By Thomas Madison
Let me get this straight. The mayor of a major American city made an official announcement, complete with an attending entourage that resembled, perhaps not so surprisingly, a New Black Panther posse, actually proclaiming that she gave orders to her cops to allow the punks and thugs, in the name of “free speech,” to commit criminal activity, to destroy public and private property at will, which aforementioned punks and thugs have been all too happy to do.
So, if riotous destruction of public and private property is permissable under Mayor Rawlings-Blake’s bizarre concept of free speech, where is the line drawn? What is a crime anymore? Is arson permissable? Assault? Rape? How about murder? How can she ignore some laws and not ALL laws. Is she taking a page out of Barrack Hussein’s playbook and creating law on the fly, by executive proclamation?
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is now what passes for the governing and administrative authority of one of America’s oldest (1790) cities. Really? God Help us all!
From Chuck Ross, Daily Caller
Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake made a stunning admission Saturday in the aftermath of violent protests over the recent death of Freddie Gray, saying she wanted to give space to those “who wished to destroy.”
And destroy, some did.
Numerous storefronts and vehicles were damaged and businesses were looted at the tail end of a day of demonstrations. Thirty-four people were arrested and six police officers suffered minor injuries. Baseball fans attending a game at Camden Yards were told to stay inside the ballpark until violence outside of the stadium subsided.
“I’ve made it very clear that I work with the police and instructed them to do everything that they could to make sure that the protesters were able to exercise their right to free speech,” Rawlings-Blake said during a press conference Saturday night.
“It’s a very delicate balancing act, because while we tried to make sure that they were protected from the cars and the other things that were going on, we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well.”
“And we worked very hard to keep that balance and to put ourselves in the best position to deescalate, and that’s what you saw.”
Protesters are upset because of the circumstance surrounding Gray’s death last Sunday. He was arrested on April 12, following a foot chase with police. At some point, he suffered a severe spin injury and died. Baltimore’s police commissioner admitted Friday police failed to provide Gray with medical care in a timely manner.
An email request for comment sent to two spokesmen for the Baltimore mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mayor’s office spokesman Howard Libit responded late Sunday saying that Rawlings-Blake had been taken out of context.
