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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: “Meanwhile, Out in the Street, Dancing Bears & Jugglers Have Become A Common Sight”

Open Thread: “Meanwhile, Out in the Street, Dancing Bears & Jugglers Have Become A Common Sight”

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Baltimore Sergeant Warns Superiors: ā€œIt Is About To Get Uglyā€
A Baltimore police sergeant informed his Eastern District superiors Friday afternoon that officers ā€œare now being challenged on the street.ā€ The sergeant sent the letter following the announcement that Stateā€™s Attorney Marilyn Mosby was indicting six officers on felony charges associated with the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old who suffered a fatal spinal injury while in Baltimore police custody on April 12.

The letter, provided to BuzzFeed News from an anonymous source, warned of heightening tensions between police and residents on a day when many locals have taken to the streets to celebrate…

The title is from a Doonesbury strip during the Watergate hearings, because sometimes ya gotta go with the classics. (Yeah, the Gay Pride definition of ‘bear’ wasn’t so well known forty years ago.) TFW is short for “that feeling when”.

***********

Apart from clown shows, what’s on the agenda for the start of the weekend?

Reader Interactions

99Comments

  2. 2.

    the Conster

    Three black cops, three white cops. What’s a wingnut to do when trying to get their hate on for Marilyn Mosby?

  3. 3.

    Mustang Bobby

    I’m a great-uncle; just got the call from my mom, who is now a great-grandmother, that the newest member of the family arrived today.

    They know what causes that now.

  5. 5.

    lamh36

    So wait, the usual bigots don’t know what to do with the diversity in the 6 Officers charged with the death of Freddie Gray.

    Well NWA said it best: “don’t let it be a black and a white one, they’ll slam ya down to da street top Black police showin out for da white cop”

  6. 6.

    Baud

    TFW is short for ā€œthat feeling whenā€.

    Thanks, AL. Given the context, I would have guessed it meant that fucking wanker.

  8. 8.

    La Caterina

    @Mustang Bobby: Wonderful news!

    My nephew graduates from college next week and I get to be there. I guess I be a great-aunt one of these days.

  9. 9.

    Corner Stone

    So, one of the people I know posted this, approvingly, on FB. I wouldn’t have known but someone texted me and said, WTF?!
    The obscenely easy way people are ripping off taxpayers for $69,000 a year in benefits
    It’s an amazing compilation of cheats to steal $69K a year as a straight up mooch.
    “$22,800 disability + $10,800 housing benefit +$4,800 food stamps + $3,300 Obamacare subsidy + $900 utilities grant + $5,645 Pell grant cash + $12,000 yearly college tuition grant + $8,000 single mother tax benefit + $1,295 head of household creditā€¦

    ā€¦equals $69,540 ā€“ and we didnā€™t even add in the free cellphone! “

  12. 12.

    Felanius Kootea

    Marilyn Mosby is my new hero. I am still in awe of what she did today.

    Also really happy about Elon Musk and Tesla’s announcement of batteries for storing solar power for homes in addition to cars. It has a great deal of relevance for countries such as Nigeria (where I grew up) that have an abundance of sunshine and an epileptic power supply (the sounds and smells of diesel generators are so common in Lagos).

  13. 13.

    Skerry

    Waiting for the Baltimore City curfew to be lifted so my daughter (a city resident) can get back to work. Restaurants and bars are suffering. She and all the other service workers really need their income.

  15. 15.

    the Conster

    @Felanius Kootea:

    She’s my new hero too. It apparently takes a young woman to show some balls. She went to high school with my daughter – as a bussed in METCO student. I can only imagine what her HS experience was in an all white very privileged (but liberal) environment. My own kids had a hard time fitting in. She had to work at least twice as hard to succeed. She’s so impressive, I’m bursting with pride for her, and her equanimity. She’s the whole package.

  19. 19.

    PhoenixRising

    @Corner Stone: The most amazing part of all that is how someone disabled enough to qualify for that payment, or old enough to draw it as a percentage of income, also managed to get into and pull good grades at a college expensive enough to qualify for a Pell Grant AND whatever that other ‘tuition’ is supposed to be.

    My dad was a lawyer for people trying to draw disability, and the ones who needed a lawyer to handle the appeal were the 80% between the 10% who just couldn’t be mistaken for someone who could work and the 10% who just didn’t wanna work. In other words, the vast majority of applicants didn’t get awarded ‘disabled’ status by the SSA without an appeal. And I don’t recall a story about a single one of those people who might have been able to use those college benefits.

    Lots of them used back pay, once they were qualified, to pay for community college retraining for a job you can do sitting down…but had they done so while the appeal was pending, that would have blown the application.

    Reality is so complicated.

  20. 20.

    Cliff in NH

    You see all these ‘National Guard’ Pigs marching down the street with AR-15’s and fingers near triggers?!?! WTF been peaceful all day/night.

    FTP . WTF.

  21. 21.

    Elie

    @efgoldman:

    But ya know, it was even MORE chilling than shooting — which seems more emotional somehow.. This was depraved indifference — the coldest of the cold..

    Seriously, would any of you treat an animal like this? I can’t imagine having any kind of awareness of a living being and treat Gray like this… I am STILL not convinced that his injuries happened in that van, though… the footage of him being dragged to the van — where his legs look like rubber bands — I am just not sure that he isn’t already gravely injured there and its made worse by whatever banging around he had in the van.

  22. 22.

    Cliff in NH

    What the fuck are these Morons thinking, live on msnbc, a big fucking bunch of troops with full armor and AR-15’s or the full auto M-16s stomping down the street with armored vehicles.

    FTPigs.

  27. 27.

    NotMax

    Gotta link a little remembered dancing bear song.

    Outrageous! Alarming. Courageous. Charming.
    Oh, who would think a boy and bear
    Would be well accepted everywhere
    It’s just amazing
    How fair people can be

  28. 28.

    Elie

    @Cliff in NH:

    In some ways we are having a national argument about fascism vs democracy. Fascists do not believe in representative democracy. It is totally cool if a small elite rules and rules through over assertion of power and militarism. Fascism is also materialistic — valuing wealth and supporting its influence. You have to read the history of Mussolini and how his brown shirts destroyed organized labor and the rights of the peasants in Italy … I think that many in the US do not really understand that there are many people who do not believe in majority rule but indeed support rule by a small elite who are periodically affirmed through some quasi voting process but it is not fair or representative. Once you accept that this is happening, it makes total sense and allows you to free yourself of surprised outrage to focus on the business at hand without the “oh why is this happening?”

  30. 30.

    dexwood

    @Skerry:
    In ’68, i was a 16 year old Baltimore resident. I have three distinct memories of those days, one of which involved me having a governor’s pass allowing me to be out after curfew because I worked at a donut shop next door to a MD National Guard Armory that did not have a working kitchen. Coffee and donuts all around. Co-workers could not make it to work, but I lived six blocks from the shop, walking distance. My 12 hours per week quickly, briefly, became 40 in a few short days.

  32. 32.

    Cliff in NH

    it would be one thing if police with sticks are walking down the street, but there is no excuse for full auto weapons.

  33. 33.

    RSA

    @PhoenixRising:

    The most amazing part of all that is how someone disabled enough to qualify for that payment, or old enough to draw it as a percentage of income, also managed to get into and pull good grades at a college expensive enough to qualify for a Pell Grant AND whatever that other ā€˜tuitionā€™ is supposed to be.

    I know! Based on the SSDI calculators I’ve seen online, I think it’s logically impossible for someone to pull in $22,800 in disability (at a guess, that number assumes someone who’s become disabled after making upwards of $50K annually) while still being eligible for housing aid and the rest.

  35. 35.

    Cliff in NH

    the army is not police. these are the people we send to war dressed like that and this is fucking Baltimore. NOT a WAR ZONE.

  38. 38.

    PhoenixRising

    @Baud: And extremely clever. They can work the system in ways that professional, lifelong advocates didn’t think of.

  39. 39.

    Cliff in NH

    @raven:

    You are evil. this is not war. Police is one thing, full auto weapons and armor is escalation.

  40. 40.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    OT; probably already noted earlier. I read the sad news on a friend’s FB. BB King announced that he is at home, receiving in-home hospice care.

  41. 41.

    PhoenixRising

    In unrelated items: Kid cut off her braid to send to Pantene (they make wigs for people who are ill). She looks about 19, which would be old for a 9th grader. Also changed her ethnicity. If you’re a Khmer, or know one well, you’ll know…otherwise, could be…lots of options.

    I’m not ready.

  43. 43.

    Cliff in NH

    it’s the first you morons.

    It guarantees freedom of expression by prohibiting Congress from restricting the press or the rights of individuals to speak freely. It also guarantees the right of citizens to assemble peaceably and to petition their government.

  44. 44.

    LWA (Liberal With Attitude)

    Made me chuckle-
    “warning of heightened tensions”

    Yeah, like things were so peaceful before.
    Just another example of Ta Nehisi Coates’ observations that people like to start the clock at the moment the black people starting responding to the brutality and theft that was a daily occurrence.

    “Everything was fine and peaceful…then THOSE people just flipped out for no reason…”

  47. 47.

    1weirdTrick

    @Cliff in NH: The way you’re ALL CAPPING and calling the people who disagree with you here ‘morons’ isn’t really persuading me that you’re calm and rational.

  50. 50.

    Cliff in NH

    @1weirdTrick:

    My Only All Caps was

    IT’S NOT A WAR ZONE

    So You think it is?

    You think the first doesn’t count in Baltimore? Are you a Moron?

  53. 53.

    Jasmine Bleach

    @1weirdTrick:

    @Cliff in NH: The way youā€™re ALL CAPPING and calling the people who disagree with you here ā€˜moronsā€™ isnā€™t really persuading me that youā€™re calm and rational.

    Cliff seems rational to me.

  56. 56.

    pseudonymous in nc

    Allen West drew a congressional salary of $174,000 per year as a straight up mooch. Fuck him.

  57. 57.

    Hal

    Ugh, glob help me, but I broke my promise not to argue with anyone on Facebook about Baltimore today. When the story of the cops arrest started circulating I knew people would say “Three are black! Where’s Al Sharpton now!” Apparently three cops being black means the protesters no longer care about police brutality and violence and this is all about being mean to white folks. Sigh. This is the kind of thing I site when I say that too many white people do not care about police brutality because it just doesn’t happen to them enough. And when you can easily reduce all protesters to everyone’s favorite new word, thug it’s hard to see anything changing for a long time.

  58. 58.

    Cliff in NH

    @Hal:

    I was harassed almost every day when I worked in poor neighborhoods in NYC, I guess the pigs didn’t think a white guy in a suit would be there to fix their computers and printers.

  59. 59.

    Cliff in NH

    they call people Thugs, I’ll call them pigs.

    they tailgate me for ages, 2 feet off my bumper, they are pigs. They pull me for being white in a black block, they are pigs.

    Soooo sorry to hurt the feelings of pig lovers.

  61. 61.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @Cliff in NH: Annoying people who agree with your underlying point just makes you a dick. Don’t annoy us; annoy the people in power. I guarantee you that none of them is made the slightest bit uncomfortable by you posturing here.

  63. 63.

    Kropadope

    @Cliff in NH: Oh, I’d never go there. NYC is ground zero for the outbreak of modern-style police abuse. Perpetuating the cycle of animosity, however, doesn’t seem like it will improve the situation.

  64. 64.

    Cliff in NH

    @Kropadope:
    oh, fer fucks sake.

    Do YOU Think it was a war zone?

    Do You think full auto weapons and full war body armor and armored vehicles were appropriate?

    Well? if you do, I’m Glad to piss you off.

  65. 65.

    Kropadope

    @Cliff in NH: No, I don’t think it was a war zone or that military-style equipment is appropriate for law enforcement purposes. Perhaps if you took half a fucking second to comprehend what I wrote you would know that.

    All I was suggesting is that failure to find common ground is exacerbating the situation. You’re a lost cause, though. You can’t even find common ground with people who basically agree with you.

    Very few people on this site, or perhaps no one, would say that zero-tolerance police tactics, policing as a revenue source, or the militarization of police are a good thing. You don’t care though. All you seem to want is to fight.

  66. 66.

    Cliff in NH

    dude, read the thread and see who I am bitching at. Raven denied reality of m-16s on the street with armor, 1 trick complained about the all caps IT’S NOT A WAR ZONE

    and a comment describing the first amendment.

    Thats it, try reading.

  67. 67.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @Cliff in NH: If you bothered to read the blog at all, you’d know that pretty much everyone here agrees with your basic points. It’s your over-the-top presentation and general dickishness that a few people have expressed a negative opinion on. Most of this disagreement exists in your head and nowhere else.

  68. 68.

    Kropadope

    @Cliff in NH: That’s all completely irrelevant to basically anything I said to you.

    You responded to:

    Oh, Iā€™d never go there. NYC is ground zero for the outbreak of modern-style police abuse.

    with:

    oh, fer fucks sake.

    Do YOU Think it was a war zone?

    Do You think full auto weapons and full war body armor and armored vehicles were appropriate?

    Well? if you do, Iā€™m Glad to piss you off.

    You’re on a tear and clearly don’t care what anyone has to say. I called you on this and your best response is to call attention to two posters who had nothing to do with what I said to you

    Raven never said this militarization is appropriate. I’m not even sure (s)he disagreed it was happening. “You don’t know what you’re talking about” is a pretty vague statement in that regard.

    1trick may have overreacted to all caps, but you know what? THEY’RE SHOUTY and there are better ways to add emphasis. It was also his/her only post on this thread, you have spent 5 comments talking about it. Furthermore, 1trick did not disagree with your underlying premise, that militarization of police is wrong, so I really don’t understand what you’re banging on about.

    ETA: Even if they did disagree with you and thought that militarization of police either wasn’t happening or is just fine and dandy that doesn’t change the fact that:

    Very few people on this site, or perhaps no one, would say that zero-tolerance police tactics, policing as a revenue source, or the militarization of police are a good thing. You donā€™t care though. All you seem to want is to fight.

    Emphasis added (by bolding, what a novel concept). Two people do not make a majority.

  69. 69.

    Plantsmantx

    Ah yes, Allen West- the black guy who jock-sniffed (and I’m being charitable) a criminal, avowedly racist, white motor gang.

  70. 70.

    Suzanne

    Marilyn Mosby impressed the hell out of me today. I hope she continues to do so. The news has been so awful that I need a royal baby to cheer me up.

  73. 73.

    Cliff in NH

    Why should I ignore lies and bullshit?

    Why should I ignore the few who say evil things and not call them out?

    Why? Just because You ignore them doesn’t mean I should.

    It’s all balloon juice I guess.

  74. 74.

    Kropadope

    @Cliff in NH: I’m not ignoring your lies, nor your bullshit. I, and others, are calling out the evil things you say.

    The projection, it burns.

  75. 75.

    FortGeek

    @Elie: There’s one picture–a screen cap from the original, uncut video?–which looks an awful lot like one of the bike cops’ bicycles is sitting on top of Mr. Gray.

    It looks like the front wheel is on his knees and the chainwheel/pedals is between his shoulder blades. Can’t see the back wheel, which seems to be behind one of the three cops.

  76. 76.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @Cliff in NH: I don’t know, but could you please at least graduate beyond a list of one sentence paragraphs? I don’t know who the hell started pushing the idea that they make writing extra punchy and persuasive, but they were wrong. I used to only have to worry about that with Bill Plaschke.

  77. 77.

    Cliff in NH

    dude, read the thread and see who I am bitching at. Raven denied reality of m-16s on the street with armor, 1 trick complained about the all caps ITā€™S NOT A WAR ZONE

    and a comment describing the first amendment.

    Thats it, try reading.

  78. 78.

    Cliff in NH

    @Cliff in NH: Iā€™m not ignoring your lies, nor your bullshit. I, and others, are calling out the evil things you say

    What evil have I said?

    Its not a war zone?

    Automatic weapons on the street are an escalation?

  79. 79.

    Kropadope

    @Cliff in NH: I addressed both those things directly, including a direct quote from raven, and I read every comment in this thread before I posted a single thing. Try reading and stop trying to find enemies among allies. You’re literally like a right wing parody. Your comments are going to show up tomorrow on your Ann Coulter’s blog detailing how all liberals think cops are pigs.

    This is tiresome and you clearly don’t care what anyone has to say. Time for me to recognize a troll for what it is and to stop feeding it.

  81. 81.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The thread title is a Doonesbury reference, but to the Patty Hearst trial, not to Watergate. The Watergate meme is “Guilty, guilty, guilty!” in reference to all those Nixon White House staffers who got jail sentences for their various crimes in service to The Crook.

  83. 83.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @Cliff in NH: Hrrm. Okay, this is obviously going to require more intensive work than I was anticipating, but unless there’s an alarm from the Elk River facility, I literally don’t have anything better to do for a few hours. So . . .

    dude, read the thread and see who I am bitching at. Raven denied reality of m-16s on the street with armor, 1 trick complained about the all caps ITā€™S NOT A WAR ZONE

    Ugh. That’s just brutal. Capitalization and punctuation are your friend, except for that all caps bit, plus the fact that raven does not actually capitalize his name; personally, I’m not fond of that little tick, even when k.d. lang does it, but it’s his name. The “I am” flows much better if you contract it and I doubt that the M-16s were wearing armor; I’d deny the reality of that, too. The comma after “armor” can’t hide the run-on sentence. Lastly, for this paragraph at least, you need to set “IT’S NOT A WAR ZONE” off with quotation marks or it’s just confusing; the period goes inside the quotes.

    d Dude, read the thread and see who I am I’m bitching at. R raven denied reality of cops on the street with m M-16s on the street with and body armor,. 1 trick complained about the all caps, “ITā€™S NOT A WAR ZONE.”

    I’m not a hardass about beginning a sentence with a conjunction, but in this case it doesn’t work at all. I have no idea what you’re referring to, to the point that you need to either delete this point entirely or flesh it out. It probably belongs in the first paragraph, but that would depend upon what you were trying to say.

    The last bit actually works as it’s own, very short, paragraph. The only complaint I have with it is that you don’t want a comma there; it’s just another run-on sentence that way.

    Thats it,; try reading.

    There. I hope that helps.

  88. 88.

    John M. Burt

    Yeah, Kernel, show the protestors your merit badges — that will totally make them quit protesting generations of injustice.
    What a joke he has become.

  89. 89.

    Jordan Rules

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: And? Fuck your Chicago Manual! What if I’ve never been exposed to that? Should I not be allowed to express myself?

    I don’t know if you have any idea how infuriating and condescending that was to read.

    So I don’t write well…then what? You make people lurk damnet!! Many of the same people you probably need to hear from.

    Too much goddamn pearl clutching in here and frankly I’m surprised.

  90. 90.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @Jordan Rules: Was it condescending? Yes. It was intended to be. That’s because it was directed at someone who came in here, misrepresented what other people had said and then started accusing them of being evil. Cliff in NH was being a complete asshole to people who don’t deserve it. Having tried to get him to step back, I resorted to mocking him, which he really did deserve.

  91. 91.

    Hal

    I’m just blown away by how pandering that photo and nonsense talk from Allen West is. That man is working those white conservative dollars like a gay hooker during CPAC. Keep selling black people down the river Allen. We know you have to do a little song and dance to keep paying those bills. Pathetic.

  92. 92.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Corner Stone: ā€œ$22,800 disability + $10,800 housing benefit +$4,800 food stamps + $3,300 Obamacare subsidy + $900 utilities grant + $5,645 Pell grant cash + $12,000 yearly college tuition grant + $8,000 single mother tax benefit + $1,295 head of household creditā€¦

    IANAL or an accountant, but off the top of my head: the last two are tax credits. How would they apply to someone on disability? And aren’t tax credits a good thing? Also, too, no Obamacare subsidy for this imaginary welfare queen partying like a flapper in a red velvet swing on Medicaid, IANM.

  93. 93.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Some tax credits are refundable, so you get them back even if they are greater than your income. In that case, the government sends you a check. The usual GOP take on it is that refundable tax credits aren’t really tax credits; they’re welfare spending. To be honest, they’re correct about that, though I don’t have any problem with it at all.

    I don’t know off the top of my head whether these particular credits are refundable.

  94. 94.

    chopper

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    those poor disabled single moms in college are goin to ruin this country!

    and yes, 23 grand/year in disability is basically non-existent. most everybody gets a pittance.

  95. 95.

    ThresherK

    Cmon, big man. Go to the Bundy Ranch and teach them a lesson. I understand you hold many things in common. You’re toting a gun, they have guns. You’re conservative, they are too.

    They’ll love you!

  96. 96.

    Seanly

    My wife is on disability. If she were to go to college, she’d have to give up her benefits – kind of well enough to go to school, well enough to work. SSI does have a program that allows people to experiment with part time school or work without loosing benefits, but any income earned reduces your benefit.

    Plus this is all ignoring that my wife worked from age 16 to 45 to earn the level of benfits she’s receiving. I just love how everything we’re entitled to by law is somehow some big free giveaway that we didn’t earn. I fucking hate Republicans.

  97. 97.

    low-tech cyclist

    @Villago Delenda Est: Damn, you’ve got a good memory!

    I immediately recognized the title as a line from Doonesbury, but I couldn’t have narrowed it down any further than the 1970s. But soon as you said “Patty Hearst trial,” I knew you were right.

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