On Monday night as I was leaving the city to return home, I happened to drive up North Avenue to head past Coppin State University and make my way west. I drove right in the middle of folks looting, breaking windows, and setting vehicles on fire. I couldn’t make out the faces, but several young men and women were laughing as they destroyed storefronts and made off with whatever they could. At one point, a man carrying some small silver object in his hand tried to open my car door. It was a frightening moment and I wonder what would have happened if I didn’t remember to lock my doors when I drove from Penn North.
Undeterred, I returned to the area daily and witnessed firsthand the opening night of the week-long curfew instituted by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Community activist Deray Mckesson was one of several people in the area who flooded the streets as police helicopters flew about overhead. Maryland congressman and Baltimore resident Elijah Cummings pleaded to the crowd to disperse ahead of the 10:00 p.m. curfew, and he was met with a chorus of F-bombs and other choice words. The crowd began to push forward and face off with the National Guard and police troops in the area.
The police helicopter speakers blared out a warning about the curfew and demanded everyone to go home. That only served to agitate the crowd more and they continued to press forward. I drove away and saw some manner of gas coming from the middle of the intersection. Cops began making their way towards me so I hopped in my car and sped off. I tried to get back around, but I was waved off by heavily armed officers in riot gear.
This dance between protesters and the police went on daily and continues to persist with a handful of arrests taking place. What the people want is true justice and not an empty show full of pomp and false bravado. They want to believe that State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby will pursue justice under fairly and honestly. The community desperately wants to heal itself and there is definitely a unified front in Baltimore, even between the impoverished East and Westside natives.
Gray’s death signaled a call to everyone that across the nation, police are seemingly targeting and mistreating Black people in a disparate way. Anyone attempting to deny that there isn’t something insidious afoot in how police are handling cases in urban environments are most likely looking at these increasingly frequent situations through a one-sided lens.
