UNITED STATES—Monday night my world was rocked to the core when I saw the video of the chaos that was erupting in Baltimore, Maryland. It sickened me to the core, but as scary as it sounds I feared this would happen. I recently wrote a column about “Police Corruption” addressing the issue of the number of unarmed African-Americans who have been fatally killed by officers across the country.
It has become an epidemic of sorts, and it was my fear that one incident would prompt Americans to react and behave in an unjust manner. The death of Freddie Gray, at the hands of Baltimore officers where he suffered some sort of spine injury has brought attention on the city of Baltimore in a way that no one ever expected. I mean I have never faced a riot front and center, but I have been in situations where riot like behavior was prevalent.
Most of that occurred during my time as an undergraduate at college. Really over stupid things I must say; our school’s basketball team being knocked out of contention in the NCAA tournament was a common trend on campus.
Not to digress, I was watching raw footage of thugs throwing rocks, setting cars on fire, destroying buildings in Baltimore and all the time thinking to myself, how in the hell is this behavior going to resolve anything? Guess what people it will not. We live in a world where people have this unorthodox notion that when you riot it leads to change. It doesn’t, it leads to more chaos and what’s worse than anything, and it destroys a city.
The city of Detroit still hasn’t fully recovered from the riots of the 60s and it’s been over 50 plus years. When you destroy buildings in such a hateful way, it’s not just destroying businesses in the area, but its instilling fear in people. They flee the city, property revenue decreases and worse of all, the city as a whole loses a bit of respect. No one can get on live television and justify rioting in my opinion. Nothing you say will make me say, ok, someone was unjustly killed so we need to dismantle our city, attack police officers, beat up one another to send a message.
Exactly what message are you sending? If you ask me, you’re telling America that you are idiots. You have no respect for yourself or the city that you claim to love so much. Things reached a fever pitch in Baltimore to a point where a state of emergency was called and the National Guard was forced to come in to maintain some level of control. A curfew was put into effect, but not until Tuesday, which made no sense to me at all. If you’re going to implement a curfew it should have gone into effect right away, why delay and allow more chaos to erupt.
I mean seeing the footage of cars and buildings just burn to the ground and nothing being done to stop it left me reeling. I would be livid to find someone looting at my building or destroying my personal property for no just reason. It would likely force me to fight violence with more violence. I mean things got slightly out of hand in Ferguson, Missouri, but what has occurred in Baltimore sheds light on an ongoing issue. Violence can erupt anywhere and anytime; especially when emotions come into play.
By now most of you may have seen that viral video of the mother who delivers a beating to her son who was engaging in disgusting behavior. Kudos to that mother for calling her son out on his BS! We need more parents out there like this, those who are willing to parent their children and not attempt to be their friend. She was appalled to see her son behave in such a manner, and he was probably embarrassed to realize that everyone in the world NOW knows what he was doing, and even worse that his mother kicked his *** at the same time.
Would I ever condone a parent intentionally embarrassing a child? No, but in this case, I gladly make an exception because she made it clear to her son and to other parents across the nation: if your child is doing wrong it’s your job to correct it.
Rewarding bad behavior only leads to more bad behavior. The city of Baltimore is in chaos right now, the state of Maryland is reeling from what has transpired, but let this be a lesson to all Americans: rioting does not solve the problem, it only creates more problems.
