...that’s unfortunate that they’re really using everything that’s happening across our country to blame Black Lives Matter. And I don’t agree with that at all. It’s really unfortunate that that’s happening and that these trials are being used to attack Black Lives Matter.
From the article: Captured on cellphone video, the incident received attention because we are living in a moment when many people have decided that the state-sanctioned killing of black people by law enforcement is worth our attention—and that’s very uncomfortable for those who want to believe that every police killing must be in some way justified, if we could only see how.
“The rich are only defeated when running for their lives,” the historian C.L.R. James noted. And until you see the rich fleeing in panic from the halls of Congress, the temples of finance, the universities, the media conglomerates, the war industry and their exclusive gated communities and private clubs, all politics in America will be More
Cohn: The Maryland Medical Examiner concluded Gray’s death was a homicide, “believed to be the result of a fatal injury that occurred when Mr. Gray was unrestrained by a seatbelt in the custody of the Baltimore Police Department wagon.”
Kolhatkar: Such police responses to the burgeoning anti-brutality movement are part of a concerted campaign to maintain support for the status quo. That status quo has been in place since the end of slavery: Poor communities, especially communities of color, are expected to submit to the authority of the police state.
From the article: You'd never know it from the media's Gotham-esque portrayal of a city riddled with criminals and "thugs," but on Monday night Baltimore was also a story of good Samaritans trying to disperse emotional crowds. It was a story of everyday citizens determined to dissipate tensions between protesters and police, of ordinary folks cleaning up their city while the media turned its cameras away. And it was a story of determined advocates for racial equality holding a meaningful dialogue with police on the streets.
