Maryland governor Larry Hogan enlisted the help of the National Guard on Monday evening in order to tame the riots in Baltimore following the murder of unarmed Freddie Gray. Protests and eventual rioting broke out in the late afternoon following Gray's memorial service at New Shiloh Baptist Church. White House officials, politicians, and civil rights activists like Rev. Jesse Jackson and Dick Gregory made up 2,000 attendees in the service. On Monday evening, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake stated that a 10 pm to 5 am curfew would be set in place every night for a week starting on Tuesday. Rawlings-Blake went on to state, "Too many people have spent generations building up this city for it to be destroyed by thugs."
While rioting and looting is unnecessary, I find it disheartening that the riots are making bigger headlines than the actual murder of Freddie Gray. Police brutality is an issue in this country and worldwide but some people refuse to acknowledge that and it's shocking. Futhermore, this is a result that shouldn't have to repeat itself. However, we've seen similar scenes from the Rodney King riots, Civil Rights Movement riots, and even more recently, the riots from Ferguson, Missouri, following the shooting of Michael Brown. I hope that in the future, we don't have to worry about such injustices and that the justice system isn't as corrupt.
No comments:
Post a Comment