Baltimore Burning and Officers Injured

[Paprika]

So what's the difference?

[Cow Poke]

But we have been recently informed that the word "thug" is racist.

Doesn't that imply an acceptance of the notion that black people are more likely to act as thugs than whites?

[Cow Poke]

Like this one?

...While "our side" is labeling this as "dirty tricks", to be honest, what Lt. Dan Patrick did could just as easily be seen as "dirty tricks" by their side. (he had suspended the Senate rules)

Both sides are using whatever political "tricks" available to them - the conservatives to speed it up, and the liberals to slow it down.

[rogue06]

They found the thug!

But we have been recently informed that the word "thug" is racist.

Baltimore City Councilman Carl Stokes (D) thinks that use of the word "thug" to describer the rioters and looters who rampaged through Baltimore Monday night is code word for the n-word (and uses it). He proclaimed on CNN, after anchor Erin Burnett kind of defended the use of the word to describe the violent looters who injured something like a hundred police officers:

"Come on? So calling them thugs-- just call them niggers. Just call them niggers. No! We don't have to call them by names such as that. We don't have to do that. That is exactly what we have set them to. No, when you say come on, come on what? You wouldn't call your child a thug if they should do something that would not be what you would expect them to do."

To her credit Burnett wasn't intimidated and didn't back down politely replying

" Look, I respect your point of view. I would hope that I would call my son a thug if he ever did such a thing."

Over on MSNBC, Alex Wagner discussed the exchange between Burnett and Stokes. One of the guests, Brittney Cooper of Salon proclaimed that that "thug" is "rooted in a racialized understanding of black people" whining that

"when are we going to have a language to talk about the systemic violence that white folks do in the name of anti-blackness and white supremacy in this country? We don't have a language for that."

Wagner chided Burnett saying that “there are folks, like CNN’s Erin Burnett, who don’t understand why it’s offensive; and why some people are saying the ‘T’ word is the new ‘N’ word.”

Wagner also noted that commentator Derrick Clifton has declared that "'thug' is used to describe black perpetrators of violence and, after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, said that the word is not-so coded language "used by many whites and others" who "dismissively use the word to describe young, black people — especially black men."

He also mentioned that NFL player Richard Sherman, cornerback for the Seattle Seahawks, has also declared that "thug" is "the accepted way of calling somebody the 'N' word nowadays."

Two nights ago Larry Wilmore, host of the Nightly Show (which follows the Daily Show on Comedy Central) also talked about Burnett and Stokes' exchange on CNN and jumped on the "thug is the new n-word" bandwagon telling viewers that “thanks to that clip, Mr. Stokes gets our inaugural 'straight up boss of the week' award." This was followed by the comedy show's "social commentator," Felonious Monk (got to love that name ) to explain that if

"The racial leviathan has sunk his tendrils into these United States and the thug, a thug is any person of ebony complexion who so ever the structure of status quo have deemed jeopardous. ... if the n-word is heroin, then thug is like oxycontin. You can get the same exhilaration, but you can use it in public”

Yesterday, over at Fox News, Megan Kelly interviewed Jamal Harrison Bryant the pastor of the Empowerment Temple AME Church in Baltimore who continued the meme when he asserted that society has "colorized" the word "thug."

Over at Time magazine, political commentator and linguist John McWhorter V confusingly tries to straddle the fence by claiming that the complaint that "thug" is equivalent to the n-word but doesn't want it to be characterized as such. Talk about wanting to have your cake and eat it to.

And in an anonymous article or maybe editorial (I'm not sure which) at Reverb Press unabashedly declares that "Let’s be clear: thug is a racial slur. Full stop." in a piece appropriately called "Thug: The Evolution Of A Racist Code Word"

The unnamed author lectures his/her readers that

Thug, a word once used by a sub-set of a minority community to describe itself, was suddenly being used by an elite, mostly white, mostly wealthy class to tar the entirety of a minority community. A word that was, in a sense empowering, was now being used as a shorthand for 'black people doing things we disapprove of.' Historically, there have been other words used for that same purpose. That 'thug' doesn't have as long a history of obvious racism as some other words does not make its new and unfortunate meaning any less racist."

Interestingly, in comments made by Obama about the Baltimore rioting he used the word "thugs" to describe the actions of the more violent participants leading to criticism. For instance Sunny Hostin, a legal analyst over at CNN scolded Obama for daring to call Baltimore rioters "thugs who tore up the place":

"It’s not a word, certainly, that I’m comfortable with. It’s not a word that I use. I think that we can all agree that that word, that term has been racialized, and I think what I saw during the riots was, I saw a lot of crimes being committed, I saw multiple assault, I saw theft, I saw arson, and those are crimes, and so, should we call them 'criminals?' Yes?"

So far Obama has stood by his use of the word "thugs" but not so Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake who knuckled under and apologized for using it after being questioned by CBS This Morning’s Gayle King:

“You were criticized for calling some of the protesters thugs. You know, A lot of people look at these people saying these are people in pain, they're striking out--because they don't have any options in their city. Do you regret using that word?"

Rawlings-Blake now uses the term "misguided young people" instead of "thugs."

[Paprika]

"rush..."

Like this one?

[Catholicity]

Spinal injury would cause the coma. He was mishandled somehow.

[Cow Poke]

This is really sad -- Black Police Officers are having to defend their fellow officers against the "witch hunt" of the black leadership of Baltimore and Maryland. A black officer from the Baltimore Police Union is denouncing the travesty of the "rush to judgment" of the black prosecutor. Several other upper level black police officials are expressing dismay at the speed with which prosecution is being executed.

Sheriff David Clarke says this is George Zimmerman and Duke LaCrosse all over again.

Source: BizPac

Sheriff David Clarke told Fox News host Bill O’Reilly Thursday that he would have defied any order to “stand down” to rioters, such as the one that reportedly came from Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

© Copyright Original Source

He says this is political activism, not justice.

[Cow Poke]

Are they all white officers?

That seems to be the one piece of information that is being carefully withheld.

[Bill the Cat]

The charges (as listed by CNN):


Officer Garrett E. Miller

1) Assault/second degree
2) Assault/second degree
3) Misconduct in office
4) Misconduct in office
5) False imprisonment


Sgt. Alicia D. White

1) Manslaughter (involuntary)
2) Assault/second degree
3) Misconduct in office


Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr. (the driver)

1) Second degree depraved heart murder
2) Manslaughter (involuntary)
3) Assault/second degree
4) Manslaughter by vehicle (gross negligence)
5) Manslaughter by vehicle (criminal negligence)
6) Misconduct in office


Officer William G. Porter

1) Manslaughter (involuntary)
2) Assault/second degree
3) Misconduct in office


Lt. Brian W. Rice

1) Manslaughter (involuntary)
2) Assault/second degree
3) Assault/second degree
4) Misconduct in office
5) Misconduct in office
6) False imprisonment


Officer Edward M. Nero

1) Assault/second degree
2) Assault/second degree
3) Misconduct in office
4) Misconduct in office
5) False imprisonment

Are they all white officers?

[Paprika]

If he was hurt by a rough ride I don't see how the get to murder in the second degree.

Not familiar with the murder laws, but if it was a 'rough ride' they were surely knowingly doing an action that could cause minor to grievous harm.

[Sparko]

So, any day now, we can expect the good people of Baltimore to produce the thugs who smashed windows, assault shop owners, stole stuff, burned cars and buildings, and caused general mayhem.

After all, they are DETERMINED to have justice!

They found the thug!

[Cow Poke]

So, any day now, we can expect the good people of Baltimore to produce the thugs who smashed windows, assault shop owners, stole stuff, burned cars and buildings, and caused general mayhem.

After all, they are DETERMINED to have justice!

[Yttrium]

False imprisonment during an arrest and being transferred to jail. That ought to be interesting.

Apparently, there was no probable cause to arrest him in the first place. He was running from the police, which by itself is not a crime.

There was another prisoner back there who was not injured, so how do they say it was the ride that killed him?

For one thing, he didn't display a sign of the injury prior to entering the wagon. For another, the coroner matched his injury to a bolt in the wagon.

[Sparko]

There was another prisoner back there who was not injured, so how do they say it was the ride that killed him?

[Cow Poke]

Also, your posts seem to indicate that you've been reading a certain unacceptable duck's tweets.