On May 21, 2015 Marilyn Mosby, State’s Attorney for Baltimore City, announced that a grand jury indicted the 6 officers responsible for the death of Freddie Gray, an unarmed 25 year old Baltimore resident. The charges included depraved heart-murder, which carries a penalty of up to 30 years in prison, involuntary manslaughter, second degree assault, reckless endangerment and more.
Freddie Gray died of spinal injuries he incurred while in police custody. After his death on April 19, 2015, Baltimore was in an uproar. Gray’s death was just the latest among a rash of police killings including the deaths of Mike Brown in Ferguson, MO, Tamir Rice in Cleveland, OH, Eric Garner in New York City, NY, and Walter Scott in North Charleston, SC. For the people of Baltimore, the death of Freddie Gray was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
The city erupted. Fire and looting broke out, and hordes of angry teens burned buildings and threw rocks at police vehicles. And, as one would guess, where there was looting, there was the media. Various media outlets – Fox, CNN, msnbc – were documenting the whole story showing nonstop footage of the reckless rioters and ignoring the peaceful protesters. There was also footage of press conferences featuring Baltimore city officials. Everything was fine until Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake made a statement calling the rioters “thugs.”
It was like a whirlwind. Suddenly everyone was a thug and government officials, from the Governor of Maryland to the President of the United States, and news anchors were calling the people of Baltimore thugs. It all came to a head when Baltimore City Councilman Carl Stokes (District 12) spoke freely on CNN. When asked if thugs was the appropriate term to use in reference to the rioters he replied, “Calling them thugs? Just call them 
Ni**ers! Just call them Ni**gers! No, we don’t have to call people names such as that.”
It got ugly when Fox News began to spread a rumor that the gang members in Baltimore – Blood, Crips, and BGF (Black Guerrilla Family) – came together to kill police. According to the story, the gangs called a truce and were working in concert to take out organized hits on Baltimore city police. It took Nightly Show host Larry Wilmore to get to the bottom of things. In his April 30 episode, he sat down with members of all the gangs. The men told him that they called the truce because it was important for them to show solidarity and unity when calling for peace and justice for Freddie Gray.
When other journalists began to talk to actual gang members, they saw that the men were upset that they were being accused of conspiring to kill cops. They were actually calling for peace and protecting their neighborhood from the looters who were not even from the part of town in which they were looting. One Blood gang member said “We want to tell the people of Baltimore city that the image they are trying to portray of the gangs – the Crips, the Bloods, the BGF – we did not make that truce to harm cops. We are not about to allow you to paint that picture of us.”
Unfortunately, at times like this the media always makes a point to negatively portray black men. Rioters are thugs, gang members are cop killers, and victims are criminals. It never seems to end. Hopefully, the news will one day show some integrity and place blame where it really belongs. In truth, the six officers who callously disregarded Gray’s cries for help and took him on the “rough ride” that ended his life were the real thugs in this story.
FROM BOYZ 2 MEN, INC. stands in unity with Baltimore and the fight for justice!
References
Boyle, L. (2015). The rival gang members who stood against violence in Baltimore: Crips, Bloods, Black Guerrilla Family and Nation of Islam ‘united as black men’ to stand between police and rioters. Daily Mail. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3059143/The-Wire-Unimaginable-scenes-Baltimore-s-Crips-Bloods-Black-Guerrilla-Family-Nation-Islam-unite-black-men-stop-violence.html
Graham, D. A. (2015). The Mysterious Death of Freddie Gray. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/the-mysterious-death-of-freddie-gray/391119/
Perez-Pena, R. (2015). Six Baltimore Officers Indicted in Death of Freddie Gray. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/22/us/six-baltimore-officers-indicted-in-death-of-freddie-gray.html?_r=0
YouTube. (2015). Soledad O’Brien to Journalists – ” Stop Saying Thug ” – CNN – Reliable Sources – May 3, 2015. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_RhO9PMI1k
FROM BOYZ 2 MEN, INC. 