Baltimore

As I write this, the riots in Baltimore have resulted in the cancellation of a Baltimore Orioles games.  The mayor of Baltimore (who infamously has cleared areas for the rioters to destroy) and the governor of Maryland have declared a state of emergency.  The Maryland National Guard has been activated. Now gangs have formed partnerships to target white Baltimore police officers.  The riots are supposedly in response to Freddy Gray who died while being transported in a police vehicle.

In the case of Michael Brown, he was killed while being arrested.  Likewise Eric Garner was killed by a choke hold during an arrest.   Both Brown and Garner were African Americans.  Both resulted in riots.  The difference though was at least the police were able to argue (unsuccessfully) that Garner and Brown were resisting arrest.

The problem for the Baltimore PD was that Gray had already been arrested and had suffered several injuries.  Instead of getting him medical attention, the Baltimore PD threw him into the back of a police wagon which, according to reports, they then did not strap him in allowing him to be bounced around the back while still being handcuffed to the bench and his ankles shackled (what has been referred to as a "nickel ride").  Gray was not the first to die in such a ride.

White-Americans have predictably reacted by condemning African-American culture for the case (stop committing crimes and you don't have anything to worry about).  African-Americans have reacted predictably by seeing the events as proof the police are out to get them.  Both sides miss that Ferguson, New York and Baltimore has all shown there are a police departments that are becoming alarming unaccountable to the communities that they are sworn to protect.

Now the professional rioters have come in to make a complete mess of things and the African-Amercan community are being duped into thinking this will somehow bring them salvation.  White-Americans are equally being duped into thinking this has nothing to do with them.  They're both wrong.

We, the Unites States, are dangerously close to Mr. Obama using these events to declare martial law.  He has demonstrated little regard for the Constitution and a great indifference to popular opinion (whatever that might mean). In Loretta Lynch has found Eric Holder part deux.  Combine that with Mr. Obama's broken campaign promise to eliminate the PATRIOT ACT and we have a recipe unlike anything before in American history.

Mr. Obama and his new Attorney General could easily call all anti-police protestors "terrorists" under the PATRIOT ACT and round them up.  This will most likely cause White-Americans who treasure their 2nd Amendment rights to lose their collective shit.  Such a wholesale round up of "suspected terrorists" will be seen as a prelude to gun control and firearms confiscation.  To prevent White-Americans from rioting, Lynch and Obama could invoke the PATRIOT ACT to require all firearms owners to register with DHS as means to keep the country from devolving into anarchy.  Control is assured by preventing whites and blacks from cooperating against a common enemy.

Perhaps this won't happen but then again it is the election season when everyone in Washington is playing to be the next President's favorite.  Clinton has been taking some hits in the polls and progressive Democrats are their support more and more behind O'Malley.  The only way O'Malley looks bad is if the riots continue to spiral out of control in Baltimore (he was both former Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor) and it comes out that his policies set things in motion for the riots.  Clinton has been under attack by the Obama administration so she benefits by watching matters fester in Baltimore in the hopes it rubs off on O'Malley.

Of course all of this distracts us from the matters in the Middle East where thanks to Mr. Obama and Mr. Kerry's pathetic agreement with Iran, Tehran has now more influence in the region (along with increased backing from Russia) than the US.  As Americans we still have yet to fully grasp the significance of having 20 percent of our uranium reserves controlled by Russia.  The $2.36 per gallon that I just paid at the pump has caused Americans to buy fewer hybrids and electric vehicles making automakers even less interested in developing alternative fuel technology.  Russian warships are increasingly more aggressive in the waters off of the UK and our own Navy has been sent into harms way near Yemen only to play chicken with the Iranian Navy.  But none of that registers since we are focused on people rioting that aren't even from Baltimore.