Originally published in the Baltimore City Paper at 6:09 a.m. EDT, April 28, 2015
The city erupted in fire Monday.
On Monday morning, police announced a “credible threat” posed by members of the Black Guerilla Family, Bloods, and Crips joining together to “take-out” law enforcement officers. Other sources claiming gang ties have told City Paper they are aware of a truce to protest the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old who died from a severed spine in police custody, but knew of no plans for violence.
But the police request for national media to make the information known seemed like it was trying to start something. There were reports of an Instagram post that read “All High Schools Monday @3 We Going To Purge From Mondawmin To The Ave, Back To Downtown,” referring to the film series where there is a single night a year in which there is no law.
Around 3 p.m. police and several large groups of kids were locked in battle in the area surrounding Mondawmin Mall. But if the police were the highly militarized victors at the Battle of Sandtown Saturday night, the kids seemed to be beating them here, throwing a large number of rocks that actually had the police retreating. When they fought back, the police used rubber bullets, pepper spray, and tear-gas canisters. Once, when they seemed to directly hit a protester with a gas canister, all the police began cheering and running until a lieutenant ran and got them to stop. But they seemed horribly disorganized and ill-equipped against the young kids, who had control of the streets. They were a guerrilla band, able to disperse quickly. The police couldn’t, or didn’t, use the kind of pincer tactics that would block the kids in. I only saw two people arrested—a guy who was taking pictures and one kid, lying sadly on the ground, his face smashed against the pavement. “I ain’t even a protester,” he said.
No one, it seemed, was a protester and everyone was a combatant.
More at: http://tinyurl.com/jwl9qle