The majority of my Monday was spent quarantined in a cubicle working on papers and finals in the library. Occasionally on a quick mental break I’d scroll through my Instagram and Twitter, not to look for anything in particular, just to remind myself that there was, in fact, still a world outside the walls of Mr. Wallace E. Mason. Throughout my mindless scrolling, I remember seeing a couple of tweets about a riot in Baltimore, but I didn’t take the time to read them carefully. The next afternoon my roommate and I were sitting together eating lunch, and after both admitting we knew nothing about the situation, we looked it up and discovered that the death of a black male in police custody had caused a peaceful protest, but this peaceful protest led to a tremendously violent riot. I immediately opened Facebook to go to my best friend’s page, as she is a senior at Loyola University in Baltimore. Just two days prior to the riot there were a handful of pictures posted of her and fellow students enjoying an event called Loyolapalooza, which is essentially their spring weekend.
After doing some of my own research, it didn’t seem quite apparent what he had even been arrested for in the first place, but after doing even more, I found that he ran away from police after making eye contact, and once caught and detained he was arrested for illegal possession of a switchblade knife. However, Baltimore’s state attorney Marilyn J. Mosby stated that this blade was legal. According to the timeline of the events on the morning of April 12, at 8:42 a.m., just before the discovery of the blade, Gray stated that he was unable to breathe and asked for his inhaler. Officers did not get Gray his inhaler, but instead restrained him until the police van arrived. Four minutes later, at 8:46 a.m., Gray was taken back out of the van and placed in handcuffs and leg restraints. Officers then loaded him back into the van — no inhaler, no seatbelt. Between 8:54 and 8:59 a.m., the van made a mysterious second stop that was not officially reported until more than a week after the initial timeline was provided. The van stopped for a third time at 8:59, when Gray once again said he could not breathe and asked for medical help, and was once again denied. Not only was he denied, but “shortly after” (there was no exact time in the record), the van made yet another stop to pick up an additional prisoner, and Gray was “unresponsive on the floor of the wagon.” Gray died a week later in the University of Maryland’s Shock Trauma Center due to a severe and critical neck injury, prompting the now famous riot. Did the police handle the arrest of Freddie Gray properly, respectfully or acceptably?
Absolutely not. But to respond with an uncontrollably violent riot is debatably more obscene. I asked my best friend Olivia to tell me a bit about what it was really like over there.
In response, she said, “Tuesday, after the majority of the violence, I went onto York Road, this is a primarily black community that faces the majority of the issues I spoke about. (I live in North Baltimore, where York Road is. West Baltimore is the area that was focused on in the news and where Freddie Gray lived and was arrested. There was unrest throughout the city, the worst, however was concentrated in this West Baltimore area, which is one of the worst-off neighborhoods in the city.) With a large group of community members, I spent Tuesday morning sweeping up glass, picking up trash and talking to residents of this area that were affected. Some people were angry with the rioters, others at the police, some at the media for the way they were portraying Baltimore. Regardless, everyone was happy to see the turn out, and thankful for the help in repairing the damage.”
Becca Falk can be contacted at bfalk@kscequinox.com
