Yes, BALTIMORE SUN, There Is A “Baltimore Riot.” And The Answer (Again) Is Ruthless Coercion

Baltimore is burning as I write, the streets are filled with rioters and police. They don’t seem to be “clashing” much, however. Photographs show looters looting, and cops standing around. The black lady mayor of Baltimore, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, [Email her] made a statement that, in the interests of the demonstrators’ “free speech” rights, she had told the Baltimore PD to “give those who wished to destroy space to do that.” The white Governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan, said as late as 5:30 Monday afternoon there had been no requests for the National Guard.

(But by 8:30 pm he had signed an Executive Order [PDF] declaring a State of Emergency and activating the Maryland National Guard—a promising sign, although at this point I don’t know if they’ll even be issued live ammunition. The lady mayor finally asked for the Guard, and the lady Brigadier General who is head of Maryland’s Army National Guard (Linda Singh, pictured below—despite her last name, the “first African-American” to head the Maryland Guard) stood beside him at a press conference, so they must be getting worried. Gov. Hogan Declares State of Emergency, Activates Md. National Guard, CBS Baltimore, April 27, 2015).

All of this will be news to the notoriously liberal Baltimore Sun. On Monday, it posted an editorial titled No ‘Baltimore riots’ | Saturday’s violence was deplorable, but it was no “Baltimore riot.” April 27, 2015. Its only reason for insisting that it was “no Baltimore Riot” was that there was much worse rioting in 1968.

“With all sympathies to the police officers who have been injured and the handful of businesses that sustained damage, Baltimore has had riots before, in 1968 after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, and we are, thankfully, seeing nothing on that scale.”[Cached | Alternate link.]

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