“I wanted to give space to those who wished to destroy” said Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.
Mayor Blake seems confused.
“I made it very clear that I work with the police and instructed them to do everything that they could to make sure that the protesters were able to exercise their right to free speech. It’s a very delicate balancing act.”
Since when does the right to exercise free speech include the right to destroy the property of others?
As one might expect that balancing act went awry as Mayor Blake has shown herself to be entirely clueless:
MAYOR RAWLINGS-BLAKE: What we see tonight that is going on in our city is very disturbing. It is very clear there is a difference between what we saw over the past week with the peaceful protests, those who wish to seek justice, those who wish to be heard, and want answers and the difference between those protests and the thugs who only want to incite violence and destroy our city.
I’m a life-long resident of Baltimore and 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, things that we know will impact our community for years. We are deploying every resource possible to gain control of the situation and to ensure peace moving forward.
I chuckled when I read that statement. When is it not senseless to wantonly destroy what so many have fought for?
Mayor Blake gave the Baltimore police a stand down order. The result? At least 15 cops have been injured. There are reports about calls for killing “all white police officers”:
Law enforcement intelligence officials have put out a warning that someone has sent a text calling on people to kill “all white police officers” in reaction to the death of Freddie Gray while in Baltimore police custody, raising fears violence could spread nationally, according to safety memos obtained by The Washington Times.
Officers are being warned of possible ambushes and urged to change travel patterns and to tone down clothes or emblems that identify them as police.
The Baltimore police department separately put out a press release on Monday saying various gangs, including the Black Guerrilla Family, Bloods and Crips “have entered into a partnership to ‘take out’ law enforcement.”
Watch as the Governor of Maryland does his absolute best to protect the incompetent Mayor of Baltimore from the CNN idiot known as Don Lemon.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pnT7F8X8tE[/youtube]
After a while both the Mayor and the Governor had had enough of him and walked off.
More:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8e4naNxBwo[/youtube]
Watch as the media tries to blame the Governor and watch the Governor smack them down (at about 9 minutes in) (Video courtesy of The Last Refuge)
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppByN7rTzUk[/youtube]
It goes without saying that what happened to Freddie Gray needs to be investigated and if wrongdoing is found those responsible need to be punished appropriately. It would be nice if people would wait for justice to take its course instead of engaging in actions that only do harm to all kinds of relations.
De Blasio in New York set the stage for this terrible episode by allowing protesters to block bridges and shut down commerce. What’s happening in Baltimore is the next step in the evolution of the destruction of law enforcement in this country.
Once again, Obama is AWOL. He should be on TV demanding that violence stop. That’s what a leader does. But our feckless President is not a leader. That or he supports this.
Reminder: Obama spoke in tribute to Trayvon Martin. Obama sent two aides to Michael Brown’s funeral. He sent three aides to Freddie Gray’s funeral.
He’s never said a word about Chris Kyle.
So Mayor Rawlings-Blake, what’s next?
Do you plan on giving the lawless space to kill cops?
Who do you expect to pay for the destruction you permitted?
Would you grant the space to destroy your own home?
Inquiring minds want to know. Thus far you’ve done a fabulous job of wrecking the city. Knowing you give “space” to those who want to destroy who the hell would ever want to go there again?
But hold the presses! She now says she didn’t say what she said.
“The fact that people exploited that does not mean that I do not have an obligation to protect people’s right to protest. I never said, nor would I ever say, that we are giving people space to destroy our city. So my words should not be twisted.”
OK, let’s again examine her exact words:
“ It’s a very delicate balancing act because while we try to make sure that they (protestors) were protected from the cars and the other things that were going on, we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well.”
Over at Bloomberg Politics, Dave Weigel calls it a “botched quote.”
Like hell it was. One is free to opine what she really meant but she sure as hell said what was reported. It might be a botched statement but it absolutely not a botched quote.
If the report of an order to the police by the Mayor to stand down is correct, then nothing about the above statement is botched.
Predictably, Obama chose to use the riots as another opportunity to bash Republicans. He and the left blame poverty for violence. That’s pure stupidity. It’s an excuse. My father grew up dirt poor in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and not for one second would he have been allowed to burn down the pharmacy or throw rocks at cops no matter what happened.
This is a cultural problem. It’s a democrat problem. Countless billions have been spent on the “war on poverty” and all that has been accomplished is to create more poverty. After six years in office, all Obama has done is increase poverty. If Obama really cared about poverty he’d stop doing all he can to make Wall St. bankers and hedge fund traders and aspiring Presidential candidates with Foundations astronomically wealthy.
Hey Hillary- why doesn’t the Clinton Foundation spend some money in Baltimore?
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.