritatingly, some on the right are pointing out Gray’s long rap sheet as some sort of justification for his death. Sorry, folks, but being a petty criminal doesn’t in any way, shape or form justify death. Unless the police can come up with credible evidence that Gray attacked them, then the police did wrong (to be sure, in the Ferguson case, the evidence ended up being open and shut – the dead man did attack the officer…and maybe over time some evidence of this will come out in the Gray case: so far, it hasn’t). Most of Gray’s arrests seem to be over drugs, so I guess we can count this as another victory in the War on Drugs? And may we please surrender in that war?
The MSM covered itself in it’s usual glory here – first ignoring the riots when they started because that might have made Obama’s appearance at the White House Correspondents Dinner look bad. Next by trying to some how justify the riots based upon American racism without even once noting that the city is run by liberals (and has a black Mayor, black Chief of Police and is, indeed, 63% black). Interspersed among this has been the sensationalist showing of videos of burning buildings and lack of police presence – coverage assured to get everyone off the couch and off to the looting (except for one young man who has the best mother, ever).
In all of this, I don’t think I’ve seen any intelligent commentary or suggestions. The thing to be done is, of course, a national campaign to reform police practices and for the GOP to start getting into these deep blue cities and start campaigning. Offer the people there a choice, for crying out loud. Do you really think that most people in Baltimore want to live like that? Of course they don’t – but all they get is, at best, a choice between the liberal Democrat who is favored by the party bosses and the odd liberal Democrat who thinks he or she should have been favored by the party bosses. Nothing will change in places like Baltimore until there is something to change to.
It is all really rather sad and enraging – I pray for the people of Baltimore, and of our poor nation, so badly served by politicians and media.
UPDATE: If this is true, then it is a complete game-changer in the Freddy Gray story.
Blogs For Victory 
There has to be a complete investigation to find the truth of what happened. On the surface, it doesn’t look good for the police on this one. However, what we are witnessing is the collapse of everything the Democrats have stood for over the last 50 years starting with the war on poverty. Government HAS NOT helped the black community. Pandering liberal politicians HAVE NOT helped the black community. In fact, the black community is needlessly worse off as a result of disingenuous politicians and incompetent and ineffective government bureaucrats and the empty promises they have made over the last few decades.
Mayor Blake spent most of yesterday trying to walk back her comment about letting the protesters that wanted to destroy have the space to do so. She tried to deny that she had said that, but, unfortunately for her, she was on camera when she said it, and the lack police response supported the face that, at least the police understood what she said. And the rioters clearly know that they had the green light.
Has anyone else noticed something really strange about the riots in Ferguson, Staten Island and Baltimore. To the best of my knowledge, no one has died in the riots. You have people throwing Molotov Cocktails, stones and bricks, all brought in by mostly outside agitators, and not a single death. It’s like it’s all staged. Now I’m not advocating that they ramp up the deaths, but something’s fishy in Denmark.
One of the funniest (in a sad sort of way) parts was the LEO who picked up a rock that had been thrown at him and hurled it back at the rioters. The immediate response from the media was that the police were “escalating”. YCMTSU!
As usual, Rush nails it:
it’s manmade liberalism that is destroying America’s urban core — rapid expansion of government at the expense of free markets, private property rights, school choice, intact families, controlled immigration — all that’s gone! All that’s been thrown out, other than the rapid expansion of government. Rapid expansion of government has taken place at the expense of free markets, private property rights, school choice, intact families.
And wouldn’t this be a very good time for conservatives to point out to the mindless progressives that this really isn’t a good time to be legalizing millions of people and flooding the unskilled labor market? And it is equally not a good idea to keep children trapped in failing schools.
I can see your point about it appearing a bit of kabuki theater – on the other hand, if the police aren’t trying to stop them and the honest citizens are disarmed (as most are in the blue cities), then there’s really nothing to fight about. Burn and steal all you want, as it were.
Of course, there aren’t riots in red cities – and likely never will be. Because even if the police were ordered off the job, the people are armed and not likely to supinely take it.
OT, but the global warming dilemma for the Left continues.
On the one hand, the Left would have us believe that the world is too hot, but when nature accommodates and cools things off, they blame poor economic growth on the cold. That’s humorously ironic on several levels.
.2% annualized GDP growth after the first quarter is more than disappointing and should give progressives another reason to pause and reconsider their policies. But of course they won’t and will instead blame everyone, and everything other than themselves.
I am curious as to what everyone thinks of the article linked below. Could it be that we actually might get serious about using our natural resources to lift up our economy, provide good paying jobs and lessen our dependence on foreign resources?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/11563761/US-to-launch-blitz-of-gas-exports-eyes-global-energy-dominance.html
Of course, obame blames Republicans for the riots by holding up his policies.
“There’s a bunch of my agenda that would make difference right now in that,” he said, calling for more funding for early education, criminal justice reform and job training.”
Bad grammar aside (I guess he did not have his teleprompter) if you really think about it, none of these would apply to the teens that are rioting. Early education? Nope. Criminal justice reform? Hardy. Job training? Child labor laws put it place by other liberal regressives would prevent them from working.
So the pResident is just playing politics again. The ignorant masses, useful idiots and the mindless drones would eat it up and regurgitate it at every turn, desperate to regain control that they have lost. Then if you really think about it, the present “leadership” in the House and Senate cave to obame once the racist card is played – “you are opposing the President because he is black.” – just sends Boehner and McConnell running with their tails between their legs.
Pathetic all the way around.
The mayor failed. There is no doubt about that, but all they have to do is point out her race and the criticism will end with the MSM.
I agree – but part of the problem is that we on the right don’t even try. I’d like to find out the last time the RNC put some money into Baltimore.
Even when we ran against Barack Obama, about 9% of African-Americans voted our way. There are conservative, black Republicans. If we’re looking at a city like Baltimore where 63% of the population is black, find the conservatives. Provide them some money and organizing back-up. It’ll still be up to them to actually pull off a win, but no matter how you slice it, we’ll have a better chance than we do now when we don’t even try. And I view it as a positive duty – the people of Baltimore are given no real choice. Ok, so at the next election the GOPer we back only get 25% of the vote…but when the victorious Democrat proves to be the corrupt, incompetent nimrod his GOP opponent claimed, then maybe the next time around we got a shot?
Outside of that, we’d be building up the farm team in the blue States. The guy who agrees to be the sacrificial lamb this year is now the guy who has more experience and name recognition. So next time he runs for the House district and has a real shot at toppling the Democrat. Ground up, step by step