Mondawmin Mall

Andrew and Andria Talk About Baltimore

• Report rights infringement
• published: 19 Jun 2015
• views: 58

A phone call discussing Baltimore and *White Supremacy* ---- On April 12, 2015, Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African American resident of Baltimore, Maryland, sustained injuries following his arrest by policemen. On April 18, 2015, after Gray's subsequent coma, the residents of Baltimore protested in front of the Western district police station. Gray died the following day, April 19, 2015, a week after being arrested. Apparently in good health at the time of his arrest, Gray fell into a coma while in transport as the result of injuries to his neck and spine sustained while being transported in a police vehicle. On May 1, 2015, Gray's death was ruled to be a homicide and legal charges were issued against the six officers involved in the incident, including that of second-degree murder. Protests were organized after Gray's death became public knowledge, and spontaneous protests started after the funeral service, although several included violent elements. Civil unrest and hooliganism continued with at least twenty police officers injured, at least 250 people arrested, thousands of police and Maryland Army National Guard troops were deployed, and a state of emergency was declared in the city limits of Baltimore. On April 25, 2015, protests were organized in downtown Baltimore. Protesters marched from the Baltimore City Hall to Inner Harbor. After the final stage of the official protest event, some people became violent and damaged at least five police vehicles, and pelted police with rocks. During a press conference, Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said most protesters were respectful but a "small group of agitators intervened". She also stated that "It’s a very delicate balancing act. Because while we try to make sure that they were protected from the cars and other things that were going on, we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well. And we worked very hard to keep that balance and to put ourselves in the best position to de-escalate."The phrase "we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well" was interpreted by some conservative-leaning news sources as an indication that the mayor was giving permission to protesters to destroy property, while some others, including Breitbart News Network, pointed out that "when you look at the full context, it’s clear the Mayor meant something different (though it’s also true she didn’t say it very clearly)." Two days later, the mayor's Director of Strategic Planning and Policy, Howard Libit, released a statement clarifying the mayor's remarks: What she is saying within this statement was that there was an effort to give the peaceful demonstrators room to conduct their peaceful protests on Saturday. Unfortunately, as a result of providing the peaceful demonstrators with the space to share their message, that also meant that those seeking to incite violence also had the space to operate. The police sought to balance the rights of the peaceful demonstrators against the need to step in against those who were seeking to create violence. The mayor is not saying that she asked police to give space to people who sought to create violence. Any suggestion otherwise would be a misinterpretation of her statement. A peaceful service was held for Freddie Gray at the New Shiloh Baptist Church on April 27 at 11 a.m., after a one-hour public viewing. A large attendance included civil rights leaders, families of other people killed by police, and politicians including Congressman Elijah Cummings, Cabinet Secretary Broderick Johnson, White House adviser Heather Foster, and Elias Alcantara of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. A photograph of the April 25 rioters standing on a Baltimore police car was superimposed with the text "All HighSchools Monday @3 We Are Going To Purge From Mondawmin To The Ave, Back To Downtown #Fdl" ("Purge" being a reference to the film series)and distributed on social media[38] and as flyers. In response, Mondawmin Mall was closed at 2:15 p.m. and police in riot gear were deployed to the area. In preparation for the 'purge' police shut down the Mondawmin metro stop and also blockaded many of the nearby streets. As a result, students from Frederick Douglass High School, which is across the street from Mondawmin Mall, had considerable difficulty leaving the area via public transportation when their classes ended an hour after the "purge" began, and contributed to the swelling crowd. According to eyewitness reports, expecting the "purge" to start at 3 p.m., Baltimore police pre-emptively de-boarded all buses going through the area, shut down the nearby Mondawmin Metro station and cordoned off the area around the mall.