Between 'StingRays' & Vomit Weapons - Protesters Have No Chance With Neoliberal Security State

It has taken some time for those outside of deep politics to see the connection between the morass in Baltimore,  the killing of Freddie Gray and the ensuing protests - with the rise of the Neoliberal security state.  But without sufficient background and information, just as in the case of the JFK assassination, most people are left to flounder - ultimately becoming mental hostages of corporo-media propaganda narratives.

As far as background, perhaps one of the best sources for the serious researcher is:

Army Surveillance in America: 1775-1980, Yale University Press, 1991, by J.M Jensen. And in particular Chapter 7: Watching the  Workers.

As noted therein, with the rise of trade unionism, a virulent merger of interests began to metastasize - now bringing in military and intelligence interests.  With enormous leaps in worker (Union) power, culminating in the achievement of the 40-hour week in the 1940s, the Corporate State began to feel itself under siege. Somehow a means had to be found to dilute the power of unions - and, if possible, eliminate them entirely.  The corporate state fought shrinking the work week to 40  hours, for example,  because that inflated the cost of their labor capital. They'd need to hire more workers, at the same or higher wages, to maintain the same production levels. (This is also why the corporate state looked to the day American manufacturing labor could be transferred to low wage, low regulation nations - e.g. via trade agreements)

Even before this, a wary eye of the security forces had been kept on the working classes especially, since the Haymarket Square riots in 1886. So no surprise that in its wake the Chicago police began to listen to soap box speeches, infiltrated activist meetings, arrested speakers, intimidated strikers and shot demonstrators.   By the middle of the 20th century target lists were increased from labor unions and anarchists to include communists, black radicals, neighborhood organizations and New Left groups - culminating with the 2011-12 targeting of Occupy Wall Street by actual sharpshooters, e.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2013/07/why-did-feds-look-other-way-as-ows.html

The energy, extent and power of OWS mobilized multiple security forces especially based in "fusion centers" that connected police centers across the country. But as the OWSers tried to invade Wall Street itself, the Neoliberal elites realized they had to develop powerful new communications and spy systems as well as weapons to control any major uprisings. These included a new breed of electro-magnetic weapons especially using high frequency radio signals (cf. The Economist, Oct. 15, 2011, p. 89, 'Electromagnetic Weapons: Frying Tonight')



The simplest one, and perhaps least destructive physically, emits RF (radiofrequency) radiation that directly affects the human digestive system and nervous system to trigger violent vomiting. It is estimated that one brief "spray" by such an RF device could have 99% of a violently agitating crowd reduced to paroxysms of non-stop vomiting within seconds. Unable to raise a whisper, far less a shout, the theory proposes that one burst would be enough to send most protesters running back home....and away from the zones now occupied. Make no mistake this type of crowd weapon would have been deployed had the riots in Baltimore not subsided.   But it could have been worse, and might be - if the 6 cop thugs get off after homiciding Freddie Gray!

At a more savage level, The Economist reported (ibid., p. 90) that a more intense "Active Denial System" - "developed by the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate in collaboration with Raytheon" can be up to the task of dispersing hard to manage or rioting crowds. As The Economist notes:

"It works by heating the moisture in a person's skin to the point where it feels like....opening a hot oven. People's reaction when hit by the beam is usually to flee. The beam's range is several hundred meters".

Thus, the range would have exactly covered the range in West Baltimore where most of the protesters gathered last week. Since one meter is about 3.3 feet this means a single beam could  have covered  just about all of Freddie Gray's Sandtown neighborhood.

What about the devices to target trouble makers, including working class upstarts, trade union rabble rousers and aggressive protesters? No problem!  Enter an array of techno-trackers including: StingRay, FIshHawk, Kingfish,Harpoon and Amber Jack.

StingRay is a suitcsase -size device that acts as a wiretap for the wireless age. But while a wiretap can only monitor a single line, StingRay acts like a roving cell phone tower - vacuuming in data from all nearby phones, tablets and other wireless devices.  On a porno site with your tablet? StingRay will track your position precisely and notify special security forces for a possible bust. StingRay's power is such that it can encompass call history as well as your current and previous locations as well as eavesdrop on all cell phone and smart phone calls.

The other ancillary devices extend StingRay's power and range, e.g. the Amberjack antenna helps pinpoint individual phones, KingFish analyzes call patterns, and FishHawk listens in on calls. All these amplify police power to the same level of the national security state but this is no coincidence.

The U.S. military and intelligence community developed StingRay in the 1990s and police nationwide began using it as early as 2003. This nefarious technology - the ACLU asserts it violates privacy rights since it captures ALL information from every phone, not just a suspect's - emerged as part of a post 9/11 push by the feds to step up local police intelligence gathering.

Indeed, since 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security has given more than $34 billion to local law enforcement - much of it for high-tech surveillance gear like StingRays and facial recognition systems.  Seventy -eight DHS funded fusion centers now exist where local police work side by side with federal agents to ferret out potential activist troublemakers, protestors and labor rabble rousers. To grasp the magnitude, nearly 18,000 local departments and federal agencies swap reports daily. Amongst the biggest outfits, with the most surveillance - mainly concentrated on the working class - is the Chicago P.D. ('In These Times', May, p. 14)

But Baltimore would not have been far behind, since the Neoliberal elites ensconced there would have recognized the threat from the poorest folk stuck in the Sandtown section of West Baltimore - faced with abandoned buildings (no one knows who owns them), no industry, no employment and public transportation so poor it takes over an hour to get from the corner of Dolphin St. and Drew Hill Ave. to get downtown for jobs. And that assumes the buses run on schedule.

As MSNBC correspondent Joy Reid pointed out on 'All In' two nights ago, West Baltimore was originally laid out as an enclave for the poorest residents of the city and only minimal investment was allowed - most was concentrated downtown. The urban decay that ensued from disinvestment and abandonment - most of the money flowing to the county and city (where it was re-directed to the upscale areas like the Inner Harbor)-  left W. Baltimore a backwater, but also a security threat. Hence, the Baltimore cops were ordered to crack down especially hard. A part of the blame, alas, must also go to former Mayor O'Malley who instituted a draconian, zero tolerance policy citywide during his reign - with citizens taken down merely for tossing a cigarette or spitting on the street. Since the cops came down hard no matter what the offense, the stage was set to ramp up hostility and mistrust.

The incarceration resulting from prosecuting multifold  "tweedle-dee" incidents also magnified the absence of fathers in the W. Baltimore area, as well as creating a vast army of unemployed. Kids were left without guidance, as well as with an axe to grind especially against the cops. Meanwhile, families were left without enough income or support to prosper or to move. Even as the Ravens' sparkling new stadium came to life with the help of taxpayer money, West Baltimoreans were left to flounder with zero investment.

Additional insights on security state and poverty connections were recently exposed in an interview between Salon.com writer Elias Isquith and  Salon alum and Intercept founding editor Glenn Greenwald - who recently received an Academy Award for 'CitizenFour', e.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2015/02/citizen-four-documentary-every-citizen.html

Isquith asked him:

Is there a connection between the era of mass incarceration and the era of the burgeoning national security state?

And Greenwald responded:

Oh they’re completely connected and inextricably linked. There’s so many different similarities that bind them together, but the most important one is just the mentality. Part of the War on Terror is how we’re taught to think that once you have a group of people who are identified as some kind of menace or threat to security, essentially anything can be done to them. They can be killed or brutalized or imprisoned without any real due process, and that’s all justified because they’ve demonstrated themselves to be a threat.

Alas, Freddie Gray - merely by "running while black"-  presented himself as such a threat to Garret Miller, Brian Rice and Edward Nero  who throttled him to the ground in a "leg lace" then chucked him into a paddy wagon. They wanted to make sure he got bounced around in a rough ride - severing his spinal cord. As Daily Kos reported, once the cops got back to the station they bragged (over Freddie's limp body) how "they really gave him a run for his money".

See e.g.

http://dailykos.com/story/2015/05/04/1382333/-Police-at-Station-with-FreddieGray-s-Limp-Body-We-gave-him-a-run-for-his-money?detail=email


See also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/gaius-publius/62139/the-last-word-on-baltimore-its-up-to-the-state-to-stand-down

And:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/linn-washington/62103/black-man-warns-his-young-grandson-about-the-police-a-black-child-fears-cops-more-than-criminals

and:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/marjorie-cohn/62094/the-chickens-come-home-to-roost-in-baltimore

Conservative Twitterati Try to Go After Marilyn Mosby - End Up Looking Like Damned Fools

How dumb is dumb? Well, when ignorant, dumbo conservatives can't handle the truth, and especially can't wrap their febrile minds around a person with a fearless sense of justice and impeccable integrity seeking it. That this person - Marilyn Mosby - is the product of five generations of police officers would seem to indicate more support than attacks - but not for the conservo Twitterati, most of them brainwashed by Hannity, O'Reilly and "Fox n' Friends".

When I saw Prosecutor Mosby's announcement yesterday, I told my wife: "Make no mistake she will be attacked by the racist knuckledraggers". They hide behind the veneer of politics  and pseudo-justice but as the Southern Poverty Law Center's recent "Intelligence Report" noted - it is all about racism since Obama's 2008 election.  While the numbers have somewhat diminished, a residue of hardcore hate groups remain. See e.g.

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2015/spring

 So no one can tell those of us involved in deep politics that the nasty flood of backlash that's followed the Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Walter Scott and now Freddie Gray incidents - deaths is merely ordinary expression of  "un- PC" pinions. Oh no! Not now, not ever. Each vile backlash which cast the murdered victim as bringing on his own death and in addition referring to them  as "apes" or "gorillas" discloses the comments are not value -neutral regarding race. They are imbued with the same sickening racism that cast Obama as a "skunk" on a Facebook page - creating the incident that led me to break off any family relations with a brother in OK.

The latest example erupted from the right wing noise machine on Twitter yesterday - with some of the tweets given below with the Twitter addresses of the sorry senders:

Ben Shapiro:

This is a textbook case for recusal for Marilyn Mosby, by the way. Here's her husband blowing off looting

--
Here,  as one salon.com writer put it: "to Ben Shapiro,  Breitbart’s Editor-at-Large, the conservative calculus is clear: five generations of police officers — including, at a minimum, at least five members of her immediate family — don’t even remotely equal one husband. Her husband essentially functions like a zero, so no matter how many other family members you multiply against him"

Of course, Shapiro's other inexcusable transgression is conflating Ms. Mosby with her husband - a Baltimore councilman - intimating their interests must be the same.

Other idiotic tweets from the conservo backwaters:

Adam@keepitrealist:

Wow, Marilyn Mosby is married to Nick Mosby, the riot and looter apologist. Can you say conflict of interest?

Mythos@victorsteve:

marilyn mosby:"I have a racist narrative that matches my ideological bias & corrupted brain. all cops are murderers until further notice"

mike matheson @mikematheson5

@FoxNews WRONG cops r innocent! mosby let being BLACK LIB KKKrat influence Being BLACK lib kkkrat comes 1st 2 them This decsn is RACIST

Richard Colon @porthosposrtosp

The prosecutor is a rookie, racist and political and working with the mayor, al shapton and the White House in this case

This is just a sampling but the rest aren't any better: all drenched in blatant racism and/or unfathomable ignorance.  The typical trash racist, of course, will always seek to re-interpret the views of her husband and impute them to her, or seek to conflate the two separate people as one. The fallacy of "re-composition".

The dreck from the likes of "Mythos" discloses a foolish twit incapable of even processing the special prosecutor's words when - after her charging statement- she noted that the Baltimore Police Department deserved high praise and could not be sullied based on the actions of a few. She re-asserted that in her interview last night, telling Chris Hayes: "I understand and respect that most police officers are risking their lives day in and day out. They're on the streets of every urban city, not just Baltimore, and risking their lives for the betterment of their communities."

And again, let's bear in mind she comes from five generations of police officers and both her parents were cops.

The other congenital morons who bring up  Ms. Mosby's "conflict of interest" are also averse to the facts at hand, including that there can be no such "conflict" between a prosecutor and councilman. One "makes the laws" the other enforces them. As she also told Chris Hayes in her interview:

"There is no conflict of interest! My husband represents the district in which I live. I am the Baltimore city state attorney. I represent his district and thirteen other districts throughout the city. I prosecute crimes there. I don't have to turn on the news or open a newspaper to see the impact of crime there. All I need to do is open up the door. So there is no conflict of interest."

As for the claim by Richard Colon (funny how his surname describes the human large intestines), that the "prosecutor is a rookie" - this is an out and out red herring. As Mosby pointed out in her Hayes' interview: "The people of Baltimore elected me to exercise my discretion to apply justice fairly and equally with or without a badge."

Colon also errs by imputing that experience trumps integrity in such a case, when - given that one is properly qualified for the position,  it is always integrity that is of highest import. Something that LBJ and his "Warren Commission" might have contemplated and invoked  - but then it was never LBJ's intent to do that, but rather to cover up his own role in the JFK assassination.

She also pointed out that any alleged "independent prosecutor" would in fact be a political  appointee, not elected.:

"Where's the accountability? Someone political is going to appoint someone else."

Hence, the political nature of the appointment would likely undermine any pursuit of justice in the case.

The tweet by Mike Matheson, meanwhile, is classic racist. Anyone who would scrawl such keyboard feces as:

mosby let being BLACK LIB KKKrat influence Being BLACK lib kkkrat comes 1st 2 them This decsn is RACIST

Is projecting his own blatant racism - in this case against all blacks - onto the person. He, in fact, is likely a "KKK" or at least a KKK sympathizer, who probably gets off when they burn crosses on the lawns of black people. He also probably calls Obama a "monkey" or represents him as a skunk as my now disowned Okie brother did once upon a time.

As for the claim of a "rush to judgment" as asserted by the head of the Baltimore Police Union, this canard was also easily dispatched by Ms. Mosby who informed Chris that:

"From the time we learned of this tragic event, we started canvassing the area, speaking to witnesses, reviewed hours and hours of video surveillance, reviewed hours and hours of statements in the case, and medical records. This wasn't something that was quick, fast or in a hurry or a rush to judgment. This was a thorough investigation that we were conducting in parallel with the police department. So the information that was provided to us yesterday by the police department is information we already knew. ....This was a thorough investigation, we applied the facts to the law and we pursued this case fairly and appropriately."

Make no mistake that the backlash by racist conservatives against Marilyn Mosby is not about to end soon, not by a  long shot. There is way too much racist hatred in this country to keep it stoked - as the SPLC Intelligence Report notes. But she should know those of us who are sane and sensible back her up to the fullest!

The racist knuckledraggers may try all they want to slander her as an "out of control ape" or "racist tramp" but such reckless invective is all they have in their disgusting corner. We see her as the epitome of fearlessness and adherence to the rule of law - not merely dismissing charges because the crimes were committed by those wearing badges.

Kudos also to the ex-Baltimore cop whistleblower, Pete Castle, who exposed the crimes of  two of his mates (beating shackled prisoners),  highlighted last night on 'All In'. He was abandoned by fellow cops as a 'snitch' - disclosing their ethics as no better than those felons who try to hide their crimes while in the 'can'.

See also:

http://www.salon.com/2015/05/02/america_is_back_to_lynching_baltimore_freddie_gray_and_the_noxious_legacy_of_white_supremacy/


And:

http://www.salon.com/2015/05/02/bill_maher_compares_baltimore_police_to_the_catholic_church_the_institution_covered_for_pedophiles/

Now We Know: Brutal Baltimore Cops Committed Homicide on Freddie Gray

Prosecutor Mosby (left) and victim of false arrest and homicide, Freddie Gray.

Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby didn't mince words in a news conference this morning, preferring to be open about Freddie Gray's brutal death - rather than conceal it any more. She basically revealed the prosecutor's report that Gray's death was a homicide- committed by the 6 cops who tossed Gray into the police van after his arrest and didn't secure him. She also advised that warrants for the arrest of all the officers involved have been issued.

In her words from her official statement: 

"On April 12, 2015 between 8:45 and 9:15 a.m. near the corner of North Avenue and Mount Street, Lt. Brian Rice of the Baltimore Police Department, while on bike patrol with officers Garret Miller and Edward Nero made eye contact with Mr. Freddie Carlos Gray junior. Having made eye contact, Mr. Gray subsequently ran from Lt. Rice. Lt. Rice then dispatched over departmental radio that he was involved in a foot pursuit. At which point bike patrol officers Miller and Nero also began to pursue Mr. Gray. Having come into contact with the pursuing officers Mr. Gray surrendered. to officers Miller and Nero. Officers Miller and Nero then handcuffed Mr. Gray and moved him a few feet away from his surrendering location.

Mr. Gray was then placed in a prone position with his arms handcuffed behind his back. It was at this time Mr. Gray indicated he could not breathe and requested an inhaler to no avail. Officers Miller and Gray then found a knife in Mr. Gray's possession clipped to his pants pocket. The blade of the knife was folded into the handle. The knife was not a switchblade and is lawful under Maryland law.

The knife was placed down on the sidewalk at which point Mr. Gray was placed back down on his stomach and began to flail his legs and scream as officer Miller placed Mr. Gray in a restraining technique known as a leg lace. While officer Nero physically held him down against his will until a BPD wagon arrived to transport Mr. Gray.


Officer Miller, Officer Nero and Lt. Rice loaded Mr. Gray onto the wagon, placing him on his stomach, head first and on to the floor of the wagon. Once again, Mr. Gray was not secured by his seat belt in the wagon - contrary to a Baltimore Police Department (BPD) general order. Lt Rice then directed officer Goodson to transport Mr. Gray to the Central Booking and Intake Facility.

Following transport to Baker Street, Mr. Gray suffered a severe and critical neck injury as a result of being handcuffed, shackled by his feet and unrestrained at the side of the BPD wagon. From Baker Street Officer Goodson proceeded to the vicinity of Mosher Street and Fremont Avenue where he subsequently parked the wagon and proceeded to the back of the wagon in order to observe Mr. Gray.

Despite stopping for the purpose of checking on Mr. Gray's condition at no point did he seek or render any medical assistance for Mr. Gray.  Officer Goodson returned to his driver's seat and proceeded toward the Central Booking and Intake Facility with Mr. Gray still unsecured by his seat belt contrary to a BPD general order.

Several blocks later officer Goodson called into Dispatch that he needed to check on the status of his prisoner and requested additional units at Dolphin Street and Drew Hill Avenue. Officer Porter arrived on the scene at Dolphin Street and Drew Hill Avenue. Both officer Goodson and officer Porter proceeded to the back of the wagon to check on the status of Mr. Gray's condition.

Mr. Gray at that time requested help and indicated that he could not breathe. Officer Porter asked if he was in need of a medic and Mr. Gray said at least twice he was in need of a medic. Officer Porter then physically assisted Mr. Gray from the floor of the van to the bench. However, despite Mr. Gray's appeal for a medic but both officers assessed Mr. Gray's condition and at no point did either restrain Mr. Gray per BPD general order.  Nor did they render or request medical assistance.

(Reference to another stop to arrest another prisoner at W. North Ave)

Despite Mr. Gray's obvious and recognized need for medical assistance, officer Goodson in a grossly negligent manner,  chose to respond to the 1600 block of W. North Avenue with Mr. Gray still unsecured by his seat belt in the wagon without rendering to or summoning medical assistance for Mr. Gray.

Officer Goodson arrived at North Avenue to transport the individual arrested at the location of North Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue at which time he was again met by officer Nero, Miller, Porter and Lt. Rice. Once the wagon arrived, officer Goodson walked to the back of the wagon and again opened the doors to the wagon to make observations. of Mr. Gray. Sgt. Alicia White, officer Porter and officer Goodson observed Mr. Gray unresponsive on the floor of the wagon.

Sgt. White, who was responsible for investigating two citizen complaints pertaining to Mr. Gray's illegal arrest spoke to the back of Mr. Gray's head. When he did not respond she did nothing further despite the fact she was advised that he needed a medic. She made no effort to look, or assess or determine his condition.

Despite Mr. Gray's seriously deteriorating medical condition no medical assistance was rendered or summoned for Mr. Gray at that time by any officer. After completing the North Avenue arrest and loading the additional prisoner into the officer's side of the wagon containing Mr. Gray, officer Goodson then proceeded to the Western District Police Station where contrary to the BPD general order, he again failed to restrain Mr. Gray in the wagon for at least the fifth time.

At the Western District Police Station the defendant arrested at North Avenue was unloaded, escorted and secured at the police station prior to attending to Mr. Gray. By the time Sgt. Zachary Novak, Sgt. White attempted to remove Mr. Gray from the wagon, Mr. Gray was no longer breathing at all. A medic was finally called to the scene where upon arrival the medic determined Mr. Gray was now in cardiac arrest and was critically and severely injured.

Mr. Gray was rushed to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma where he underwent surgery. On April 19, 2015 Mr. Gray succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead.

The manner of death is deemed a homicide by the Maryland State Medical Examiner is believed to have occurred due to a fatal injury while Mr. Gray was unrestrained with his seat belt in the custody of the Baltimore Police Department.

While each of these officers is presumed innocent until proven guilty we have brought the following charges:

- Officer Caesar Goodson - charged with second degree depraved heart murder, involuntary manslaughter, second degree negligent assault, manslaughter by vehicle by means of gross negligence, manslaughter by vehicle by means of criminal negligence. misconduct in office for failure to secure a prisoner, failure to render aid.

- Officer William Porter- charged with involuntary manslaughter, assault in the second degree,  misconduct in office

- Lt. Brian  Rice is being charged with involuntary manslaughter, assault in the second degree,  misconduct in office, false imprisonment

- Officer Edward Nero: is being charged with intentional assault in the second degree, negligent assault in the second degree, misconduct in office, false imprisonment

- Officer Garret Miller: is being charged with intentional assault in the second degree, negligent assault in the second degree, misconduct in office, false imprisonment.

- Sergeant Alica White-  is charged with manslaughter,  involuntary manslaughter, assault in the second degree, misconduct in office"


---------------

So there we have it: victim Freddie Gray pounced on by rogue cops in a false arrest (for making eye contact with a cop)  - as over 100 W. Baltimore citizens were before leading to over $5.7 m in settlements paid out for damages. Poor Freddie, in this latest incident, throttled, tossed into a police wagon for a "rough ride" and tormented after suffering a severed spinal cord (at the neck) without receiving medical aid - all his pleas for aid ignored five times by these renegades. And dense dopes wonder why the people of West Baltimore exploded in rage!

To her credit Ms. Mosby vowed to the youth of the city:  "I will seek justice on your behalf! You're at the forefront of this cause and as young people your time is now!"

Good for you! Now let's make sure the evidence isn't "disappeared" as so often happens in these cases and these cops meet their just desserts!

The Baltimore Police Dept. and Fraternal Order of Police, of course, plan to defend these 6 scum balls and the Neolib media is already questioning Ms. Mosby's  authority and independence.  All I can say is 'Good luck!'

And btw, whatever Freddie Gray's previous record - drugs, whatever-  it hasn't one damned thing to do with what these brazen cops did to him on the streets of W. Baltimore on April 12!  That is a total red herring that only a Foxite or lawless nincompoop would raise.  The issue was laid out by prosecutor Mosby and all the deflection tactics in the world won't change that!

-See also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/frida-berrigan/62058/baltimore-is-burning-not-just-in-flames-but-with-a-righteous-anger

And:

http://www.salon.com/2015/05/01/meet_marilyn_mosby_the_badass_prosecutor_fighting_for_justice_in_baltimore/

Neoliberal Policies Led to the Blight and Riots in West Baltimore

Me, in the Baltimore Inner Harbor, May, 1994 - before delivering a paper for a joint AAS-AGU conference at the Baltimore Convention Center.

"At the heart of neoliberal narratives are ideologies, modes of governance, and policies that embrace a pathological individualism, a distorted notion of freedom, and a willingness both to employ state violence to suppress dissent and abandon those suffering from a collection of social problems ranging from dire poverty and joblessness to homelessness" - Henry Giroux, 'The Politics of Cruelty - America's Descent Into Madness'

First, let me get it straight with assorted nabobs and nattering bloggers - especially those in the FOX News universe - that Baltimore is a beautiful and thoroughly delightful city. I should know, I lived in one of its suburbs for nine years and wifey and I often went into the city proper to attend concerts at the Baltimore Symphony. All the hysterical babble that the city is "crime-ridden, derelict, full of apes and gorillas' is total  unsupported nonsense - and most of those talking-writing this trash have never set foot in Baltimore.

What is being seen on televisions across the nation in the form of rioting, is happening in a place that has been predated upon and abandoned for dozens of years: West Baltimore. As Michael Eric Dyson pointed out two nights ago (on Chris Hayes 'All In') what we are seeing is a reaction to systemic violence of the Neoliberal capitalist state against the most vulnerable citizens of a place that has been literally drained of what little investment capital it had and left to fend for itself.

Start with the loss of decent manufacturing jobs after the hideous NAFTA, GATT trade agreements went into effect. Then consider how capital was mainly funneled into select, upscale areas like the Inner Harbor (with its trendy galleries, cafes and boutiques) and into building massive sports stadiums - such as Camden Yards for the Orioles baseball team and M&T Bank stadium for the Ravens. THAT is where the tax money and investment went while West Baltimore was left to suck sand.

You see those young kids being  called "apes" by many of the clueless? You know how they got to that extreme of rioting? Consider how the state abandoned it's Head Start program as well as after school development programs and gang counseling - giving the millions instead to build new prisons. New prisons!  Those kids were then left largely to fend for themselves, usually with just a single mother to try to act as parent - often while holding two or more jobs.

Dyson, to his credit, quoted Martin Luther King Jr. in reference to the riots in Watts back in '65 and noted he said:

"A riot is the language of the unheard"

See e.g.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/28/martin-luther-king-riot_n_7160380.html

Dyson pointed out the systemic brutalization of the West Baltimore community, including youth especially as well as ordinary people by the police state for decades. And let's bear in mind, lest some conveniently forget, the City of Baltimore has had to shell out nearly $5.8m over the past three years for damage settlements as a result of 100 or more unruly attacks on citizens by out of control cops. (The Freddie Gray incident was by no means the first, as people gathered in a West Baltimore Church recounted yesterday evening - each telling a tale of woe of how cops brutalized, neighbors, friends, acquaitnances.)

Dyson likened the reaction in West Baltimore to an NBA foul called by a ref. The ref sees the reaction of the guy who was clipped on the jaw say - by his guard opponent - but he doesn't see the mugging that incited that reaction. In the same way, millions of stupefied TV viewers behold the reaction of the youths in the streets - but they never saw the decades long institutionalized abuse, violence and poverty that came before.

It was perhaps this inequity that inspired Salon.com contributor Benji Hart to write:

"We see ghettos and crime and absent parents where we should see communities actively struggling against mental health crises and premeditated economic exploitation. And when we see police cars being smashed and corporate property being destroyed, we should see reasonable responses to generations of extreme state violence, and logical decisions about what kind of actions yield the desired political results.

I’m overwhelmed by the pervasive slandering of protesters in Baltimore this weekend for not remaining peaceful. The bad-apple rhetoric would have us believe that most Baltimore protesters are demonstrating the right way—as is their constitutional right—and only a few are disrupting the peace, giving the movement a bad name."

Adding:

"I do not advocate non-violence—particularly in a moment like the one we currently face. In the spirit and words of militant Black and Brown feminist movements from around the globe, I believe it is crucial that we see non-violence as a tactic, not a philosophy.

Non-violence is a type of political performance designed to raise awareness and win over sympathy of those with privilege. When those on the outside of struggle—the white, the wealthy, the straight, the able-bodied, the masculine—have demonstrated repeatedly that they do not care, are not invested, are not going to step in the line of fire to defend the oppressed, this is a futile political strategy. It not only fails to meet the needs of the community, but actually puts oppressed people in further danger of violence."


While the above may cause brain hemorrhages in some of the more brainwashed (FOX gobbling) folks out there, it should not distract the rest of us from the mass violence spawned by the Neoliberal state - which I have written about before as it applied to trying to kill "Occupy Wall Street" protesters, e.g.
http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2013/07/why-did-feds-look-other-way-as-ows.html

Also, let us note that once the fiery reaction had been expurgated from their system, West Baltimoreans came together the next day to set things aright, cleaning up the streets and removing debris. They demonstrated collective action in the interest of their own welfare, and that the people can't be so brutally dismissed as "apes and gorillas".

Those who dispute Neoliberal fascism is a threat need to read that previous blog post carefully. Let us again bear in mind that Neoliberalism treats ALL humans not blessed with silver spoons at birth as basic chattel.   This is why none other than the elitist Bank of International Settlements, less than a month ago, proposed severe cuts to social "entitlements" globally and much more weight of economies devoted to investments - especially outside trade capital. Why do you think Obama is pushing the TPP so recklessly?

The problem with the Neoliberal, pro -free market idiom is that it denies the most basic security for the majority of citizens. In this way it feeds economic inequality while it rewards the speculator and banker class. It also helps to corrupt the political class via unregulated campaign contributions.

Jay Bookman aptly noted('The New World Disorder Evident Here, Abroad', in The Baltimore Sun, December 15, 1997):

"The global economy has been constructed on the premise that government guarantees of security and protection must be avoided at all costs, because they discourage personal initiative. In times of crisis, however, that premise cannot be sustained politically. In times of trouble it is human nature to seek security and protection and to be drawn toward those who promise to provide it. That is how men such as Adolf Hitler, and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin came to power, with disastrous consequences."

Those who fail to see the perverse hand of Neoliberal state violence as the source of what's  happening in Baltimore are not paying attention. Those who lay blame on "the black Democratic leadership"  of the city and "social welfare" for the troubles, are simply idiots. They could as well be blind, deaf and dumb for all the good those senses are doing them.

Now, recall I said earlier how money - millions- was withdrawn from youth programs, counseling and Head Start programs to build prisons. Joan Walsh in her own Salon.com  piece is very specific about this connection:


"Freddie Gray’s death in the custody of Baltimore police has drawn our attention not only to the terrible history of that police department, but of Gray’s blighted neighborhood, Sandtown-Winchester. Those 72 blocks in West Baltimore are home to more state prison inmates than any other Maryland census tract. The poverty and unemployment rate are double the city average. One out of four juveniles were arrested between 2005 and 2009. The mortality rate for 25-44 year olds — Freddie Gray was 25 — is 44 percent higher there than for the same demographic elsewhere in the city, according to the Baltimore Sun.

She goes on to write:

Sandtown-Winchester sounds like so many other neglected inner-city landscapes of despair, though it’s just a few miles from the city’s gleaming and redeveloped harbor district, and 50 miles from our nation’s capital."

And let's bear in mind the D.C. area - the capital- is the 4th highest income area in the U.S. Let us also recall how I already mentioned the Inner Harbor as sucking up most investment money!

Joan goes on to point out:

"Except Sandtown-Winchester hasn’t been neglected, exactly. In the mid-1990s, it was home to an ambitious community building initiative driven by Maryland megadeveloper James Rouse and the city’s new and ambitious mayor Kurt Schmoke. The work was supposed to help make sure none of this nightmare – Freddie Gray’s awful death at the hands of police; the terrible rioting that’s ensued — ever happened. But obviously it didn’t. In about eight years, $130 million in public and private funding went into the neighborhood, $60 million from the Rouse Foundation alone. Impressive aspects of the “neighborhood transformation initiative” were featured in Lisbeth Schorr’s influential book “Common Purpose.” George Will praised its work on healthy parenthood as an example of “Jeffersonian democracy” in action. Its success in spotlighting West Baltimore’s problems, but also its capacity for self-renewal, helped the city win designation as a federal Empowerment Zone in 2000.


Ultimately, it didn’t. And I didn’t call out the two issues that would doom it: lack of attention to the underlying problem of inner city job flight, and the enduring scourge of police brutality, over-incarceration and the “war on drugs.”

So in other words, the re-investment was basically "dead in the water" - though Joan does note that  "at least 1 ,000 new housing units were built, and another thousand renovated."

But let's be clear,  given the population and the volume of dilapidated homes, that's a drop in the bucket. (Rouse, btw , also developed Columbia - where we lived- one of the first ever planned cities in the U.S. For those into trivia, actor Edward Norton is Rouse's grandson.)

"Then Rouse died and Schmoke moved on, and the effort sputtered. The recession hit, and much of the infrastructure of the change initiative crumbled. "


She then cites Doni Glover, an activist, radio host and publisher of BmoreNews, who grew up there, charted the course in the local business journal on Monday:

When the Sandtown-Winchester Transformation Project, known as Community Building in Partnership Inc., finally closed down, this community — of which I call home — began to lose all of the very resources that were changing things around for many people. Not only did we lose CBP, we lost our community newspaper, a senior center, an AmeriCorps Program, a job placement office, a high blood pressure program sponsored by Johns Hopkins well as a couple community development corporations. We also lost a program that addressed vacant properties. All of these programs are gone with the wind.

Losses, losses and more losses - but in Michael Eric Dyson's lexicon - still a form of habituated economic violence practiced against an indigent populace. But this is typical of Neoliberalism. Indeed, Naomi Klein in her book,  'The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism' (2007), compellingly described the number the Neoliberal imperialists did on Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union.

In her chapter on the Russian capitalist "experiment" (pp. 282-87) she documents how a cabal of gangster capitalists under the IMF and the "Chicago gang of Milton Friedman" attempted to brutally re-make the existing Russian centrally- planned economy into a Neoliberal free market outpost of  the West. The process was long and painful, entailing first getting rid of Mikhail Gorbachev -then installing puppet Boris Yeltsin.

Yeltsin, meanwhile, made reckless promises that things would "only be hard for six months"  and "very soon" Russia would be an economic titan. Never happened! As Klein notes (ibid.):

"The logic of so-called creative destruction resulted in scarce creation and spiraling destruction"

Newspapers, magazines from the period (which I still have and can peruse anytime) depict horrific suffering by ordinary Russians as they had to beg, borrow or steal to survive - thanks to the Neoliberal market barbarians.  The sad facts?  After only a year of Neoliberal thuggery and "market therapy" millions of Russians had lost their life savings, their jobs and pensions as well as support systems. They were at the mercy of the Neoliberals for even a slice of bread and some cold soup.

Not a hell of a lot different from the depredation the Neolibs exacted on West Baltimore - much closer to home!


See also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/bill-quigley/62003/the-shocking-statistics-of-racial-disparity-in-Baltimore

And:

http://www.salon.com/2015/04/28/baltimores_violent_protesters_are_right_smashing_police_cars_is_a_legitimate_political_strategy/