Baltimore riots could happen just as easily in Milwaukee

I spent Monday glued to the television set in my office, watching the city of Baltimore descend into the kind of wanton violence I have rarely seen in an American city.

The riot broke out after the funeral of Freddie Gray, the black man who died in police custody a week ago. But this riot had nothing to do with Freddie Gray.

I can’t shake the isolated images that are still with me from that day.

• Hundreds of young kids, black and mostly male, picking up rocks, bricks, bottles and other debris and hurling them at the police who were standing 20 yards away, helmets and face shields down, holding large shields in front of them as they tried to dodge each incoming missile.
• Hundreds of people storming into a CVS pharmacy and then running out, arms full of stuff from the shelves. It was a steady parade and no police in sight to stop it.
• A crowd set fire to the pharmacy and when the fire trucks arrived, these kids bombarded them with the rocks and bottles. Once the firemen got the hose hooked up, two kids stepped up with knives and slashed the firehose, stopping the flow of water. The kid who did it second turned toward the camera and grinned as the crowd applauded.
• A check cashing place under attack from a crowd as it overwhelmed the place and stole all the money. Then it did the same thing to a liquor store as looter after looter came out with arms full of bottles of booze and cases of beer.
• Four policemen carrying another officer to an ambulance, blood leaking out of his head.
• An entire street of shops, backed up against an ally. Looters flooded the ally and broke into shop after shop through the back doors.
• A $16 million senior center in the neighborhood, built by a church, and set ablaze by the rioters. It burned to the ground and the pastor vowed to rebuild.
• A shopping mall under siege being looted. A brown van pulled up outside and six or seven people climbed out, several carrying black garbage bags, and then rushed into the mall.

This whole thing was not a protest over the Freddie Gray death. This was mob mentality run amok.

Government officials gave brave voice to how they were going to crack down, but there was no law nor order being maintained in Baltimore.

These same government officials and many of the pastors in the area, complained that the media should be focusing on the positive things in the black community in Baltimore. The president of the common council called for the media to stop showing the riot and to instead tell the stories of the good works being done in the community.

Baltimore is a lot like Milwaukee. There is a large and poor black population. The school system is challenged, which might be a nice word (it is run by Milwaukee's former superintendent, Gregory Thornton). Jobs are scarce and some neighborhoods are clearly distressed.

And there are lots of politicians and pastors who say that if we just focused on all the good things going on there would be a lot more peace. These people ignore the reality of the situation and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Milwaukee had a riot like this before too long.

In Milwaukee there is no community-wide sense of urgency to deal with difficulties of racial inequality.

John Angelos is the rich white guy who owns the Baltimore Orioles, who cancelled their game Monday night. Angelos has a very thoughtful piece about his city, but it could apply just as well to Milwaukee. You can, or should, read it here.