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The 2020 Riots
Looking Back
After the Baltimore riots in 2015 I wrote a piece called — Baltimore: When the future looks back. I stated the following.
Imagine. In 2020 a headline reads — Baltimore: Its impact five years later. The article retells the story: Black man died in police custody (Freddie Gray), police were suspended, there was an investigation, riots broke out, the investigation was completed, the police officers were charged with felonies, and the people of Baltimore cheered.
Then the article described the past five days in 2020 after another black man was killed by the police in an American city. Riots erupted during the course of a police probe to determine whether or not to indict the officers involved. After several clashes between protesters/rioters and the police, gunfire was exchanged. The result: protesters/rioters and police officers were dead, a state of emergency was declared, and the National Guard entered to enforce a curfew.
Then the article posed a question: How did we get to such violence in 2020? The article pointed out two forgotten factors from the 2015 Baltimore riots.
1). Similar to the 2014 riots in Ferguson, MO, the Baltimore riots erupted before the police completed their investigation and before the public knew what really happened to the victim. Protesters in different cities showed…