As most readers of TMV know, four weeks ago in the aftermath of the Freddie Gray death, the city of Baltimore experienced a series of riots which included significant property damage, the arrest of several hundred protestors and the mobilization of the Maryland National Guard.
This morning, a new round of peaceful protest was initiated by a local pastor which shut down parts of I-95 and I-395 because of the budget decision by Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan to place a new juvenile jail in Baltimore. The merits of a new jail can be debated at another time; the main issue for me is the status of urban America in a post-Baltimore riot environment.
In my opinion, the riots in Baltimore was not just about the tragedy of Freddie Gray’s death. More central to the protests is the lack of hope people in urban areas have to live a better life. For decades, government help has been allowed to replace individual resourcefulness. The frustration ignited by the loss of hope spilled out into the streets of Baltimore with explosive fury and was enabled by Mayor Rawlings-Blake and her decision to give space for “people who wished to destroy.”
It has been three weeks since the National Guard was ordered to pull out of Baltimore. The wounds of the riots are still visible and there is still clean-up efforts underway to repair the physical damage. More importantly, the underlying tensions (and feelings of hopelessness) have not gone away or even been dealt with. Every urban city in this country is at the precipice of another internal disruption; it only will take another Freddie Gray to light the fuse again.
Faculty, Department of Political Science, Towson University. Graduate from Liberty University Seminary.