I wrote this article on 6/22/17 a.m., twice, working from a Baltimore Sun piece on the suit. However, my landline went down and I lost the first draft and, after rewriting it, it was lost again. I am now rewriting it from memory, so the quotes and numbers may not be exact.
In a 700-page complaint, the business owners quote former mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, “we also gave space to those who wished to destroy.”
In above that shocked the nation the mayor, under direction from the DOJ under Eric Holder, stood down the Baltimore Police department and then further dragged her feet in requesting and accepting National Guard intervention, with the governor having to push publicly and behind the scenes. The Purge, as the looters called their own activity, was largely a federal experiment, with police beig sidelined and military contractors and federal agents being brought in. This will not be part of the historic record, but I had contact with military contractors during the riots and federal agents are still on the scene battling police corruption on one hand and drug gangs on the other.
Interesting aspects of this complaint include:
-A detailed timeline of the unrest and government actions, orders and quotes from the death of Freddie Gray
-Claims that non-English speaking small business owners [from India, Korea, China, the Middle East and Latin America] were tricked by city officials into accepting $5K and signing a waiver cheating them out of additional funds, as they were told that the $5K was for storefront repairs, even though many of these business owners lost everything.
-380 business suffered almost 13-million dollars in damages.
-a majority of the businesses were located outside of the so-called “area of unrest,” as the entire city and all but one of the outlying county precincts were totally unpoliced for an entire week.
Businesses are still leaving town from the ripple effect of the riots and the ongoing reality of the Purge.
Five more for sale signs went up this week on the one mile route I walk from my house to the bus stop.
Will the conclusion of this case be buried on the back page?
If it is concluded in favor of the plaintiffs, what prospects will the rebuilding businesses have?
The Hunt for Whitey
Recognizing and Surviving the Condition of Anarcho-Tyranny
They could clean the whole place up pronto by allowing concealed carry and open carry of firearms, including rifles and not convicting anyone who was threatened with bodily harm that shot the person threatening them. At the same time people who disobeyed the law by carrying firearms who weren't supposed to would be given hard time.
Problem solved.