Monday, May 18, 2015

Baltimore: The New Gaza

What Role for Muslims (and Other People of Conscience)?
By Nadrat Siddique
 
On Saturday, April 25, a large protest against the police murder of Black Baltimore native Freddie Gray was called by the Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly and the Baltimore Bloc. By evening, the legal permitted protest dissolved into large scale street blockages, including, to the chagrin of the authorities, in the vicinity of the stadium where the baseball game was underway. Traffic came to a standstill, and a very large number of police descended on the area and surrounded the protestors. Corporate media immediately characterized the spontaneous actions following the permitted protest, as riots—and the participants as thugs, hoodlums, rioters, and other pejoratives. The media accorded similar treatment to the student action near Baltimore’s Mondawmin Mall two days later.
 
Given all that Baltimore youth have endured for decades, and given the dehumanization, degradation, marginalization, and indeed genocide, which much of Black Baltimore has experienced in a largely Black city, under an administration which can only be characterized as Jim Crow in Black face, the Baltimore Uprising was inevitable. The only thing surprising about it was that it took so many years to reach this point. This report examines the events of Saturday, April 25 and Monday, April 27, and the underlying political climate which led to them. It starts with an overview of conditions in Baltimore, including the city’s vast prison industry and the daily police terror faced by Baltimore natives, then focuses on the specific conditions under which Baltimore’s Black and Brown youth live. Finally, it attempts to illustrate the inevitability of the Baltimore Uprising. An interview with grassroots activist, Reverend Annie Chambers, whose Big Momma’s House for years offered support to indigent Baltimore children and youth, follows the report.
 
BACKGROUND
 
Although statistics don’t tell the whole story, they are a good starting point. According to U.S. Census Bureau figures for Baltimore, the unemployment rate for young black men between the ages of 20 to 24, was an astounding 37% in 2013. For white men of the same age, the unemployment rate was 10%.[1] Grassroots organizations, which work directly with local populations in Baltimore, report even more dismal statistics. The Baltimore Black Think Tank (BBTT), an advocacy group for Black and poor people in the city, says nearly 60 percent of Black males in Baltimore are unemployed.
According to government sources, nearly 24% of Baltimore's population is living below the poverty line ($20,090 per year for a family of three).[2] But, according to the BBTT, “Economic Conditions for 67% of the total Black population in Baltimore City have been determined to be critical.”[3]
In Baltimore, as elsewhere, economics clearly correlates with how long and how well one will live. A juxtaposition of the Black neighborhoods of Upton and Druid Heights, with the primarily White, Jewish neighborhood of Roland Park is telling: The life expectancy in Upton and Druid Heights is 63-years old. In Roland Park, it is 83-years old. In the SandtownWinchester/ Harlem Park community where Freddie Gray lived, seven percent of the children have elevated lead levels in their blood, with severe implications for their development and well-being. In Roland Park, no children have elevated lead levels in their blood.[4] Freddie Gray and his two sisters had blood lead levels “above the threshold for the kind of poisoning which causes permanent brain damage,” according to tests ordered by the family, which successfully sued their then-landlord, but the damage was already done. Freddie was in special education classes for the duration of his academic career, and ultimately dropped out of high school.[5]
 
The income gap between Upton/Druid Heights and Roland Park is no less stark than that in life expectancy. In Upton/Druid Heights, the median income is $13,388 a year. In Roland Park, it is $90,492. These neighborhoods are less than five miles away from each other. But this disparity is not limited to Upton/Druid Heights, and Roland Park. Citywide, average White income is almost twice as much as that of Blacks.[6]
 
Prison Industry
 
As in other big cities, poverty, unemployment, disenfranchisement, and gentrification—
in short, the disinheriting of the poor—is invariably addressed by the System through imprisonment of the target population. To that end, there are nine prisons in Baltimore.[7] A tenth prison—for Baltimore youth—was just approved by the Maryland State Board of Public Works. All of the existing prisons were built by the Democrats. So, while many, including Blacks, view the Democratic Party as the friend of Black people, it is more accurate to say the party is deeply enmeshed in the prison industry in Baltimore, and as such, is the instrument of the White Supremacy.
 
If one is arrested in Baltimore, one is first taken to Baltimore Central Booking. It is among the 20 largest jails in the U.S. More than 73,000 people go through Baltimore Central Booking every year.[8] In comparison with the other 19 largest jails in the country, Baltimore has the dubious distinction of holding the highest percentage of its population in jail. As a result of years of gentrification, only 63.7% of Baltimore’s population is Black (29.6% are White).[9] Over 35,000 people are committed to the Baltimore City Detention Center each year. The majority of these are Black.[10] This is yet one more indicator that this population has been targeted for marginalization, demoralization, and ultimately genocide.
 
The Baltimore jail system is one of the oldest and largest pretrial facilities in the country. The Baltimore City Detention Center consists of five buildings and can hold around 4,000 people. Significantly—and very differently from other jails—the Baltimore Jail system is paid for by the State of Maryland, not by Baltimore. This means there is no incentive for Baltimore authorities to limit the number of people they arrest and incarcerate. So, not surprisingly, nearly 4,000 people are locked up in the Baltimore Jail system on any given day.[11]
 
Roughly nine out of 10 of those held in the Baltimore Jail system have not yet gone to trial, and hence are still legally innocent. The majority of those being held are Black men, mostly under the age of 35.[12]
Of the approximately 4,000 people detained at Central Booking on any given day, about 33% are accused of violent offenses. Twenty-eight percent (28%) are incarcerated for drug offenses. Another 19% are held on other nonviolent offenses (other than drugs). Twelve percent are locked up for a violation of probation. The jail itself classifies 27% of detainees as low security.[13] So, even at this pre-trial level, it is safe to say that a very large percentage of detainees are held for non-violent offenses, by a White Supremacist power structure which has a vested interest in their labeling, marginalization, and ultimately their elimination.
 
After one is convicted in Baltimore, one is usually removed to state prison. Statistics for who is in state prison, revealed in a February 2015 report by the Justice Police Institute (JPI) in collaboration with the Prison Policy Initiative, are eye-opening. One out of three Maryland residents in state prison is from Baltimore.[14] This is despite the fact that Maryland is a relatively populous state, and only one in ten Maryland residents is from Baltimore.
 
The JPI report examined 55 communities in Baltimore. Off the 55 communities, five contributed the largest number of people to state prison. The community sending the largest number of people to prison was—not surprisingly—that of Freddie Gray: SandtownWinchester/Harlem Park. There, 3% of the total population is in prison. So, 458 people from Freddie Gray’s community are locked up in Maryland state prison. And the state spends $17 million on keeping them there.[15]
 
Freddie Gray’s community is 96.6 % Black. There, unemployment for people between the ages of 16 - 64 is 52%. Thirtyfour percent (34%) of the inhabitants do not have a high school diploma or GED. One out of three houses in the community was vacant or abandoned in 2012.[16]
 
Just below Freddy’s community in terms of highest incarceration were the communities of Southwest Baltimore, Greater Rosemont, CliftonBerea, and Southern Park Heights. A combined total of 1,416 people from these communities are held in Maryland state prison. So, one in four people who are in prison from Baltimore City come from these four communities, plus Freddy’s community of SandtownWinchester/ Harlem Park. Most of these communities are Black. And Maryland taxpayers dole out $10 million per year to each of these communities to lock up their citizens.[17]
 
The community with the smallest number of people locked up was Greater Roland Park/Poplar Hill. Not surprisingly, the population of Roland Park is 77.5% White, with Asians forming 9.8% of the population, and Blacks 7.9%.[18]
 
The report enlarged its scope to name the 25 Baltimore communities with the highest incarceration rates. These were: Pimlico/Arlington/Hilltop; Southern Park Heights; Dorchester/Ashburton; Forest Park/Walbrook; Greater Mondawmin; Penn North/Reservoir Hill; Greater Charles Village/Barclay; Edmondson Village; Greater Rosemont; SandtownWinchester/Harlem Park; Upton/Druid Heights; Allendale/Irvington/South Hilton; Southwest Baltimore; Greater Govans; Northwood; Midway/Coldstream; Belair/Edison; Cedonia/Frankford; Greenmount East; CliftonBerea; Oldtown/Middle East; Madison/East End; Patterson Park (North and East); Cherry Hill; and Brooklyn/Curtis Bay/Hawkins Point.[19]
 
Most of these 25 communities are majority Black. A few of the communities had working class/poor White populations. At least $5 million per year is spent by Maryland taxpayers to incarcerate people from each of these twenty-five communities. Seven out of 10 Baltimore residents in a state prison in 2010 were from one of these 25 communities. In total, Maryland taxpayers spend $288 million each year to lock up mostly Black and poor people from Baltimore City.[20]
 
Police Murders
 
After the establishment of Baltimore’s Central Booking, it became the job of the police to deliver people there. (Previously police had taken suspects to the respective precincts where they were arrested.) However, many people never make it to Central Booking because they are brutalized—sometimes to death—by police prior to being booked, charged, tried, or convicted. Police brutality is epidemic. Before Freddie Gray, there was 46-year old Anthony Anderson, slammed to the ground so hard by police that his spleen ruptured. There was Maurice Donald Johnson, shot multiple times by police in his mother’s living room. There was 22-year old Sean Gamble, retreating to his car parked outside a nightclub, shot multiple times by police. Twenty-nine year old Dale Graham, shot by police after a family disagreement. Fourteen-year old Kevin Cooper shot inside his mother’s home by police. Thirteen-year old Monae Turnage shot dead on her way home from watching a movie with school friends, with a rifle later found in a plainclothes police officer’s car. Forty-four year old Tyrone West, pulled by his dreadlocks from his sister’s Lexus which he was driving, to be beaten and stomped to death by 12 police officers. Twenty-nine-year old George Booker Wells, shot and killed by police, after they chased him two blocks from his girlfriend’s house. Twenty-five year old Donte Bennett, shot with his hands up after he’d been running from police. William Torbitt, a Black police officer, shot to death by other police officers near a nightclub. Nineteen-year old George King, tasered to death by police as he lay recuperating in a hospital bed. And heart wrenchingly, the list continues to grow.
 
The States Attorney, a Zionist Jew named Gregg Bernstein, was in office when most of these cases came to light. Tasked with indicting in cases where a crime had occurred, he refused to prosecute the officers in nearly every case, saying the officers had not used excessive force, and had followed police procedures. To him, it seemed of no consequence that in some of the cases which came before him, such as that of Anthony Anderson, the State’s own medical examiner had ruled the death a homicide. Similarly video footage and eyewitness testimony of police beatings and use of excessive force seemed of no matter to him. Bernstein himself lived comfortably in Roland Park, a neighborhood of zero percent incarceration.
 
Non-Fatal (but Serious) Incidents of Police Brutality
 
In addition to the people killed outright by the Baltimore Police Department, a very large number of Baltimore Blacks are profiled, harassed, or brutalized by police. By 2014, the situation had gotten so far out of hand that even the pro-establishment Baltimore Sun released a major report revealing that large numbers of Baltimore natives had been brutalized and battered so badly that they successfully sued the city to the tune of $5.7 million. This included 102 separate court cases since 2011. (Since then, an additional $587,250 has been awarded in settlements to subsequent victims.) According to the Sun report, the cases show that “officers have battered dozens of residents who suffered broken bones — jaws, noses, arms, legs, ankles — head trauma, organ failure, and even death, coming during questionable arrests. Some residents were beaten while handcuffed; others were thrown to the pavement.”[21]
 
An eighty-seven-year-old grandmother, named Venus Green, was pushed, shoved, and brutalized by police to the extent that she suffered a broken shoulder. She was then hogtied and placed face down on her couch. A 26-year old pregnant woman, named Starr Brown, was slammed to the ground by police, despite her pleas that she was pregnant. Then there was Dondi Johnson Sr. who was left paralyzed in 2005 after being recklessly driven around by police.[22]
 
Baltimore has a very large and visible Black Muslim population. If one is evidently Muslim, one is greeted with “As-salaam alaikom” at every turn. In that sense, Baltimore is a very Muslim friendly city. But—Black Muslims are the targets of police, along with everyone else. A 36-year old Muslim named Abdul Salaam, was pulled from his car in his driveway after police followed him home for an alleged seat belt violation, slammed to the ground, then hogtied and beaten so badly in front of his young son, that it was a miracle he survived.[23] Another Muslim, Salahudeen Abdul-Aziz, whose beating by police resulted in a broken nose, facial fracture and other injuries, was not taken to a hospital for many hours.[24]
 
These cases are known primarily because the victims filed civil suits against the police, but for every case in which charges are filed, there are a multitude of others which never come to light because the victim fears police retribution; is unaware of his or her rights; or lacks the means, communication skills, or determination to bring charges.
 
Perversely, the injuries, beatings, and trauma are administered by police, who, in the United States, take an oath to “protect and serve” their constituents. Even more Orwellian, those who receive compensation for grievous injuries, including some which could have resulted in death, are not permitted to speak of their experience afterwards. If they talk, their award can be rescinded in whole or in part.
 
No Signs of Improvement
 
But even broad scale and successful litigation doesn’t appear to have made the police more responsive or conscientious in their dealings with those whom they are paid to serve. In May 2015, the Baltimore Sun published another report on the condition of detainees brought to Central Booking. They found that in the period from June 2012 through April 2015, a whopping 2,600 people were brought by police to Central Booking with injuries so severe the jail would not accept them (they had to be taken to the hospital instead). “Intake officers in Central Booking noted a wide variety of injuries, including fractured bones, facial trauma and hypertension. Of the detainees denied entry, 123 had visible head injuries, the third most common medical problem” the report said.[25] So while “rioting” youth were framed by the corporate media and government as the problem in Baltimore, many Baltimore residents pinpoint the police as the problem, indeed as the source of the terror under which they live.
 
Conditions for Baltimore Youth
 
After the street blockages on Saturday, April 25, and the youth uprising on Monday, April 27, the authorities, fearing an escalation and its implications for corporate interests, instated a city wide curfew from 10:00 PM to 5:00 AM.
 
What people outside Baltimore forgot is that youth in Baltimore were already under a curfew, enacted in June 2014, prior to any putative riots. That curfew required youth under 14 to be off the streets by 9:00 PM, and those age d14-16 had to be off the streets by 10:00 PM on school nights and 11:00 PM on weekends and over the summer. If they ventured out, they could be nabbed off the street by police. According to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, police would “bring youths found in violation of the new time limits to a year-round youth connection center.” In the process, a youth could be handed over to Child Protective Services. Even if a youth was not removed from his parent and placed with that agency, parents faced a fine of up to $500.[26]
 
The previous youth curfew, like the current city-wide one, was selectively enforced. The June 2014 curfew was almost never enforced in affluent, predominantly White areas. So White youth could consort, congregate to smoke weed, and engage in social interactions without interference—actions which would quickly land Black youth in the hands of the police.
 
Over and above police encounters arising from the curfew, Black children and youth undergo experiences with police early on which inculcate a well-founded distrust, animosity, and fear in them. Black children—who watch their parents, siblings, relatives, neighbors, or teachers being degraded, abused, beaten, or even murdered by the police—experience the trauma as if it is happening to them. Given Baltimore’s skyrocketing rates of police brutality, many Black inner city children are traumatized by seeing—whether on television, social media, or on the street—people who look like them being frisked; pulled from their cars and made to sit on the pavement; stomped, beaten, or slammed to the ground; or being shot multiple times by the police. Imagine a Black child listening to news of little Monae Turnage murdered, her body covered with trash, the rifle casings traced to a weapon in a police car. Or hearing of young George King, tasered to death by police while he lay helpless in a hospital bed. Many children fear similar treatment will be dealt to them or someone close to them.
 
According to Reverend Annie Chambers, a former Black Panther, whose organization, Big Momma’s house, offered support services to indigent children in Baltimore for years, the children, including teenagers who are already shy and/or sensitive about their bodies, are stopped and physically harassed on a whim by police. They are often forced to strip to their underwear in public by police. Sometimes the police go so far as to demand a body cavity search, clearly meant to humiliate the child or youth. Groping of girls’ breasts by police during such a stop is common, adds Reverend Chambers.
 
Actual detention of children is not unheard of either. The city detention center has up to twenty minors in its custody on any given day. The child prisoners are sometimes kept in solitary confinement for a month or longer.[27] In March 2015, the U.S. Justice Department's Division of Civil Rights found that "Teenagers awaiting trial on adult charges in Baltimore are being kept in solitary confinement far too long — up to 143 days in one case.”[28]
 
Indeed the State seems determined to imprison—rather than to educate, nurture, or uplift—Baltimore’s Black youth. Up until 2013, the State’s efforts were geared at building a $70 million youth jail. After concerted lobbying and citywide protests by the Baltimore Algebra Project and other opponents, the plans were finally dropped. Then, on May 13, 2015—just two weeks after the Baltimore Youth Uprising, the Board of Public Works of the State of Maryland approved plans to build a $30 million youth jail. This time it was passed with little to no debate.[29]
 
To add insult to injury, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan reallocated $68 million—which legislators had set aside for schools—to the pension system. Of the $68 million, Baltimore schools were to have gotten $11.6 million. [30]
 
But then writing off Black youth is nothing new to the State of Maryland. Around 1996, the situation was so dire that parents of Baltimore City students sued the Maryland State Department of Education for underfunding Baltimore City Schools. One Judge Kaplin ruled that the Department of Education was underfunding the Baltimore City Public School System, in comparison to other districts in the state of Maryland, and ordered the State to pay Baltimore City schools their due. The state blatantly ignored his orders. As a result, students lead strikes, hosted rallies, and attempted to perform a citizen arrest of the Maryland State Department of Education Superintendent Nancy Grasmick.[31] In subsequent years, similar lawsuits were filed against the Maryland State Department of Education, but conditions did not improve significantly.
 
In 2007, the Baltimore Black Think Tank reported that Baltimore City Schools contained lead in the drinking fountain water. In 2009, student leaders from the Baltimore Algebra Project described the city's school buildings as crumbling, the school bathrooms devoid of soap and paper towels, the school lunches as inedible, and textbooks as being in short supply.[32]
 
By 2010, conditions in Baltimore City Public Schools had deteriorated so significantly that students from the Baltimore Algebra Project and other groups petitioned the Board of Education to enact the “National Student Bill of Rights.” Included in the draft were demands such as: the right to study curriculum which addressed the real, material, and cultural needs of the communities from which the students came; the right to safe housing; the right to safe public schools; the right to high quality food; the right to freedom from unwarranted search, seizure or arrest by police; the right to establish systems of restorative justice in schools and communities, and cessation of exclusion from educational opportunities except by a jury of peers; and the right not be charged for crimes as adults until the age of 18.”[33]
 
The National Student Bill of Rights was swept under rug by the Board of Education.
 
In 2013, in a continuing trend, the city closed 20 recreation centers which could have benefitted Black and Brown youth. Not surprisingly, among these was the Lillian Jones center at Gilmor Elementary, in Freddie Gray’s neighborhood. Four more recreation centers in the poor and working class West Baltimore communities of Crispus Attucks, Central Rosemont, Hilton and Harlem Park were closed permanently.
 
While recreation centers were being closed left and right, police department budgets seemed immune to cuts: “In 1991, the city spent roughly $8.7 million to operate 76 recreation centers. The budget for police that year was $182 million. This year, the city will spend $10.6 million on its recreation centers and $324.9 million on comparable law enforcement programs,” reported the Baltimore Sun.[34]
 
One in three Baltimore City children live below the poverty line.[35]  As Reverend Annie Chambers told this writer, many of the children who came to Big Momma’s House did not have underwear or socks to wear to school. Once in school, they didn’t have pencils or paper to complete their assignments.
 
Clearly Black youth in Baltimore face multiple challenges: They are targeted by the police, the education system, the prison system, the media, even by the local Arab or Indo-Pak corner store owner who imagines them all to be criminals and speaks to them only through a bullet proof glass partition. Some such youth live in households lacking basic necessities, such as food, clothing, shoes, and electricity. Some have parents who are on drugs, “running the streets,” or in the prison system.
 
Leading up to the Baltimore Uprising, government and corporate interests had clearly determined that Baltimore’s youth were expendable. As an expendable segment of the population, they were to be eliminated. To accomplish that goal, Baltimore was turned into an open air prison, holding little promise for its imprisoned population. That population is offered only curfew, prisons, barbed wire, and police beatings. Baltimore has, without exaggeration, become the new Gaza.
 
April 25
After Saturday’s [April 25] legal permitted march ended, the protestors took it upon themselves to engage in disciplined street blockages. They did not, at first, damage any property. Then, near McKeldin Square (Baltimore Inner Harbor) and Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles baseball stadium), the protestors moved into the middle of the street like a wave, and linked arms. They refused to move despite police orders to do so, but remained largely peaceful. The baseball game ended, and affluent White Baltimore Orioles fans came pouring out of the stadium, but could not leave due to the street blockages. Angered at being inconvenienced by Black Baltimore, they hurled epithets of “n-gger” and other obscenities at the protestors. Many protestors were already enraged by the murder of yet another young black man, Freddie Gray, and the expectation that the police would once again be immune to prosecution. It was perhaps these factors, coupled with the extremely heavy police cordons, even during the peaceful protest, and the racial attacks by the White Orioles fans, which caused some to snap. They took to smashing police cars, knocking over barricades and trashcans, and breaking windows. Their energies were focused to a large extent on the Galleria (upscale shopping mall at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor),  and nearby restaurants and bars, built by the Zionists heading the Greater Baltimore Committee, and viewed widely as part of the gentrification which forced Black people out of the area over the past decade. As a result of this action, the Baltimore light rail, which stops near the stadium, and is usually littered with drunk White Oriole fans after a game, suspended its operations. The protestors did not disperse until after 11:00 PM.
 
 
April 27
 
Freddie Gray’s funeral was held on the morning of April 27. Many well-known politicians and religious figures attended and spoke passionately about the injustice dealt to Freddie. Shortly afterwards, some of them, notably Reverend Jesse Jackson and Reverend Al Sharpton, met with the mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who oversaw the killing of Gray and countless other Black men, not uttering a word against the police.
 
Later that afternoon, when schools let out, the dynamics of the situation took a 180 degree turn, as the youth took charge. Near Mondawmin Mall, where many students catch buses to return home after school, the buses were grounded by the authorities. Left with no mode of transportation to their homes, the students, with some teacher support, seized the occasion, taking to the streets and facing off with police. The standoff continued for hours, with students throwing rocks, bricks, and urine at the heavily armed phalanx of police. Hundreds of police cars, bearcats, armored personnel carriers, and helicopters were called into the area.
 
It is instructive to examine the targets of the students during Monday’s events. The students targeted police vans, like the one in which Freddie Gray was murdered. They targeted police cars and police officers (98 police were injured), instruments of the black community’s repression.
 
They hit a fire truck, which was observed with cracked windshield. They cut the hose on another fire truck, which was in the process of extinguishing a fire at a CVS store, also targeted in the action. Observers familiar with historical role of fire trucks note that non-violent civil rights activists, challenging White Supremacy during the 1960s and 1970s, were periodically doused with fire hoses, whose concentrated stream of water could cause serious harm, and even death to a protestor. In the eyes of many, fire trucks were no more neutral than police cars.
 
The youth also targeted the Save-A-Lot (discount food chain) and a CVS (drug) store. Community elders and others confirmed to this writer that many youth felt they had a rare opportunity to get “real food,” and they took it. They also expropriated toilet paper, medicine, and other essentials, often in short supply in neighborhoods targeted for financial ruin.
 
The “Sports Mart,” an athletic shoe store owned by one Harry Levy, in Mondawmin Mall was targeted. Interestingly, television cameras revealed that the shoes taken were, in many cases, singles (one shoe, as opposed to a pair).[36] So the shop owner was left with many single shoes, but few pairs. The Jewish shoe store owner lamented on corporate media that he had been in business for a good length of time, and would be unable to reopen for business.
 
An incipient senior center was targeted. Southern Baptist Church claimed to be behind the construction, but community leaders confirm that the center was, in actuality, a pet project of Johns Hopkins University, associated with experimentation on Black people and organ harvesting of Black corpses (without the consent of the dead). It is widely viewed as a racist institution by Blacks.
 
A liquor store was hit by the youth. The Korean owners were renowned for profiting from the sale of the toxin to Black folk, whom they treated with such disdain as to use gloves in case of accidental contact with the customers, whom they viewed as a lower life form.
 
Corporate media was targeted: a WNEW reporter was assaulted (other protestors stopped his assault). Corporate media were clearly not popular amongst the youth, and with good reason: these media insisted on using pejorative terminologies, usually originating with government officials, for the youth who were responding to savage police attacks. Yet Fox, WNEW, and others never used such language for the police perpetrators, and in a display of clearly slanted journalism, failed to give any meaningful coverage to the youth participating in the Uprising. They did not ask the youth what were their goals or motivations, or what inspired or angered them.
 
Instead, these media collaborated in insidious ways with the establishment: As Baltimore Black Think Tank President David Wiggins pointed out, WNEW, one of the main corporate media organs issuing on-the-ground reports during the uprising, promised to turn in its video to authorities. The authorities, in turn, would use it to aid in prosecuting and persecuting the youth. Many in the Baltimore Black community, youth and adults alike, were quickly realizing that the coverage given to the Uprising by corporate media would be on par with that accorded to Katrina survivors—one sided and exhibiting clear racial and class bias.
 
A few days after the Monday youth uprising, a Baltimore Orioles game was cancelled, with massive revenue losses to the corporate interests in the area. Those losses continued when the Orioles were forced to hold a subsequent game before an empty stadium. The Baltimore youth were doing exactly what global resistance movements against occupation and tyranny have done throughout time—hitting tourism, financial targets, and symbols of the occupation.
 
Has Peaceful Protesting Worked in Baltimore?
 
Baltimore has a long history of civic organizations, from the NAACP, SCLC, NAN, Baltimore Algebra Project, APC, and others protesting for Black causes. One family affected by police brutality, the West family, have protested nearly every Wednesday since the death of their loved one, Tyrone West, nearly two years ago. Despite the presence of numerous eye-witnesses to West’s beating death by 10 -15 police, and despite the family’s weekly protests, not one officer was fired from the police force, let alone indicted, convicted, or jailed in the case.
 
In the Anthony Anderson case, although the State’s own medical examiner ruled the death of that innocent Black man a homicide—the States’ Attorney refused to indict.
 
Similarly, after every beating, shooting, or death in police custody of a Black man or woman in Baltimore, people gather to protest, chant, and march. They hold town halls, appeal to City Hall, and lobby the legislature. And no indictments of police are handed down. The police remain on paid leave pending investigation. When the investigation is completed, it is found they were acting within the limits of their assigned duty.
 
One day, the youth decided that enough was enough.
 
Statements of Elected Officials and Others on the Uprising
 
While the youth, like the youth of Gaza, Palestine, put their lives and liberty on the line, paid politicians and “leaders” were in damage control mode. They were largely united in their pro-business stance:
 
President Obama said the “looters” should be treated as “criminals” and “thugs.” “There is no excuse for the kind of violence we saw yesterday,” he continued. “They're not protesting. They're not making a statement. They're stealing. When they burn down a building they're committing arson.”[37]
 
Governor Larry Hogan opined, "These acts of violence and destruction of property cannot and will not be tolerated. I strongly condemn the actions of those who engaged in direct attacks against innocent civilians, businesses, and law enforcement officers."[38]
 
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said, “I condemn the senseless acts of violence by some individuals in Baltimore that have resulted in harm to law enforcement officers, destruction of property and a shattering of the peace in the city of Baltimore.  Those who commit violent actions, ostensibly in protest of the death of Freddie Gray, do a disservice to his family, to his loved ones, and to legitimate peaceful protestors..”[39]
 
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake chimed in, “The rioting, looting, and violence will not be tolerated.. Too many people have spent generations building up this city for it to be destroyed by thugs, who in a very senseless way, are trying to tear down what so many have fought for, tearing down businesses, tearing down and destroying property..”[40] 
 
Baltimore City Council member Brandon Scott said, the rioters were “cowards.” Congressman Elijah Cummings condemned the rioters for attempting to take advantage of a chaotic situation and for “distracting from finding solutions to the problem.”[41]
 
Pastor Jamal Bryant, the pastor of a megachurch in Baltimore said, “Rioting and looting will not get us justice; nor will it turn the tide.” And Reverend Al Sharpton of the National Action Network said, “We should be fighting the violence and not adding to it.”
 
The common thread among the politicians rushing to condemn the youth was that none of them had previously taken a firm stance or effective actions against police brutality or police murders of Black people in Baltimore or elsewhere. Nor had they instructed their constituents in effective means of stopping police brutality and murder.
 
 
Statements from the Baltimore grassroots
 
In stark contrast to these statements was the stance of prominent Baltimore grassroots leaders. Many of these had a track record of opposing police brutality in Baltimore.
 
Naim Ajamu, a well-known community leader on Baltimore’s West Side said, “Why are we called thugs? Are those on Wall Street called thugs? Are the Koch Brothers called thugs? Are the criminals in politics called thugs!? We have been marginalized over and over again! Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is a thug! Hogan is a thug! Batts is a thug![42]
 
Reverend Annie Chambers of Big Momma’s House said, The children struck a match, lit the fire. Let’s hope the adults have the sense to put some wood onto the fire, continue to fight. I’m glad the children did what they did, because they stood up and said I’m human and I want to be treated like I’m human. I’m an instrument and a soldier in the Army of the Lord. They’re not thugs and thieves. They’re truly soldiers in the Army of the Lord.”
 
Steven Ceci, of the All Peoples Congress said, “I stand firmly with the youth of Baltimore that have every right to rebel.. The fact of the matter is that what is occurring in the streets of Baltimore is a rebellion, and yes, it is a rebellion, not a riot. When people rise up because of a political or social issue such as police terror and state repression, then it is a rebellion. When white college students flip cars over and burn them over a sporting event which has no political meaning that is a riot. There are various ways to protest, one of which is battling the police and destroying private property.”[43]
 
David L. Johnson, Sr. of the News Networks and Analysis Project/ Baltimore Black Think Tank, said, “Young people showed them that this new world order ain't gonna be easy to implement on their generation. Only the Uncle Toms seem happy to comply with it.. A mayor and police commissioner recklessly determined to protect business interest and property above black lives is just not right. The saddest point of the day is the fact that these negroes simply cannot do any better. Young people showed them a thing or two. White police with guns and ammo...Black people see that every day. Black babies angry as hell--white folk ain't never seen anything like it.”[44]
 
Darren Muhammad, “State of the City” talk show host and grassroots activist said, “The biggest looter in recent American history calling our young people looters.. If they looted, they learned from the best, you Obama. You robbed and looted Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Egypt, and other countries..”
 
David Wiggins, Baltimore Black Think Tank President, said:  “Baltimore families and children deserve to be protected from deprivations of civil rights under color of law and murder by police under color of law. We will resist murder under color of law with equal or greater force than you attempt to use to force us into submission. We are not intimidated, and we are cognizant of our natural right to resist law enforcement under color of law used to force us to submit to murder under color of law. Self-defense from murder under color of law is not violence. The youth of Baltimore are defending themselves from murder under color of law, because you [Governor Larry Hogan] have failed to protect them.[45]
 
Conclusion
 
In Ferguson, when an NAACP representative was speaking at a rally against police brutality shortly after the police murder of Michael Brown, the youth turned their backs to him. The established clergy and politicians have failed the youth, and the youth know these have no backbone. As in Ferguson, the youth in Baltimore are the real leaders. They have an innate sense of justice. Time and time again, even folk strongly opposed to the “riots” have told this writer that it was the actions of the youth, at least in part, which lead to the six police involved in Gray’s murder being indicted. Inshallah, history will judge the Baltimore Uprising to have been inevitable, righteous, and effective.
 
What should Muslims (and Other People of Conscience) do now?
 
The Qur’an says: “Free the captives.” It also says, “Incline not to those who do wrong, or the Fire will seize you.” Further, the Sublime Book says, “And why should ye not fight in the cause of Allah and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated (and oppressed)? Men, women, and children, whose cry is: "Our Lord! Rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will protect; and raise for us from thee one who will help!"
 
What do these verses translate to in modern times? The police force evolved from the slave patrols. The job of the slave patrols was to capture runaway slaves and return them to sordid situations of oppression. Today’s slaves are the innocents—the children of Baltimore and other cities in urban America--upon whose necks the System has its boot. We must free them from the prison in which America holds them. Not all prisons have four walls. As we know from Gaza , Palestine, a prison can be open air. Baltimore is a less well known open air prison. Muslims should be a major force at protests against police brutality. Masajid ought to invite people who have been victims of police brutality to speak. Muslims should take civil disobedience training. General strikes, street blockages, economic boycotts, and disruptions of the councils of the oppressor are very effective non-violent tools. Muslims should be prepared to use them when the time comes (following the leadership of the native people of the area, off course).
 
Muslims should also study the power dynamics of the cities they inhabit. Usually the ruling elite, who oppress Black, Brown, Red, and the poor people domestically, operate similarly on the international front, whether actively, or through alliances with international oppressors. In Baltimore, the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC), an alliance of corporate interests, promulgates the White Supremacist agenda, and spearheads gentrification and disenfranchisement of the native Black population. At the same time, many in the GBC appear to be Zionist (White Supremacist) Jews, who contribute to the oppression of Palestinians in Occupied Palestine. Every city has its equivalent of the Greater Baltimore Committee. Muslims should investigate the personalities in such business entities, as well as in their local chamber of commerce, and organize boycotts of businesses implicated in gentrification and disenfranchisement.
 
What Muslims Should Not Do
 
Keeping in mind the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him): “Do not help the oppressor, even by handing him a pen,” Muslims should not engage in dialogue with police or government officials who are responsible for, or oversee police brutality. We should also be aware of which opposition groups are meeting, either privately or publicly, with representatives of the oppressive power structure. Finally, be aware of front groups, coalitions, and others which purport to be working to eliminate police brutality and other social ills, but accept money from the power structure (including 501(c) 3’s). Obviously, one’s independence and integrity is impugned by accepting money from an oppressor. Avoid working closely with these groups, as they nearly always engage in feel good activities which lead to a great deal of venting, but little real change. Instead, either formulate new organizations, or work with small, independent grassroots organizations, which rely on funding from their members.

 
© 2015 by Nadrat Siddique
 
Parts of this paper were first presented by the author before the National Majlis-e-Shura of Jamaat al-Muslimeen in Greensboro, NC, USA, on May 16, 2015.
 


Endnotes
 
[1] U.S. Census Bureau figures, quoted in “Baltimore’s Economy in Black and White,”CNN Money, April 29, 2015
 
[2] U.S. Census Bureau figures, quoted in “Baltimore’s Economy in Black and White,” CNN Money, April 29, 2015
 
[3] Website for Baltimore Black Think Tank President, http://davidanthonywiggins.com/
 
[4] “The Right Investment: Corrections Spending in Baltimore City,” copyright 2015 by the Justice Policy Institute, and the Prison Policy Initiative
http:// justicepolicy.org/TheRightInvestment.
 
[5] Southern Movement Assembly webpage:
http://www.southtosouth.org/#!Timeline-Baltimore-Black-communities-Police/cd0a/556322610cf2adc1ad583977
 
[6] “Baltimore’s Economy in Black and White,” CNN Money, April 29, 2015
 
[7] Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services web page: http://www.dpscs.state.md.us/locations/prisons.shtml
 
[8] “Baltimore Behind Bars,” by the Justice Police Institute http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/10-06_rep_baltbehindbars_md-ps-ac-rd.pdf
 
[9] U.S. Census Bureau, 2010
 
[10] “Baltimore Behind Bars,” by the Justice Police Institute http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/10-06_rep_baltbehindbars_md-ps-ac-rd.pdf
 
[11] “Baltimore Behind Bars,” by the Justice Police Institute
 http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/10-06_rep_baltbehindbars_md-ps-ac-rd.pdf
 
[12] “Baltimore Behind Bars,” by the Justice Police Institute
 http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/10-06_rep_baltbehindbars_md-ps-ac-rd.pdf
 
[13] “Baltimore Behind Bars,” by the Justice Police Institute
 http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/10-06_rep_baltbehindbars_md-ps-ac-rd.pdf
 
[14] “The Right Investment: Corrections Spending in Baltimore City,” copyright 2015 by the Justice Policy Institute, and the Prison Policy Initiative
http://justicepolicy.org/TheRightInvestment.
 
[15] “The Right Investment: Corrections Spending in Baltimore City,” copyright 2015 by the Justice Policy Institute, and the Prison Policy Initiative
http://justicepolicy.org/TheRightInvestment.
 
[16] “The Right Investment: Corrections Spending in Baltimore City,” copyright 2015 by the Justice Policy Institute, and the Prison Policy Initiative
http://justicepolicy.org/TheRightInvestment.
 
[17] “The Right Investment: Corrections Spending in Baltimore City,” copyright 2015 by the Justice Policy Institute, and the Prison Policy Initiative
http://justicepolicy.org/TheRightInvestment.
 
[18] “The Right Investment: Corrections Spending in Baltimore City,” copyright 2015 by the Justice Policy Institute, and the Prison Policy Initiative
http://justicepolicy.org/TheRightInvestment.
 
[19] “The Right Investment: Corrections Spending in Baltimore City,” copyright 2015 by the Justice Policy Institute, and the Prison Policy Initiative
http://justicepolicy.org/TheRightInvestment.
 
[20] “The Right Investment: Corrections Spending in Baltimore City,” copyright 2015 by the Justice Policy Institute, and the Prison Policy Initiative
http:// justicepolicy.org/TheRightInvestment
 
[21] “Undue Force,” Baltimore Sun, September 28, 2014
 
[22] “Undue Force,” Baltimore Sun, September 28, 2014
 
[23]  “Family of man who died in Baltimore police custody files lawsuit,” Baltimore Sun, June 23, 2014
 
[24] “Freddie Gray among many suspects who do not get medical care from Baltimore police,” Baltimore Sun, May 9, 2015
 
[25] “Freddie Gray among many suspects who do not get medical care from Baltimore police,” Baltimore Sun, May 9, 2015
 
[26] Baltimore Sun, June 4, 2014
[27] Baltimore Sun, May 13, 2015
 
[28] Baltimore Sun, March 27, 2015
 
[29] “State approves $30 million youth jail,” The Baltimore Sun, May 13, 2015
 
[30] “Hogan funds pensions, but nothing more for schools,”  The Baltimore Sun, May 15, 2015
 
[31] "The Case for the National Student Bill of Rights," by Bryant Muldrew
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/democracy_and_education/2012/04/the_case_for_the_national_student_bill_of_rights.html
 
[32] “Algebra Project students demand a better education,” Baltimore Sun, September 24, 2009
 
[33] National Student Bill of Rights
http://nationalstudentbillofrights.org/the-rights-we-should-have/
 
[34] “City closes about 20 rec centers; private groups fill gap,” Baltimore Sun, July 2, 2013
 
[35] CNN Money, April 29, 2015.
 
[36] “Surveillance Video Shows Looting Inside Mondawmin Mall” CBS Baltimore, April 28, 2015
 
[37] “Obama shames Baltimore looters and condemns 'riots in the streets”
http://dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3059336/Obama-shames-Baltimore-looters-condemns-riots-streets.html
 
[38] “Statement From Governor Larry Hogan On Violence In Baltimore City,” April 27, 2015
http://governor.maryland.gov/2015/04/27/statement-from-governor-larry-hogan-on-violence-in-baltimore-city/
 
[39] Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, Press Release, April 27, 2015
 
[40] Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, April 27, 2015
 
[41] CNN, April 27, 2015
 
[42] Naim Ajamu Facebook page, April 29, 2015
 
[43] Steve Ceci Facebook page, April 28, 2015
 
[44] David L. Johnson, Sr. Facebook page, April 27 - 28, 2015.
 
[45] David Wiggins Facebook page, April 28

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