By Richard B. Muhammed
Baltimore police officers were pelted with rocks, bottles, and planks, patrol cars trashed as news outlets broadcast the unrest live and streamed unfolding events in real time—shortly after Freddie Gray was laid to rest.
The governor of Maryland declared a State of Emergency as scenes of chaos were broadcast around the world.
“What media and everybody focuses more on is a CVS burned about four miles from where I live than what happened to Freddie Gray in that van,” said Dr. Ray Winbush, director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University, a historically Black university in Northeast Baltimore.
City officials and media want to focus on the rebellion, which is the fruit, “the roots of the rebellion is Baltimore has one of the most violent police forces in the United States,” he continued.
Mondawmin Mall, a major shopping center in a Black neighborhood, was the epicenter for initial clashes between police and high school students.
