[P2P-F] Fwd: Baltimore Riot the New Watts

Sun May 3 13:12:25 CEST 2015

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bob Reuschlein <bobreuschlein at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, May 3, 2015 at 4:22 PM
Subject: Baltimore Riot the New Watts
To:

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https://bobreuschlein.wordpress.com/2015/05/03/baltimore-riot-the-new-watts/

*Baltimore** Riot the New Watts *

By Robert Reuschlein

*Watts** Riots Fifty Years Ago*

The fourth paragraph on the Watts riot of 1965 wiki recalls events after
1951 when the Los Angeles police force adapted a structure like the
military.  Unfortunately, while this is said to have made them more
professional, they also began to be more racially biased in their tactics.
The wiki cites a drunk driving arrest of a black man by white police where
a nearby mother and brother of the black man got involved in the initial
scuffle, then the community poured in.  Another account I read suggested
that the riots broke out after an unusually hot period longer than a week,
the day the weather cooled off was the start of the riots, thus a precursor
to the riots may have been the breaking open of fire hydrants to cool
people off with the water.  So racism, militarism, and weather may all have
played a role in events.  Nevertheless, it is striking that that this first
big race riot of the sixties occurs one 54 year cycle ago but for a four
year difference.  The Rodney King riots of 1992 also hit Los Angeles one
half cycle later.  The cycle changes from warming trend with poor economic
growth to cooling trend with strong economic growth every 27 years.  So
those riots were right on time for the half cycle repetition every 27
years.  Unfortunately racial housing restrictions forced blacks into either
the Watts area slum or the Compton area for middle class blacks.

*Ferguson** Riots*

 The much more extensive damage of the Baltimore riots represents a
significant escalation of the scattered fires of the Ferguson unrest.  And
Ferguson may have had agents provocateurs used in a much more militarized
response by authorities in that situation.  At least one video shows police
officers leaving a car they were gathered around that suddenly burst into
flames a few seconds later in front of a building that was later torched
without any video evidence.  New York had a major peaceful outburst between
the Ferguson and Baltimore situations.  New York had the lowest military
economy of the three cities, with Saint Louis the highest of the three
followed close behind by Baltimore.  In Saint Louis the prosecutor
protected the racist murdering policeman citing one angry white woman
supported the policeman’s standard lies and ignored the extremely credible
black businesswoman’s account of the scene on the Rachel Maddow show.
Hannity just a couple nights ago restated the big lie that there was no
evidence the black victim’s hands were raised in surrender.  Then the
Michael Brown companion’s account disputes the allegation that Darren
Wilson’s gun was ever reached for, cites the initial vulgarity used by the
officer and the reckless disregard of the officer backing his car into the
two black men, forcing them to jump aside to avoid being hit.  This
interview was by Chris Hayes, host of the MSNBC show just before Rachel
Maddow’s.  Then pro prosecutor Nancy Grace of CNN is clearly outraged by
the obvious lies of the officer in his interview with George
Stephanopoulos.  This is where an immediate police report requirement could
have prevented Darren Wilson from coming up with his carefully crafted
false story.  Policemen do this all the time in my experience with them,
come up with stories and framing that works to convict people.  The
difference between the South Carolina officer accused of murder thanks to
videotape evidence and Darren Wilson in Ferguson is that the lying and
assistance in the cover up by other officers is exposed by videotape
evidence.  With out video tape evidence Michael Brown was not only murdered
holding his hands up in surrender, but prosecutor McCulloch assisted the
criminal officer by letting him testify first to the grand jury.  Just in,
I googled this:  “A woman who swore she saw teenager *Michael Brown *pummel
Ferguson *Officer Darren Wilson* and charge him “like a football player,”
was lying about being at the scene of the controversial police shooting,
St. Louis County Prosecutor *Robert McCulloch* said Friday in a radio
interview.  Dec 19, 2014”

*Baltimore** Riots*

 Clearly the Baltimore riots are more severe than those in Ferguson, making
them more comparable to Watts.  The differences are many, but the clearest
difference is the prosecutor, who has hopefully put a stop in rioting with
the intent to prosecute six officers.  In Kondratiev Wave time, this is 1961,
54 years ago from 2015.  The civil rights struggle was well under way by
then seven year after the 1954 Brown desegregation court case and the 14
month 1956 Montgomery bus boycott of five years before 1961.  The riots
were still to come four years later in Watts or seven years later after the
murder of King in 1968.  Selma and “I have a dream” were in 1963.  Today,
the civil rights struggle and the riots have come together in this 2014 to
2015 period.  Thanks to the marijuana decriminalization movement, Rand
Paul, and the new Hillary Clinton speech, the prison industrial complex is
coming under serious bipartisan challenge.  As Jimmy Carter points out,
there are six times as many black men in prison today as when he was
president 35 years ago, often referred to as the “New Jim Crow” thanks to
the book by Michelle Alexander.  Nixon’s Southern Strategy has transformed
the nature of the Republican Party from the Party of Lincoln to the Party
of Jefferson Davis.  The deepening penetration of empire into our political
system has led to a movement away from policing to “protect and serve” to a
strict “enforcement” policing model.  These invidious trends are evident
even here in Madison, Wisconsin where I live and work and most police are
quite humane and the military spending is low.  The problem as I see it is
to find a non lethal non tazing way to stop people without shooting them.
Tranquilizer darts are used with wild zoo animals.  Body cameras and back
ups should also reduce the use of lethal methods against unarmed people.
But the gun is the first resort in too many situations, and human
indifference is too often justified in police culture.  Multiple shots may
overprotect the officer but ensure death of the suspect. The attitude is
that’s what these criminals deserve anyway. Can’t we invent some kind of
stun gun?

*Militarism, Crime, and Blacks are covered in these papers:*

https://www.academia.edu/4862977/CRIME_and_the_Military

*This list of cycle events includes riots and other civic events in one
section:*

https://www.academia.edu/4101856/EVENTS_Weather_Economy_War_List56

Dr. Peace, Dr. Bob Reuschlein, Real Economy Institute
best contact to ask Bob to speak to your group: bobreuschlein at gmail.com
to leave message: 608-230-6640
for more info: www.realeconomy.com

(*Real Economy* and/or *Peace Economics* free pdf on request by members of
the press)
An archive of this yearlong press release campaign can be found at:
http://bobreuschlein.wordpress.com/

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