Baltimore Mayor On Protests | Page 2 | Emergency Preparedness | Forums

This is getting comical now

As Baltimore burns, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is turning the flip-flop into a high art form, to the point where she is now apologizing to the rioters for calling them “thugs.”

She stated early Monday that police were instructed to allow “those who wished to destroy space to do that.” By Monday evening, facing heavy criticism from residents and business owners, she walked back from those comments.

As the city was in flames Monday night, Rawlings-Blake spoke freely on CNN about “thugs” and “criminals” who were destroying what so many had worked so hard to build, even as Marxist professor Marc Lamont Hill said the rioters were just expressing “righteous rage” and should not be called thugs. Hill added that the situation in Baltimore was “not a riot” but “uprisings” in response to blacks “dying in the streets for months, years, decades, centuries.”

By Tuesday, the mayor again walked back from her previous comments.

“I wanted to say something that was on my heart … We don’t have thugs in Baltimore. Sometimes my little anger interpreter gets the best of me,” she said, pointing to her head. “We have a lot of kids that are acting out, a lot of people in our community that are acting out.”

Self-described gang members stand with Baltimore City Council President Jack Young and other city council members to condemn rioting

The president of the Baltimore City Council, Jack Young, also apologized to rioters Tuesday for calling them “thugs.”

Standing side-by-side with avowed gang members at a press conference Tuesday, he called the rioter “misdirected” youths. He also retracted claims that gang members were targeting police.

“We are all Baltimoreans,” Young said.

Rawlings three days earlier, before the worst violence broke out, thanked the Nation of Islam for its efforts to help “keep calm and peace in our city.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2.....fFws11g.99

Looks like Mom smacked some sense into her child

http://abc7.com/news.....er/688586/

The officers have been charged

The death of Freddie Gray has been ruled by the medical examiner's office as a homicide caused by severe trauma.

State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, the chief prosecutor for Baltimore, announced this morning that her office has also found probable cause to pursue criminal charges in connection to the case.

Mosby announced a series of charges now facing the six police officers involved in putting Gray in custody and transporting him in the police wagon on the morning of April 12. The charges vary for each individual, but include several counts of manslaughter, second-degree assault, misconduct in office, and false imprisonment among others. The most serious charge she listed was second-degree depraved heart murder, which only one officer faces. A warrant has been issued for the police officer's arrest, Mosby said.

Gray, 25, was taken into police custody in Baltimore on April 12 and sustained a spinal injury during that time that required medical attention. He went into a coma several days later and died a week after his apprehension. Police have never said why they took him into custody in the first place, noting only that he ran from officers, and they have not publicly explained how Gray received the spinal injury.

Mosby detailed the findings of her office's independent investigation into Gray's apprehension, and she detailed how officers repeatedly ignored Gray's pleas for help and that officers bound his arms behind his back and put his legs in clamps but did not secure him within the police wagon with a seat belt, which is a violation of Baltimore police policy.

One of the biggest findings that Mosby announced was that the decision to take Gray into custody in the first place was unwarranted because the knife that he had is allowed under Baltimore laws. While the knife was able to fold, it was not a switchblade.

Mosby urged calm in the wake of the charges, speaking directly to protesters at the end of her news conference.

"I heard your call for 'no justice, no peace.' However your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of Freddie Gray," she said.

http://abcnews.go.co.....d=30728026