Over the weekend, Baltimore police arrested 55 adults and 10 juveniles (including a handful of journalists) for participating in a protest on the Jones Falls Expressway during Artscape.
The protest was organized by a number of the city’s young activist groups (including City Bloc, Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, and others) calling for civilian review boards to participate in police investigations, as well as earmarking 10 percent of the police department’s budget for community programming.
After moving through Mount Vernon and Artscape on Saturday evening, some of the protesters began walking down the 83 on-ramp and then onto the northbound highway, where they stopped traffic for a period of time. According to the City Paper, police asked the group to move to the side so an ambulance could get through–but that turned out to be a ruse; the vehicles that actually did came through were police vans, and that’s when everyone got arrested.
Highways have become a key location for our era’s civil rights protests, both because they’re highly visible and because they’re often directly linked to urban segregation and spatial discrimination. That’s something that’s certainly been true — and continues to be true! — in Baltimore.
They should have arrested more. This is not a protest, it’s hijacking.
Imagine if any of the protesters had been hit by an unsuspecting motorist? In addition to a pointless injury, the driver would have been traumatized and the city would have paid out a big check.
Excellent point!!!!
Iam in shock, it’s a miracle mayor Blake didn’t order police to stand down, so they could set the cars on fire, while being stuck in traffic, and allowing protesters shot bullets at the police.Mayor Blake must have been out of town.
MAYOR BLAKE CLEARLY HATES POLICE, OTHERWISE SHE WOULD NOT HAVE ALLOWED THE RIOTERS TO THROW BOTTLES, BRICKS AND SET POLICE CARS ON FIRE, WITH HER ORDERS TO STAND DOWN, AND IN HER WORDS, ALLOW ROOM FOR DESTROYING THE CITY OF BALTIMORE.