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A year after Freddie Gray: How we talk about April 2015
A year after Freddie Gray: How we talk about April 2015
Listen to this articleAs with so much of what happened in Baltimore last April, the very words we use to describe those events are a matter of no small debate.
For some of the small-business owners whose shops windows were smashed, their shelves looted, it was plain and simple: These were riots, a word that captures the violence and fury that engulfed their world.
For residents of west Baltimore, whose neighborhoods for so long have been wracked by poverty, drug addiction and economic despair, it was an uprising and it was justified.
And for many others whose involvement in the April events ranged from intimate to distant, it was civil unrest, a term that occupies a safe, middle-of-the-road place in the discussion.
In the year since last April, six police officers have been charged and await trial for their alleged role in the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old west Baltimore man whose fate led to the city’s convulsions. (One of the officers is awaiting a retrial.)
A weary mayor, once viewed as politically impregnable, announced she would not seek re-election after her handling of the April events was widely criticized.
The city’s business, civic and political establishment sought to rally – to restore Baltimore’s tattered tourism image, to repair damaged businesses and, most importantly, to determine what resources are needed to lift up the city’s long-neglected neighborhoods.
Baltimore’s higher education and medical communities, long the pride of the city, re-examined their own role in the city’s civic affairs.
State lawmakers began a criminal justice overhaul with an eye toward reforming a system that to many seemed designed, intentionally or not, to incarcerate an entire class of people.
And everyone began the shift from debating what had happened and why toward figuring out something every bit as challenging – the way forward.
Starting today, and continuing for the week, The Daily Record is publishing a series of stories examining important aspects of the way forward.
Monday: The rioting that swept across Baltimore was ostensibly about justice, but it also revealed the other underpinnings of a raw and deep unrest. Are there signs of progress – or at least hope – in these neighborhoods?
Tuesday: The city and state went to great lengths to help damaged businesses clean up and rebuild. Are there new businesses in these neighborhoods, willing to take a chance that Baltimore can be a place where they can grow and prosper?
Wednesday: The events of April led to a flurry of campus activism and academic interest in the city’s racial politics and to soul-searching by college and university administrators on how to help the poor communities surrounding their campuses. Is this the passion of the moment or a lasting change?
Thursday: A review of the cases filed against hundreds of people detained for curfew violations or other matters shows that most were not charged; those who were often had charges dismissed. What of those facing more serious counts?
Friday: The mass arrest of protesters brought national attention to the issue of bail reform and pretrial detention.
