OUTSIDE a gutted pharmacy in West Baltimore, William Tyler, a 41-year-old youth worker, illustrates the dilemma of policing in his city. Speaking about Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old who died on April 19th after being arrested by Baltimore’s police, he complains that: “None of these polices ever go to jail, they don’t get fired. Police is nothing but gangs too.” Yet looking at the building behind him, burnt out by riots that followed Mr Gray’s funeral, he adds, “and look at this store! This is where my mom gets her medicine. The police just stood right there and watched it happen. This weren’t the time for protocol. This were the time to go, go, go!”
Baltimore exploded into violence on the evening of April 27th after several days of largely peaceful protests against Mr Gray’s treatment. Soon after the funeral, angry teenagers, some apparently stranded by a shutdown of the city’s transport network, began attacking a mall in the north-west of the city.
By sunset, large areas of West Baltimore had descended into lawlessness. Groups of young men and women looted bars and...
from The Economist: United States http://ift.tt/1Evbb7V
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