The Real Legacy Of Baltimore Police Department Abuse
uk canada goose Department of Justice on the conduct of the Baltimore City Police Department. It’s nothing new and it’s not only about African Americans, nor does their conduct only effect African Americans. It poisoned the entire population. uk canada goose
Canada Goose Online Forty six years ago, in 1970, I was a twenty five year old with long hair and a big beard, basking in the Counter Culture, finding out I could write, working for HARRY the “underground” paper of record in Baltimore, Maryland. Canada Goose Online
canada goose clearance It was a glorious existence being the dashing young hippie journalist, newly unmarried with hippie canada goose black friday sale chicks abounding, with something to say to the world which also supplied me with endless cheap Canada Goose causes to write about; The Vietnam War, civil rights, drugs, music. It was as if we had invented it, which we certainly did not, but even knowing that on some level, there were lots of evils to fight and I was just the guy to take them on. canada goose clearance
uk canada goose outlet The Baltimore City Police Department noticed. uk canada goose outlet
I was arrested four times because of that work. Once at the notorious “Flower Mart Riot” when George Schnabel, a high ranking uniformed BPD official spotted me taking notes and pointed me out to be arrested for canada goose clearance sale disorderly conduct, thus ending my reporting for the day (he thought). Of course my story didn’t stop when I was escorted into the paddy wagon and taken off to jail. Released on recog and had the charges stetted.
I was also arrested later that summer when we got wind of a drug bust, cleaned out the apartment many of the HARRY folks were living in, went to bed and were awakened by a sizable squad of cops who were disappointed in not having found any drugs. So whatever drugs they presented as evidence must have been brought in by them.
cheap Canada Goose At the same time, HARRY’s photography editor, a man named Glenn Ehasz was, in fact a Baltimore City Police officer. Not an informant, but an actual member of the BPD. We all thought he acted like a cop, but other than pot and LSD (for the most part) we weren’t breaking any (other) laws and we had strong beliefs that those drug laws were wrong. There were (and still are) suspicions that Ehasz set us up for that bust. He later told buy canada goose jacket cheap us that he prevented the other cops (whom he knew) from breaking down the doors and smashing the walls to bits as well as destroying the rest of the contents of the apartment. cheap Canada Goose
canada goose black friday sale No proof of that. Several of us were convicted but served no time. canada goose black friday sale
canada goose store It was customary, from time to time, for a marked BPD car to sit across the street from where we were all living and wait for us to come out and get in our car, wait for us canada goose coats on sale to pull away, turn on their flashing light, pull us over for a “spot check,” and keep us for a half hour or however long they felt necessary to complete their harassment duties. canada goose store
canadian goose jacket But they never shot us or killed us. canadian goose jacket
Canada Goose Parka It was a time of real shooting and killing of members of the canadagooseparka/a> Black Panther Party, not in Baltimore, but in Chicago, among canada goose store other places. Several of us spent a night on the front porch of the Baltimore Black Panther party at the height of it because there were rumors that the PBD were going to attack them as the Chicago police had done when they killed Fred Hampton. Nothing happened that night. Canada Goose Parka
Canada Goose Outlet Even though I had attended Morgan State (then) College, what I now know as white privilege prevented me from knowing that what I was to experience from the BPD two years after I left school was something that was the daily experience of Black folks. Canada Goose Outlet
Canada Goose Jackets The powers in Baltimore did a bad job of integrating city schools. They just thew us all together. I daresay that many had never canada goose clearance interacted with another person of a different race. We muddled through, made some friends, got in some fights; those of us white folks who understood the tiniest bit about the emerging civl rights struggle were eager to Canada Goose Jackets make friends, as best we could. All the while trying to fight through the racism of our parents. My father once told me he was going to see some boxing matches “to see the nigger get beat.” My mother tried to warn me about the evils of Little Richard and the creeping menace of Black folks Canada Goose online moving in. Canada Goose Jackets
Indeed, white flight was so swift that in one year, all the white people canada goose coats who had been living in the houses in my Forest Park neighborhood had been replaced by Black folks.
As much as I tried to embrace African American culture and learn more about my new classmates, none of them ever mentioned being abused by the police. Not a single one.
canada goose clearance sale As the years went by, however, and Baltimore Canada Goose Parka became an African American city with a mostly African American government I canada goose deals noticed that I was treated differently. Sullen looks and outright hostility to my middle aged whitness on a daily basis. I figured, well ok, this is what white people have wrought, slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, imprisonment, housing discrimination, white flight and all the other accouterments Canada Goose Outlet of racism. I didn’t deserve it, however. Wasn’t I the guy who stayed all night on the Panthers’ front porch? Wasn’t I the guy who was one of four white people at Morgan? canada goose clearance sale
canada goose uk outlet What I still didn’t know was how much of this was tied canadian goose jacket into how the Baltimore City Police Department made the lives of hundreds of thousands a constant hell. canada goose uk outlet
canada goose uk shop Yes, I will admit that moving to Portland was a great relief from MY daily dose of the reactions of Black folks to me, a target for their reaction to their mistreatment. About a week after my arrival, I overheard a conversation between a buy canada goose jacket group of Blacks and whites at a restaurant. Everyone was smiling and open to each other. Wow. Is that what it’s like here? What a nice change! canada goose uk shop
Canada Goose Coats On Sale So now I know that the institutional racism of the Baltimore City Police Department has been exposed, their abuse on a daily basis, canada goose outlet over decades and the natural reaction to that abuse by those being abused poisoned relations between races. I got shit on because they got shit on, helping to drive a wedge between Black folks and white folks, between me and them, them and me Canada Goose Coats On Sale.