All is not well in the United States of America, which claims to be one of the world’s most developed state. The long burning fissures caused by decades of racist policing and the country’s inability to resolve deep-seated discrimination on the basis of race and class have led to violence and protest once again in the city of Baltimore. On April 19, Freddie Gray, an African-American man who had been in police custody for a week, was pronounced dead. It appeared that Gray suffered a fatal injury while in police custody. It was unclear what had led to the arrest in the first place. The only story is that he appears to have ‘run off’ after a police officer looked at him. Gray did not resist arrest, but was reported to be in pain when he was arrested. While he possessed a switchblade, the Baltimore mayor confirmed that having a knife was not a crime. But the reality is, that in America where possessing arms is legal, a black man possessing a knife or a gun is not treated like a white man who does the same. On Monday, after Gray’s funeral, crowds began to confront riot police that had been deployed throughout the city. By the evening, looting and arson of public and private buildings had started and a ‘state of emergency’ was declared. A curfew was announced on the same day, but some people continued with their protests.
By the end of the day, over 200 people had been arrested while a hundred cars had been burnt. On Tuesday, around 5,000 troops from the American National Guard were called in. At present Baltimore looks like a scene out of a civil war movie. Years of brutal policing and economic neglect of America’s African-American community have led to this situation – and matters are headed towards even more agitation. Only last year similar rioting was seen in Ferguson. A few years earlier, it was London (UK) that erupted in riots over a similar police killing. US President Barack Obama has admitted that the
riots have unfairly overshadowed peaceful protests over use of force by the police. While the six police officers involved in the Gray case have been suspended, Black America is not convinced that any serious action will be taken: the death of Eric Garner in New York and Michael Brown in Ferguson are fresh in their memory. No police officer in the US has ever been charged with an extrajudicial murder of an African-American. In this context American newspaper editorials have also noted that the police are largely seen not as protectors but as oppressors by the black community. The gains of the American civil rights movement seem to have withered away. America’s first black President Obama asked the Baltimore police department to ‘do some soul-searching.’ While that is sane advice, maybe the US president could start a serious dialogue over race and racism in a country trigger-happy about ‘helping’ other nations ‘civilise’ themselves.