WEBVTT - Why We Riot 0:00:00.750 --> 0:00:03.800 I am Brother Cornell West. This is Chris Hedges hundreds 0:00:03.810 --> 0:00:06.480 of comments. Hey what's up. This is Chuck D Public 0:00:06.480 --> 0:00:09.300 Enemy property rage. And this. Is Newton. 0:00:12.690 --> 0:00:16.120 Everyone. This is Manny faces producer and host of News 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:17.590 beat today. 0:00:17.590 --> 0:00:20.470 We're doing something a little different in light of the 0:00:20.470 --> 0:00:24.220 horrific slayings of African-Americans in recent months. We've decided to 0:00:24.220 --> 0:00:27.610 rerelease one of our most powerful drops to date. It's 0:00:27.610 --> 0:00:31.720 called Why We riot. It's our first award winning episode 0:00:31.990 --> 0:00:35.980 an examination of the racist institutionalized inequalities threaded into the 0:00:35.979 --> 0:00:39.850 very fabric of American society that forces historically oppressed and 0:00:39.850 --> 0:00:43.750 tormented communities of color to inevitably rise up in rebellion 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:48.860 it features activists. Rosa Clemente former Green Party vice presidential 0:00:48.860 --> 0:00:53.450 candidate renowned intellectual and Harvard University professor Dr. Cornell West 0:00:53.990 --> 0:00:56.900 and Lawrence Larry Hamm chairman of the north New Jersey 0:00:56.900 --> 0:01:01.880 based nonprofit The People's Organization for Progress. The stories they 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:06.020 tell are sadly hugely relevant today. And just as the 0:01:06.020 --> 0:01:08.510 pent up pain and torment erupted into the streets of 0:01:08.510 --> 0:01:11.540 Baltimore New York and dozens of other cities across the 0:01:11.540 --> 0:01:15.380 United States in the 1960s Minneapolis is currently the scene 0:01:15.380 --> 0:01:18.170 of large scale protests and demands for justice in the 0:01:18.170 --> 0:01:21.410 wake of the recent killing of George Floyd an unarmed 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:26.060 handcuffed black man by a white police officer since fired 0:01:26.090 --> 0:01:28.640 but not charged with any crimes as of this release 0:01:28.940 --> 0:01:32.060 Officer Derek Colvin kept his knee on Floyd's neck for 0:01:32.060 --> 0:01:35.720 several minutes while the 46 year old gasped for air 0:01:35.930 --> 0:01:40.039 and howled in pain crying I can't breathe the same 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.610 desperate plea repeated by Eric Garner an unarmed black man 0:01:43.610 --> 0:01:47.300 strangled to death by New York City Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo. 0:01:47.390 --> 0:01:51.230 Nearly six years ago. Floyd's demise is among a string 0:01:51.230 --> 0:01:56.870 of horrific African-American deaths sparking widespread outrage nationwide. In March 0:01:56.990 --> 0:02:00.200 Brianna Taylor was fatally shot at least eight times by 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:03.230 cops in Louisville Kentucky who barged into her home while 0:02:03.230 --> 0:02:06.710 she was sleeping. And in February a model Aubrey was 0:02:06.710 --> 0:02:10.070 pursued and gunned down by a father and son duo 0:02:10.070 --> 0:02:12.590 while jogging through a South Georgia neighborhood. 0:02:12.590 --> 0:02:15.740 It took three months for authorities to charge the man 0:02:16.190 --> 0:02:21.590 with his murder. George Floyd Brianna Taylor Ahmad Aubrey all 0:02:21.590 --> 0:02:25.190 victims of what many consider to be modern day lynchings. 0:02:26.150 --> 0:02:29.000 The incredible New Jersey based Fusion outfit the band called 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:32.660 Fuse provided the musical underbelly of why we riot while 0:02:32.660 --> 0:02:35.329 its frontman and our artist in residence hip hop firebrand 0:02:35.330 --> 0:02:40.700 Silent Night delivered incendiary verses along with bandmates soul clock 0:02:40.820 --> 0:02:42.790 and Kay desert Ray on vocals. 0:02:43.570 --> 0:02:46.060 This is an important episode. It's one we wish we 0:02:46.060 --> 0:02:48.250 didn't have to make in the first place and it's 0:02:48.250 --> 0:02:52.740 certainly one that we wish we'll never have to rebroadcast again. 0:02:52.780 --> 0:02:56.290 Something tells me that we will. For now please support 0:02:56.290 --> 0:02:59.560 news beat by subscribing on your favorite podcast app. Also 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:01.750 take a moment to leave a rating and review it. 0:03:01.750 --> 0:03:04.570 It always helps gets us noticed. And for more social 0:03:04.570 --> 0:03:09.670 justice coverage in our unique compelling musically fueled way. Visit 0:03:09.669 --> 0:03:12.560 us at U.S. News beat dot.com. 0:03:13.030 --> 0:03:18.740 Once again this is why we riot as a kid 0:03:18.770 --> 0:03:20.209 who is 13 years old. 0:03:21.290 --> 0:03:28.260 I had no idea this was coming. I had no 0:03:28.260 --> 0:03:32.790 idea that upright. You know I wasn't politically conscious at 0:03:32.790 --> 0:03:36.510 that age and I didn't come from a politically active family. 0:03:36.510 --> 0:03:39.420 My family were not activists. My father passed when I 0:03:39.420 --> 0:03:42.300 was 4 years old. My mother lived with her parents 0:03:42.300 --> 0:03:45.330 I lived with them. We lived a regular life. I 0:03:45.330 --> 0:03:49.110 did live in what at that time was called the 0:03:49.110 --> 0:03:52.850 ghetto and it became the inner city now just north. 0:03:52.860 --> 0:03:56.730 By 1967 the community that I lived in was all 0:03:56.730 --> 0:04:02.160 black and it was that summer. I was across the 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:06.300 street at my friend's house. When we were having a 0:04:06.300 --> 0:04:07.200 little house party. 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:11.390 And somebody ran upstairs says Springfield Avenue was on fire. 0:04:12.590 --> 0:04:15.770 Newark New Jersey became a city of race riots violence 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:19.080 looting and hate for five days. It was a battleground 0:04:19.130 --> 0:04:23.029 and the looters paradise. Colored Citizens clashed with police National 0:04:23.029 --> 0:04:27.020 Guardsmen and state troopers. Twenty four people were killed and 0:04:27.020 --> 0:04:30.170 twelve hundred. Nearly half the city was in the grip 0:04:30.170 --> 0:04:34.429 of a new flare ups. Similar riots in other medical 0:04:34.430 --> 0:04:37.610 centers with hatred near danger point between white and black 0:04:37.610 --> 0:04:42.320 extremist groups. In Europe. There was an uneasy tension punctuated 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:46.010 by minor outbreaks of violence. After five days of bloody 0:04:46.010 --> 0:04:50.690 fighting the rebellion started on 17th Avenue. 0:04:51.410 --> 0:04:55.380 In front of what is today called the West District precinct. 0:04:55.400 --> 0:05:00.520 My house was roughly a mile as the crow flies. 0:05:00.529 --> 0:05:04.599 The police arrested a black cab driver named John Smith. 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:06.980 They took him into the precinct that precinct had a 0:05:06.980 --> 0:05:08.930 notorious reputation. 0:05:08.930 --> 0:05:13.920 People being beaten and killed in there. Initially when Smith 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:18.060 was arrested. And keep in mind that that precinct set 0:05:18.150 --> 0:05:21.780 in the heart of a major housing project. At that 0:05:21.779 --> 0:05:25.380 time was the Hayes Homes project and right across the 0:05:25.380 --> 0:05:29.760 street was the Stella Wright project and right below that 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:31.839 was the Scudder home project. 0:05:32.070 --> 0:05:34.739 Within that area that was said to have been the 0:05:34.740 --> 0:05:38.610 most densely populated black community in the United States at 0:05:38.610 --> 0:05:41.760 that time. I mean there were literally thousands of. I 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:44.600 mean it was like a city unto itself. Those three 0:05:44.730 --> 0:05:47.760 because you couldn't even tell they were different housing pride 0:05:47.790 --> 0:05:51.390 just looked like one great area of projects. All of 0:05:51.390 --> 0:05:55.860 them about 13 stories high. So the precinct was right 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:57.760 in the heart of that. 0:05:57.930 --> 0:06:02.669 And so people could see from their windows John Smith 0:06:02.670 --> 0:06:07.060 being dragged in there drag them into the streets and 0:06:07.070 --> 0:06:09.630 that's evident land since they are people of a community 0:06:10.050 --> 0:06:13.700 and a rumor got started that Smith had died. 0:06:14.250 --> 0:06:20.070 Even though representatives of civil rights organizations came to the 0:06:20.070 --> 0:06:24.240 precinct and met with the police and knew that Smith 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:28.049 had not been killed but he had been beaten and 0:06:28.050 --> 0:06:31.860 so there was a demonstration in front of the West 0:06:31.860 --> 0:06:36.400 District precinct which led to a confrontation with the police. 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:41.180 And that's how the uprising of 1967 began. 0:06:42.930 --> 0:06:43.620 Inured. 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:49.480 Twenty six people were killed and almost all of them 0:06:49.510 --> 0:06:55.030 conclusively were killed either by the police the state troopers 0:06:55.029 --> 0:06:58.210 or the National Guard. The author Ron Rambo wrote a 0:06:58.210 --> 0:07:02.200 book called No cause for indictment. And in that book 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:07.810 he chronicles how no police guard no one was indicted 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:10.770 or went to trial for the murder of the people 0:07:10.780 --> 0:07:14.560 that took place during not during the rebellion. The police 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:17.440 were saying they were firing because they were being fired 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:22.120 upon by snipers. But all the evidence shows that there 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:26.080 were no snipers that what they thought was snipers were police. 0:07:26.340 --> 0:07:37.040 Oh my God. You want to travel. Cyprus shot out 0:07:37.340 --> 0:07:47.050 a shot of the National Guard without calling a sniper 0:07:47.050 --> 0:07:50.800 firing at each other. You know people not familiar with 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:56.230 the city and they kill people they kill Ella Spellman. 0:07:56.920 --> 0:08:03.460 You know while she was standing at her window. Like 0:08:03.460 --> 0:08:07.870 on the seventh or eighth floor of the building that 0:08:07.870 --> 0:08:08.440 she lived in. 0:08:12.660 --> 0:08:15.000 You know we used to have a saying in the 0:08:15.090 --> 0:08:17.530 in the black power movement at that time we call 0:08:17.530 --> 0:08:21.630 it right around the corner is because all of this 0:08:21.630 --> 0:08:26.140 was happening and some people were under the impression that 0:08:26.140 --> 0:08:32.260 a revolution literally was around the corner when money came 0:08:32.260 --> 0:08:35.470 King Junior was shot for example April 4th 1968. 0:08:35.470 --> 0:08:40.050 We had over one hundred and fifty mass rebellions around 0:08:40.050 --> 0:08:42.920 the country killing. 0:08:42.940 --> 0:08:45.229 Martin just was it was too much too much you 0:08:45.220 --> 0:08:49.260 couldn't take it anymore. Something snapped and some snapped inside 0:08:49.260 --> 0:08:51.650 of all of it. You know with those signs please. 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:57.220 I have some very sad news for all of you. 0:08:57.690 --> 0:09:01.110 And that is that Martin Luther King was shot and 0:09:01.110 --> 0:09:02.420 was killed tonight. 0:09:04.620 --> 0:09:06.570 So you just don't know when that's going to happen. 0:09:06.580 --> 0:09:08.819 But it is true all around the world. Had various 0:09:08.820 --> 0:09:12.310 riots in terms of rebellions against forms of oppression. 0:09:12.420 --> 0:09:14.670 And it's hard to know what the catalyst is the 0:09:14.670 --> 0:09:20.250 deeper causes usually accumulative the structural their institutional the economic 0:09:20.370 --> 0:09:24.979 political and cultural vicious stereotypes against peoples and so on 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:29.640 yet Jewish resistance in Poland. Well of course it was 0:09:30.090 --> 0:09:33.630 back to being pushed against the wall. Palestinians in Gaza 0:09:33.809 --> 0:09:37.110 against Israeli occupation. Back to being pushed against a wall. 0:09:37.110 --> 0:09:41.370 Each one of these you have distinctive conditions and circumstances 0:09:41.730 --> 0:09:43.800 but there's one button push. 0:09:43.950 --> 0:09:51.230 She can't take it no more that history starts the 0:09:51.230 --> 0:09:55.520 moment there was a year Pan who took an African 0:09:55.670 --> 0:09:57.840 and that Africans fought back. 0:09:57.860 --> 0:10:01.880 Our level of civil disobedience is nothing compared to what 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:05.960 we used to do almost hundreds of years ago. Whether 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:08.840 it was on the continent via a bag. On a 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:13.610 slave ship through the middle passage to women throwing themselves off. 0:10:14.059 --> 0:10:18.560 Balconies and draft or committing fratricide so their children wouldn't 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:22.640 have to face the horrors of being kidnapped being enslaved like. 0:10:23.370 --> 0:10:26.750 The civil disobedience the little bit that we see now 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:28.850 is an expression of. 0:10:29.450 --> 0:10:32.319 People being fed up at one point. But it doesn't 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:37.699 encapsulate the entire history of black people resisting not oppression. 0:10:37.730 --> 0:10:42.350 But the system seeing capitalism and patriarchy. 0:10:42.370 --> 0:10:44.840 I mean we're always going to have civil disobedience. People 0:10:45.020 --> 0:10:47.310 to get tired and they're going to rise up dead 0:10:47.470 --> 0:10:48.609 in a rebellion. 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:53.380 That's United States history period. But the level of what 0:10:53.380 --> 0:10:56.230 we see in the streets right now is nothing compared 0:10:56.230 --> 0:10:58.120 to what you see in the mass in the streets 0:10:58.120 --> 0:10:58.840 in America. 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:03.869 When it comes to how particularly African-American people fight back. 0:11:03.970 --> 0:11:07.210 We begin this week with so much emotional unrest all 0:11:07.210 --> 0:11:10.480 across the country after those devastating shootings you see some 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:13.030 rallies like this one in Minnesota did turn violent over 0:11:13.030 --> 0:11:17.230 the weekend. Dozens of officers injured this healing is going 0:11:17.230 --> 0:11:17.840 to be hard. 0:11:18.100 --> 0:11:20.600 And we have so many striking images to show you 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:22.840 at this encounter between a young woman and officers in 0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:26.380 riot gear in Baton Rouge. Last night people asking for 0:11:26.380 --> 0:11:31.150 peace in Los Angeles protesters joining hands making a statement 0:11:31.150 --> 0:11:33.010 as the country mourns the loss of those lives in 0:11:33.010 --> 0:11:36.550 Louisiana and Minnesota and of course those five officers in 0:11:36.550 --> 0:11:39.429 Texas who say her name. 0:11:41.330 --> 0:11:47.260 Say his name. They. Say their names. Say Ana. Why. 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:51.290 They say my name wrong in their roll call. They 0:11:51.309 --> 0:11:53.790 think I should be happy to say it they don't. 0:11:53.870 --> 0:11:56.790 They say I'm only troubled when my product most is 0:11:56.900 --> 0:12:00.130 they give me signal. Behind closed doors. They go to 0:12:00.140 --> 0:12:03.319 neighborhood I can't afford to save me my three sisters 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:06.020 and my dad was born and. Raised. The family still 0:12:06.020 --> 0:12:11.830 with a fiancee more. Naps. 554. Can call. Got pulled dope. The. 0:12:12.820 --> 0:12:15.820 Third time this month the slick shrink. Gave me the 0:12:15.820 --> 0:12:19.310 third degree before a third. Try to have parts of 0:12:19.390 --> 0:12:23.410 my life. When. I. Take the traffic stop and frisk. 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:26.110 Tried to mold and make changes but I just suppressed. 0:12:26.580 --> 0:12:29.160 My arse tickets to see the missing kids and I find. 0:12:29.390 --> 0:12:32.340 A city that saw that this is the first offense. 0:12:32.500 --> 0:12:38.230 On the day. Of the raid Nancy. The. WOMAN. OKAY NOW. GET. 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:43.140 A break in a. Second. Child on the playground. A 0:12:43.140 --> 0:12:47.550 lot of people after the uprising of 2015 looked to 0:12:47.550 --> 0:12:50.790 history and wanted to know more about the history of Baltimore. 0:12:50.809 --> 0:12:53.550 To figure out how they could make changes that would 0:12:53.550 --> 0:12:57.479 have lasting impact. And so 50 years from now we 0:12:57.480 --> 0:12:59.790 wouldn't be looking back and say well we should have 0:12:59.790 --> 0:13:03.630 made some changes in 2014 and 2015 and then we 0:13:03.630 --> 0:13:08.699 wouldn't be in another situation of unrest. While the Reverend Dr. 0:13:08.700 --> 0:13:12.630 Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis Tennessee on 0:13:12.630 --> 0:13:19.050 April 4 1968 in Baltimore things were pretty quiet until 0:13:19.050 --> 0:13:24.060 Saturday night April 6 and that is when things really 0:13:24.059 --> 0:13:26.410 started to heat up in Baltimore City. 0:13:26.460 --> 0:13:30.569 Around 6 p.m. this evening groups of teenagers began breaking 0:13:30.570 --> 0:13:35.040 windows in a small area in east Baltimore. Several fires 0:13:35.460 --> 0:13:39.770 were started for the most part the destruction and disorder 0:13:39.780 --> 0:13:44.160 in our streets has followed this pattern. However it has 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:47.650 spread and it has become worse. 0:13:47.670 --> 0:13:51.900 These acts make no sense and serve no purpose except 0:13:51.900 --> 0:13:56.790 to bring further grief for the hardship and further disorder 0:13:57.150 --> 0:13:59.640 to the people of Baltimore. 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:04.020 We had fires set in different parts of the town. 0:14:04.020 --> 0:14:08.730 Eventually there would be. Fires and looting and about 15 0:14:08.730 --> 0:14:12.820 different business districts all across the city. 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:18.000 In Baltimore City we had damages of 12 million dollars. 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:21.990 Second only to D.C. six people were killed in the 0:14:21.990 --> 0:14:26.310 unrest in 1968. We have taken the following steps to 0:14:26.310 --> 0:14:27.690 restore law and order. 0:14:28.050 --> 0:14:31.200 In our state. You may be sure that the situation 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:34.560 is under control and under constant vigilance of state and 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:38.880 local authorities. We have proclaimed the state of emergency in 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:44.070 Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Every available unit of the 0:14:44.070 --> 0:14:48.390 Maryland National Guard has been fully mobilized and deployed within 0:14:48.390 --> 0:14:51.720 the city. In addition at 6:00 11:00 this evening I 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:55.680 requested federal reinforcements to further secure the city attorney general 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:59.850 Ramsey Clark agreed to immediately dispatch the troops they should 0:14:59.850 --> 0:15:02.720 now be taking to positions in the critical area. 0:15:02.750 --> 0:15:06.240 There were a thousand businesses affected here in Baltimore according 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:10.320 to insurance records and five thousand five hundred and twelve 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:17.100 people were arrested mostly for breaking curfew in Baltimore. Mostly 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:21.380 the events lasted between April 6th and April 9. 0:15:21.450 --> 0:15:25.500 While today we are pressing to confront force with force. 0:15:25.530 --> 0:15:29.700 But now violence house fire. The lessons of these past 0:15:29.700 --> 0:15:33.030 hours have not been lost on any airline. We know 0:15:33.030 --> 0:15:36.480 now as never before. How vital is the law to 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:40.230 our liberty. We know now as never of more or 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:44.460 less violent is no friend to freedom and that the 0:15:44.460 --> 0:15:48.180 mob is no ally of civil rights. 0:15:48.210 --> 0:15:52.170 It's certainly contested as to what were the underlying issues 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:57.690 that people were so angry about in 1968 and in 2015. 0:15:57.750 --> 0:16:03.510 Of course 2015 the predominant issue was police brutality and 0:16:03.540 --> 0:16:08.220 that was not the issue in 1968. In fact Baltimore 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:12.180 was a model and was featured in a Reader's Digest 0:16:12.210 --> 0:16:16.590 article and published in March 1968 that was talking about 0:16:16.590 --> 0:16:20.370 community policing that they had put in place that they 0:16:20.370 --> 0:16:24.150 were trying to not arrest people but actually work with 0:16:24.150 --> 0:16:28.740 people in neighborhoods they had a major who was black 0:16:28.890 --> 0:16:31.800 and the police force at that point. So that was 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:34.640 something that they were really working on in 1968 and 0:16:34.650 --> 0:16:39.420 that wasn't a trigger for the unrest. But people look 0:16:39.420 --> 0:16:44.060 back and say Of course everyone realized that neighborhoods that 0:16:44.070 --> 0:16:49.050 had experienced disinvestment were getting very frustrated because you had 0:16:49.140 --> 0:16:53.880 the Great Society. Lyndon B Johnson's efforts to get more 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:57.960 money into the inner city to open up housing opportunities 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:02.490 to make it so that people wouldn't be restricted in 0:17:02.610 --> 0:17:06.600 racially segregated neighborhoods as they had the great society rests 0:17:06.660 --> 0:17:10.220 on abundance and Labor Day for Hall. 0:17:10.700 --> 0:17:16.250 It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice to 0:17:16.250 --> 0:17:19.020 which we're totally committed in our time. 0:17:19.770 --> 0:17:22.980 But that change was slow in coming. And so a 0:17:22.980 --> 0:17:28.050 lot of people think that there was a loss of hope. 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:32.100 Peter Levy in our book writes about Dr. King talking 0:17:32.100 --> 0:17:36.560 about what's happening in the other America he says. 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:40.700 Dr. King says one America's invested within rap Schering beauty. 0:17:40.730 --> 0:17:42.320 And if we can find many things that we can 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:45.920 think about a noble terms. In this America little boys 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:48.139 and little girls grow up in the sunlight of opportunity 0:17:48.140 --> 0:17:50.990 and innovation and millions million people's. 0:17:52.010 --> 0:17:54.900 Experience everyday. 0:17:56.560 --> 0:18:01.920 The opportunity of having life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 0:18:02.710 --> 0:18:04.800 And all of that diminish. 0:18:05.690 --> 0:18:09.610 And in this America millions of young people grow up 0:18:10.990 --> 0:18:18.320 in the sunlight of opportunity. Tragically and unfortunately. 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:23.600 There is another American. 0:18:25.130 --> 0:18:32.060 This other America has a barely ugliness about it that 0:18:32.060 --> 0:18:37.820 constantly transforms the billions of hope and to the fatigue 0:18:37.820 --> 0:18:44.830 of despair. In this America millions of work starved men. 0:18:46.510 --> 0:18:50.830 Walk the streets daily in search for jobs that do 0:18:50.830 --> 0:18:57.760 not exist. In this America millions of people find themselves 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:06.510 living in rat infested vermin fields Sloan. In this America. 0:19:07.950 --> 0:19:14.220 People are poor by the millions they find themselves perishing 0:19:14.220 --> 0:19:18.800 on a lonely island of poverty. In the midst of 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:22.520 a vast ocean of material prosperity. 0:19:26.090 --> 0:19:30.290 Baltimore unfortunately was a pioneer in some of the government 0:19:30.290 --> 0:19:35.180 policies that created segregated neighborhoods not just here but where 0:19:35.180 --> 0:19:38.420 they were a model for cities all across the nation. 0:19:38.420 --> 0:19:41.510 One of the most shameful things that Baltimore City Council 0:19:41.510 --> 0:19:45.950 did in 1910 was to pass an ordinance that divided 0:19:45.950 --> 0:19:49.300 the city into white blocks and black blocks. If you 0:19:49.300 --> 0:19:50.960 are going to move on to a block you had 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:54.260 to determine the percentage of people of your race that 0:19:54.260 --> 0:19:57.500 lived on that block and you couldn't move onto the 0:19:57.500 --> 0:20:00.020 block if you were going to make the racial balance 0:20:00.020 --> 0:20:02.450 change like you were going to make it 51 percent 0:20:02.450 --> 0:20:05.159 instead of forty nine percent of what your race was. 0:20:05.270 --> 0:20:11.149 So that was legally enforceable in Baltimore between 1910 and 1917. 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:16.340 Other cities took that same practice until it was said 0:20:16.340 --> 0:20:19.939 by the Supreme Court that it was unconstitutional. Once those 0:20:19.940 --> 0:20:22.189 kinds of ideas get in place that there are certain 0:20:22.190 --> 0:20:25.729 places certain blocks certain developments that black people love and 0:20:25.730 --> 0:20:28.940 certain developments the White people live. That was very hard 0:20:28.940 --> 0:20:34.220 to break thankfully. Now of course those kinds of practices 0:20:34.220 --> 0:20:37.580 are illegal but we still see the remnants of that. 0:20:37.940 --> 0:20:43.520 I think understanding that policy put that in place policy 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:47.060 change to make it illegal but policy set the roots 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:50.449 of that segregation that still exists in our city makes 0:20:50.450 --> 0:20:54.030 people understand that policy can undo some of these things too. 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:58.609 Early morning April 12 2015 Baltimore man Freddie Gray is 0:20:58.609 --> 0:21:00.680 arrested after a police foot pursuit. 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:08.390 Shown here on cell phone video. Gray is in handcuffs 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:11.800 as police escort him into the back of a police van. 0:21:11.810 --> 0:21:15.410 The answer to what kills Gray lies in what happens next. 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:19.980 Absolutely. There were underlying social issues that made people take 0:21:19.980 --> 0:21:24.000 to the streets in 2015. I was sitting in my 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:26.850 office and I started to hear murmurs from people that 0:21:26.850 --> 0:21:30.510 there was going to be unrest after on the day 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:33.840 that Freddie Gray's funeral took place and the family and 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:37.260 asked there not to be demonstrations even in that day. 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:39.929 But there were rumors flying that something big was going 0:21:39.930 --> 0:21:42.359 to happen. And I went and picked up my son 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:46.470 and high school. We drove home. Right past Mondawmin Mall 0:21:46.500 --> 0:21:50.820 which is where the unrest started. And if you're unfamiliar 0:21:50.820 --> 0:21:55.830 with Baltimore's bus system students in Baltimore don't have city 0:21:55.830 --> 0:21:59.070 buses unless their special education students they take the public 0:21:59.070 --> 0:22:03.500 bus and Mondawmin Mall is a bus terminal where 5000 0:22:03.660 --> 0:22:06.750 students come into my doorman and then spread out to 0:22:06.750 --> 0:22:08.580 different schools. So they were at the end of the 0:22:08.580 --> 0:22:11.280 day five thousand students were going to come onto into 0:22:11.280 --> 0:22:16.260 Mondawmin and because of these rumors of unrest the city 0:22:16.260 --> 0:22:19.320 shut down the bus system. They stopped the buses from 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:22.680 running from Mondawmin Mall. So you had kids that were 0:22:22.680 --> 0:22:25.139 on the buses ready to go home. They'd heard all 0:22:25.140 --> 0:22:29.510 the same rumors and they were trying to get home. 0:22:29.850 --> 0:22:32.760 And the police in riot gear came up and told 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:35.879 them to get off the buses. Teachers were coming and 0:22:35.880 --> 0:22:39.240 trying to drive them home out of the area. Kids 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:42.180 were stranded. There were thousands of kids who were stranded 0:22:42.180 --> 0:22:44.609 and there were police in riot gear. And it is 0:22:44.609 --> 0:22:47.970 still not known in Baltimore City who gave the order 0:22:48.000 --> 0:22:50.700 to stop the buses. We still don't know that. 0:22:51.330 --> 0:22:54.900 And it seems like that was just that the spark 0:22:54.930 --> 0:22:58.980 that set off all of the unrest in public transportation 0:22:58.980 --> 0:23:03.090 is a huge problem. And that was made very evident 0:23:03.119 --> 0:23:06.149 when the buses shut down and we had this layer 0:23:06.150 --> 0:23:09.840 of police brutality in this one particular case that was 0:23:09.840 --> 0:23:12.750 just one of many that people had been worried about 0:23:12.750 --> 0:23:16.109 in Baltimore and complaining about for a long time. All 0:23:16.109 --> 0:23:19.380 of those on top of each other combined with this 0:23:19.380 --> 0:23:20.370 history of. 0:23:20.609 --> 0:23:26.040 Residential segregation disinvestment in certain areas while other areas of 0:23:26.040 --> 0:23:29.850 Baltimore City are well invested. That whole history just came 0:23:29.850 --> 0:23:33.630 to a fore in 2015. And. 0:23:33.900 --> 0:23:39.230 Had a predictable result. So. Much sound no fucking to 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:41.590 it is. That his talent is high had his kids 0:23:41.660 --> 0:23:42.359 school system. 0:23:42.490 --> 0:23:45.859 Did Miss the man last night. No nooses. Past the 0:23:45.859 --> 0:23:49.640 panic zone. Do we know this. Because. They. Know. This 0:23:49.640 --> 0:23:55.189 because they owe us. 40 acres a pipe dream. They. Say. The. Dead. 0:23:55.300 --> 0:23:57.479 Don't cut the photos half of them can't stop. A 0:23:57.510 --> 0:23:59.920 man can pull some. That's. My. 0:24:00.109 --> 0:24:05.210 Question. Since. I. Bought a souvenir. So. Now began a web. Site. 0:24:05.430 --> 0:24:09.680 I've been a. Cornerstone is gone and nobody knows. What happened. 0:24:10.350 --> 0:24:12.890 But the pain. Can be gone. Down the corner for 0:24:12.890 --> 0:24:17.960 some real shit. Inside the. Camp and. It's nothing specific 0:24:18.050 --> 0:24:22.030 or is it. It's been building since it was on. 0:24:22.369 --> 0:24:24.030 We don't call it. A. 0:24:24.250 --> 0:24:27.350 Riot. We call it an uprising because it was a 0:24:27.350 --> 0:24:31.820 collective response. To oppression. One of the things that people 0:24:31.820 --> 0:24:34.070 need to keep in mind and one of the reason 0:24:34.070 --> 0:24:37.280 we call it a rebellion is because this was happening 0:24:37.310 --> 0:24:40.550 all over the country. Many people don't know that between 0:24:40.550 --> 0:24:45.830 1960 and 1972 there were more than one thousand recorded 0:24:46.010 --> 0:24:51.200 urban civil disturbances or riots in the United States. In 0:24:51.200 --> 0:24:58.280 naming it. That. You bring yourself closer. To the reality 0:24:58.820 --> 0:25:00.340 that brought it into being. 0:25:01.990 --> 0:25:05.140 In name in calling it a rebellion. See if it's 0:25:05.140 --> 0:25:07.660 a riot. People think a riot like. 0:25:08.109 --> 0:25:12.930 After a basketball game. College after a soccer game. Europe. 0:25:13.540 --> 0:25:18.139 You know they think of some trivial reason understandable excitement. 0:25:18.240 --> 0:25:21.669 Sox fans waited 18 years for a trip back to 0:25:21.670 --> 0:25:30.760 the World Series. Some fans took the celebration to fan. 0:25:34.850 --> 0:25:35.840 History the straight. 0:25:36.240 --> 0:25:42.659 Damaging property. I also condemn in the harshest words possible 0:25:43.140 --> 0:25:46.800 the actions of the punks last night who turned our 0:25:46.800 --> 0:25:52.410 city's victory into an opportunity for violence and mindless destruction. 0:25:52.590 --> 0:25:55.800 But when you say rebellion everybody knows that when you 0:25:55.800 --> 0:26:01.109 say rebellion you're talking about something Civic. Something social. 0:26:01.680 --> 0:26:04.560 Something really serious happen. 0:26:04.680 --> 0:26:06.990 When you say rebelling the shooting of 18 year old 0:26:06.990 --> 0:26:10.200 Michael Brown has opened a wound in the community. The 0:26:10.200 --> 0:26:13.560 violence which erupted in the anger following a candle light 0:26:13.560 --> 0:26:17.030 vigil was taking place in Ferguson a suburban St. Louis 0:26:17.070 --> 0:26:20.580