Here’s the citywide announcement (mp3 file) to police on the city curfew. Story in the Sun.
Author: Moskos
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“Baltimore Riots! Murder Rate Drops!”
That could be one headline from yesterday. There was no Baltimore homicide between 23:45 hours on Sunday and 12:00 our today (Tuesday). I also just heard a call dispatched for drug dealing. It’s almost like things are getting back to normal. (Though they’re not normal yet.)
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“Space to Destroy”
I still can’t get over the Mayor saying “We also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well.”
[Update: Though now I understand, thanks to a comment by Matt and others in a previous post, what I think she was trying to say:
From the video, it appears she did indeed mean that the city inadvertently provided space for those to destroy through their attempts to provide space for protest. Also from the video, the guy on the left of the screen (one of her own who was likely privy to the content of her speech prior) clearly heard the more inflammatory version. People make mistakes, they misspeak; she just needs to clarify her position, wring her hands, and call for an end to the destruction. It wouldn’t hurt if she called on protestors to do their best to police their own… using different language of course.]
Now this isn’t some gotcha moment, but when I ask a cop fighting the riots why the riots started, he said, “The mayor gave them permission.” I had no idea what he was talking about. I sounded like some right-wing lie. But this police officer isn’t right wing. He’s also African-American.
I wasn’t convinced that the mayor said this. But regardless, I asked, “But so what? It’s not like the people out there burning shit listened to the mayor’s press conference. They don’t even know who the mayor is!”
“Word gets out. Through the leaders of the community. It trickles down. That was the message.”
So I found and watched the video. Now I don’t know what the mayor meant to say. But this is what she said. I thought she was going to correct herself. She didn’t. Maybe it’s exactly what she meant. Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is in way over her head.
(And look at the guy on screen-left having a “what chu talking ’bout, Willis” moment.)
Here are two links to the same press conference (in case one link dies in the future).
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Baltimore Police Riot Training
Well, that did not go well.
When the fires hit the Eastern, I felt it got personal.
I can’t believe nobody got killed. Hell, by that standard, it was a peaceful night in the city.
In the academy, we got less than one (1) day of riot training. This are my notes from Tuesday, April 4, 2000, in their entirety:
Started by watching a video of characteristics of armed suspect: the shoulder dip, the stiff arm, the coat swing, security checks–all of these are grounds for reasonable suspicion and a stop and frisk.
[Instructor 1]: “Don’t walk the line [between legal and illegal]. Often times the department says you can do something, but if you do it against someone with a little pull and they sue you, the department won’t back you.”
“I’m a peon here and my opinion don’t count for much. [regarding getting more time for crowd control]”
“You should be happy you’re going to the Eastern and Western. You’ll learn a lot there. Just keep a good attitude. Stay humble.”
[Classmate 1, a white guy:] “I can’t wait to go to Sarajevo.”
[Classmate 2, a black guy:] “These neighborhoods aren’t that bad. I grew up in the Western. Am I a bad person? There are lots of good people there.” “But a lot of these people aren’t from these areas. They don’t know.” [Classmate 3, a black guy]
“The Eastern and Western are where most of the IID numbers come from… people get burnt out.”
“Keep your contacts here. If you don’t you’re going to have a hard time.
For class, we’ve watched a few episodes of “In the Line of Duty.”
“These college students who think their stuff don’t stink and want to mouth off. I get to arrest them. And it was fun.”
There is no G.O. [general order] on crowd control.
Crowds: there are passive and hostile crowds.
“In Japan, I saw where they bring in buses and let a few people out and beat them. Them they let a few more out and beat them. After that everything is OK. But we have something that stops us from doing it.”
“The ACLU?”
“No, civil liberties, the constitution.”
Our goal: containment, isolation, dispersal.
“Yes, we’ve already been tested on this.” This was a test question yesterday that we were “reviewed” on.
“This academy is a joke” [said Instructor 1]
“As a person penetrates the front line, you will wack them, hit them, beat them down…. This is the one time we will tell you to strike a person.”
We spent the day doing riot formations. Kind of fun. Kind of. But also another long boring day. At one point, though, [instructor 2] slammed his baton into the floor, ran up to [classmate 4] and screamed, “What are you nodding at?! Do you know everything?! You’re creating a hostile working environment because you’re pissing me off!!!” [Classmate 4] sucked it up. It was such an unnecessary yelling event that I found it funny.
275 of last year’s [305] murders were of blacks.
Norris is now in charge, says the news.
That’s it. Let’s hope training has gotten better, though I doubt it has.
[Update: From a comment by Adam, below:
When I went through the BPD academy (in 2008) there was more extensive riot training, done at the firearms training facility. We learned and drilled formations: “V”-shape, a straight line, etc. It wasn’t very lengthy training (I obviously can’t remember much of it), but it was more substantial than what you describe.
An NYPD officer tells me “Your description of riot training is spot on. We were actually told that we’ll probably never do the stuff they taught us.
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“We also gave those who wished to destroy space for that as well”
You sure did, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.
I cannot believe that the mayor of Baltimore said this yesterday.
Unbelievable.
You think that may encourage people to loot and burn?
The full context in case you were wondering (I was) is:
I’ve made it very clear that I work with police and instructed them to do everything that they could to make sure the protesters were able to exercise their right to free speech. It’s a very delicate balancing act. Because while we try and make sure that they 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. And we work very hard to keep that balance and to put ourselves in the best position to deescalate.
(And no, it’s not “outside agitators” doing this.)
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It’s ugly in Baltimore
Now the Eastern is burning. @PeterMoskos https://twitter.com/PeterMoskos.
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Kooks of C-SPAN
I expected better from C-Span. Do they not have a call screener?
From the left, do I really need to say on national TV that police departments are controlled lock, stock and barrel by the Klan?
From the right, do I really need to have to answer for a caller who talks about:
Caller: RAMPAGING BLACK CRIMINALITY THAT IS RAMPANT FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC AND FROM CANADA TO MEXICO IN THIS NATION.
Moskos: YOU KNOW, I AM PART OF THAT REGION. I DON’T SEE THAT RAMPAGE, BUT GO ON…
On the plus side, it was long-form. But it really was the worst format of “remote studio stare into a camera with no visual clues at all.” Plus my head looks fat, as “fat-head” was quick to tell me.
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“Group on the corner, disorderly, no further, anonymous”
I don’t want to make too much out of this, but there is something just a little funny about a reporter being robbed on camera and then running, in tears, to the police. No, it’s not funny because somebody is robbed. No, it’s not funny that she was traumatized by it. It is just a little funny because at the same time she might be filing a report about police brutality, who does she run crying to when threatened? The police.
Or… maybe she’s just harassing an innocent unarmed youth. After all, the guy said he didn’t do it.
It’s the moral equivalence that bother police. The idea that people would take word of the mob purse snatcher as equal to a cop’s word. Even worse is the idea, which I hear a lot of, that these guys are actually morally superior to working police officers. It’s absurd. (You can get another take on this from a previous post.)
Here’s the thing about the guys who were threatening her: it’s not like they just appeared yesterday and won’t be here tomorrow. Police deal with these guys literally every day. These dozen youths are out there every night in the streets of Baltimore. They might not always be acting up quite so much. But sometimes they are. Too many people pretend it’s all about bad police oppressing good people. But they don’t live or work in neighborhoods where they get harassed by these specific youths. But good people do. And they call the police. I’m talking class, not race.
Police handle “routine calls for service” like this every hour. When I texted my friend working the Eastern last night wishing him well, he replied, “Thanks brother. Just another night in the hood! Lol.”
A typical call may be because Pops called 911 because these kids on the corner, in front of his house, are being loud, rowdy, breaking bottles, and otherwise disrespectful. You get the call. You pull up. You’re solo. There they are. Deal with it. That’s what cops do. Every goddamn day. You know, I got tired telling the same group of drug dealers to get off the same corner every goddamn night. But I did. I had to. It was my job.
Usually what happens in the ghetto stays in the ghetto. Literally and figuratively. I spoke to many teenagers in the Eastern who had never been downtown. Never been out of Baltimore. Never left their neighborhood. It might be one thing to never leave your neighborhood if you live somewhere nice, but if your whole world is centered around Rutland and Crystal? (Go on, google-steet-view 1511 Rutland Ave, Baltimore MD 21213 and take a look around. Hell, buy that home for $8,000!) Take a stroll down the 1700 block of Crystal Ave. No wonder you’re messed up. Who do you think is pulling the trigger on 200-plus homicides a year in the city of Baltimore? Since Freddie Gray died in police hands — between April 13 and April 26 — there have been 8 murders in Baltimore.
So yesterday — along with hundreds of peaceful protesters — a bit of the ghetto broke out of the ghetto. Now if you’re so ideologically inclined you might think that’s good. Or, if you’re in a restaurant where things are being thrown through the windows, you might not (while praying that a Molotov cocktail doesn’t follow suit). But here are a dozen human being society tries to ignore, until we put them in prison. I’m not talking about the protesters. I’m talking about these dozen thugs.
And I don’t actually blame these kids for being foolish — I know they’re fools, but hell, they never had a chance. Look where they grew up. Look at their parents — as much as I blame the people who apologize for their bad actions. Those who call mindless violence a “rebellion” or “giving voice to the voiceless.” Those who blame police for trying to calm a disturbance. Those who believe in the false ideal of the gentleman thug.
So we pay police to deal with the problems of our country and to somehow contain these kids so they don’t beat up working tax-paying voters. We, collectively, have failed. And then we wait for police to make a mistake and blame it all on them.
