Apartheid in America
When a black Yale graduate moved into an all-white Baltimore neighborhood in 1910, the city government created a residential segregation ordinance. The ordinance corralled African Americans to designated areas. At the time, Mayor J. Barry Mahool said, “Blacks should be quarantined in isolated slums in order to reduce the incidence of civil disturbance, to prevent the spread of communicable diseases into the nearby white neighborhoods, and to protect property values among the white majority.”
This policy spread fast and furious throughout the south. Though the country has come a long way, the corralling still exists today. African Americans are still living in those areas, but they call those places housing projects now. Both state and federal governments fund these projects.
A tale of two cities
When the felonious details of the decedent Freddie Gray’s demise spread, the citizenry of Baltimore reacted similarly to the people of Ferguson. While both were spurred by the death of an African American at the hands of police, the tale of these two cities presents comparatively different scenarios.
In Ferguson, the population is approximately 67 percent black and the police force is 94 percent white. In Baltimore, approximately 63 percent of the population is African American, but white police officers are in the minority.
Baltimore’s State Attorney has been criticized for charging six officers with crimes too quickly. Her consensus was that Freddie’s arrest was illegal because the knife he had was lawful. This week, news that the knife was a spring-assisted knife was released and this weapon is actually illegal to possess according to state and city law.
Attorney General Eric Holder found that racism was not involved in the Darren Wilson case in Ferguson. He stated that the shooting was justified, “hands up don’t shoot” was a fallacy, and no charges would be filed. The city was burned to the ground and it will take decades to recover.
Demographics and leadership
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is black, police Chief Anthony Batts is black, State Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby and long-time Baltimore Congressman Elijah Cummings are also black, and the city council is vastly operated by African Americans. The city has been under Democrat rule for over 40 years and little has improved since the 1968 riot. The politicians and city leaders, however, are not held accountable for the abysmal economic conditions.
Three of the six arrested officers are African-American, which quells the cries of racial bias. This did not stop the Mayor from asking the Department of Justice to investigate her police force for racial unfairness. Poor leadership and sloppy police work are prevalent, but, in this case, any accusation of racism seems to be far-fetched.
Money, politics, and George Soros
A Washington article claimed that George Soros funded the unrest in Ferguson. The piece stated, “Mr. Soros gave at least $33 million in one year to support already-established groups that emboldened the grass-roots, on-the-ground activists in Ferguson, according to the most recent tax filings of his nonprofit Open Society Foundations.” It cannot be known if he was involved in the Baltimore mayhem until the 2015 taxes of the foundation are released.
Baltimore carries approximately $700 million in unfunded pensions for retired government employees. In Freddie’s neighborhood, the unemployment rate is 51 percent. 23.8 percent live in poverty. There are 16,000 abandoned or vacant homes. Businesses have been looted, destroyed, and some were set ablaze. It will be difficult to find anyone willing to invest in the “Comeback City” anytime soon.
The war on poverty
When President Lyndon Johnson declared the war on poverty in 1964, the poverty level was 19 percent. Over the next five decades, the poverty level has dropped just 4 percent. Congressman and chairman of the of the House Budget Committee Paul Ryan (R-WI) stated, “We have spent $15 trillion from the federal government fighting poverty, and look at where we are, the highest poverty rates in a generation, 15 percent of Americans in poverty.”
Is more money the answer?
In a speech shortly after the rioting began, President Obama blamed Republicans and not enough funding for the civil unrest. In fact, America’s 44th President afforded Baltimore with $1.8 billion just a few years ago. It was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as the Stimulus Package.
$467.1 million was allotted for educational programs. $26.5 million was given to law enforcement. $206.1 was for environmental expenditures. $24 million went to “family.” $16.1 was to be spent on infrastructure. $15.2 million for transportation, $11.9 million for housing, and 3.1 million for job training.
Baltimore spends $15,483 for every student in its school system. This is second only to New York City, which spends $19,552 per capita. The question becomes; where is all the money going?
“Government is not the solution to our problem, government IS the problem” – President Ronald Regan
