Doves are released for Freddie Gray, who died following an arrest by the Baltimore police department, at his burial at Woodlawn Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland April 27, 2015. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
Why is Freddie Gray dead?
“The people now calling for nonviolence are not prepared to answer these questions. Many of them are charged with enforcing the very policies that led to Gray’s death, and yet they can offer no rational justification for Gray’s death and so they appeal for calm.”
There will be many thinkpieces on the civil unrest in Baltimore. As always, Ta-Nehisi Coates in the Atlantic is the one not to miss.
When nonviolence is preached as an attempt to evade the repercussions of political brutality, it betrays itself. When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse. When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con. And none of this can mean that rioting or violence is “correct” or “wise,” any more than a forest fire can be “correct” or “wise.” Wisdom isn’t the point tonight. Disrespect is. In this case, disrespect for the hollow law and failed order that so regularly disrespects the community.
“Nonviolence as Compliance” [Atlantic]