The Baltimore Riots: What Happened?

by Tony Magliano · May 21, 2015

�The God of peace is never glorified by human violence,� wrote the famous Trappist monk Thomas Merton. Whether it�s on an individual, city, national, or international level, violence always dishonours God, and makes bad situations worse. The recent Baltimore riots were no exception: people were injured, neighbourhood stores were burned, and violence was further engrained into a city and world already steeped in violence.

A mourner pats the hearse holding the casket of Freddie Gray outside New Shiloh Baptist Church in West Baltimore April 27 after a funeral service. Riots erupted nearby in response to the death of Gray, 25, who died April 19, one week after being arrested and sustaining a severe spinal cord injury while in police custody. (CNS photo/Karen Osborne, Catholic Review)

But, and this is a big but: What are the reasons that led to violence? What motivated some African-Americans in Baltimore to riot?

To ask and to try to answer these questions � in dialogue with the rioters � is certainly not meant to justify the violence; rather it is a necessary step on the road to ending it.

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, �A riot is the language of the unheard.�

I grew up in Baltimore. And in the 1950s and 1960s when I was a kid there, Baltimore � while it certainly had significant problems like racial segregation � overall was a kinder and gentler place to live.

In those days crime was much lower, there were no gangs to speak of, drugs were far less a problem, schools were good, neighbours watched out for each other�s children, and blue-collar Baltimore had lots of good manufacturing jobs that offered hard-working people of all colours a living wage.

Sadly, those days are mostly gone.

I spoke with Brendan Walsh who, with his wife Willa, co-founded Viva House � the Catholic Worker House serving homeless, poor people located in south-west Baltimore where some of the rioting occurred.

Walsh, who has lived at Viva House since 1968, shared with me his reflections regarding root-causes of the rioting that occurred after the death of Freddie Gray � who died from a fatal injury that happened while in transport by Baltimore police, according to an initial investigation.

Walsh noted that many U.S. corporations have moved their operations from cities like Baltimore, to very poor countries where they can get away with the injustice of slave labour (see www.iglhr.org), and in the process have left many Americans without decent paying manufacturing jobs.

Walsh asked, �What are people to do when there are so few blue-collar jobs available that pay a living wage�?

He believes that every city police officer should be required to live in the city. He said this would help police to better under the difficulties faced by many city residents, and in the process better relationships would be established.

Walsh noted there are not nearly enough drug treatment facilities. He said people need to be medically treated for drug addiction, not thrown into prison.

Many years ago I remember police districts in Baltimore ran recreational centres where kids could go to play sports, games, and do homework with police officers who offered guidance and friendship.

Back in those days numerous companies offered students summer jobs. For a couple of summers I worked for the Baltimore Gas and Electric company in their machine shop.

We need to bring back the recreational centres and summer jobs. Federal, state and city governments, in partnership with corporations, need to create a comprehensive, well-funded plan to rebuild our cities.

Baltimore�s Catholic Archbishop, William Lori, perhaps said it best here: �For without love, respect and personal relationships, our lives make no sense. We shouldn�t expect a person whose life makes no sense to pull himself up by his bootstraps into a productive and prosperous life.�