I don’t know what there is to say. Baltimore’s on fire.
Except it’s not.
It’s not that things aren’t bad. It’s not that I’m not afraid of what happens next. But I am eternally frustrated with media portrayals (both mass and social) and disgusted with know-it-all, snide replies to a very complex situation with “well, they’re just thugs” and “welcome to ‘Murica”. I’d argue that people who don’t understand just how multi-layered our world is, who forward “simple”, simple-minded and usually violent solutions exhibit the same kind of thinking that’s gotten us where we are today.
I’m writing this after about four chaotic days of protests, riots, demonstrations and now an (almost) militarily-enforced curfew here in Baltimore, MD. There are fires and there is violence, there are acts of heroism and disgusting opportunism – and most of the city’s doing just fine, thank you very much, but one friend’s apartment has been torn apart by gunfire, other friends have been arrested, police officers have been injured, and stupidity is rife.
And online… stupidity is ESPECIALLY rife. The newspapers are glorying in it. Salivating, they proclaim that Baltimore is ripping itself apart, that a police state is in place, that “Calls for Calm Ring Hollow”. Man, they Love this stuff. And so do we. Social media is boiling with people advocating that the National Guard just gun people down in the streets, or that all the cops should be shot themselves, or that it’s the police state that America has become because we either allow to many (or too few) guns… I hear there are tanks in the streets, drones in the skies, abductions before our eyes…
Baltimore’s very, very different from Ferguson, but we’re drawing inevitable comparisons and criminal elements are taking advantage of the same chaos in the same way and the media (again, both kinds) just eats it up, going for that lowest common denominator low-brow titillation. And there are protests. And most of them are peaceful. And there has been rioting. And that’s not the same thing as protesting. And when a liquor store is looted because all the police are deployed keeping track of protests and riots well, that’s not really attributable to those protestors, is it? And you can have your phone stolen or get mugged in broad daylight on any given day… that’s not really the fault of the protestors, rioters OR looters… it’s just one of the downsides of a pretty amazing, multi-faceted city that may well kick the Living shit out of you and swipe your wallet if you’re not giving her your undivided attention.
Now, that’s not the same as a bad day when protestors are throwing water bottles at the cops and rioters are throwing bricks (see the difference? Police officers sort of slowly advance on one and fire pepper balls at the other) and looters are breaking into the shop where I bought my first guitar. There are burned out cars on the streets and military APCs on the street corners. There’s smoke in the air and I get nervous when I hear fire trucks getting louder in the distance because in addition to the bad news there’s bad information. And people are crying “#PURGE” in the hope that they can get the kids to run amok and the news is reporting “credible sources” that the gangs are banding together to assassinate cops – and the gang leaders are next to the church leaders who are hesitantly standing next to other community leaders all calling for an end to the violence.
And at the festering centre of it all is the death of Freddie Grey with questions that go unanswered about his ride in the back of a Baltimore police van with grated windows, unseen and alone with six police officers, that somehow resulted in his spine being severed. And maybe the investigation will eventually find that what would’ve been fine for a healthy average kid wasn’t so fine for a kid that’d recently had spinal surgery – and maybe the investigation will find that those six cops must’ve been pretty damned violent to kill a kid in the prime of his Life. And maybe the investigation will find that the results are inconclusive, that the account is cloudy, and that we should consult again later. And people won’t accept the former because it doesn’t fit their narrative, and other people won’t accept the second because it doesn’t fit THEIR narrative… and no-one wants to hear the latter because we all believe in CSI and Bones, instant results and definitive answers. [follow up, apparently despite popular belief, Friday information is simply being turned over to the state prosecutor’s office, NOT to the public – so hearing NONE of the above is probably even worse…]
And I don’t pretend to know what I don’t know, but I DO know that Freddie Grey sustained fatal injuries while in custody of those 6 police officers – and the first definition of “custody” is “the protective care or guardianship of someone or something.” They may or may not be responsible for his death, but they were sure as Hell responsible for HIM.
I’m angry. We’re all angry. I’m scared. Anyone with an ounce of sense is a bit scared even if, like me, you’re well out on the edges of the city. But we don’t get to just be stupid.
Wait, nope, Facebook shows we get to be just stupid to boot.
6 year-old Robby Hinkal’s mind would have exploded if he’d known that my kindergarten crush would come to shows and give me a smooch. Hell, 40 year0old rob ain’t complainin’ either. The day began with a spider, then we played Paradise Festivus, and then it was on to the New Deal Cafe in Greenbelt, MD for a packed night with the fabulous Weathered Road from Pittsburgh, PA. 
A room full of humanity at the New Deal Cafe in Greembelt, MD Loving The Weathered Road. For the ilyAIMY portion of the night we were standing room only with a whole bunch of dancing in the front – which is absolutely marvelous! It was the first night where I really felt like Joey Jenkins (drums) gelled with us. Killer night. Shame the recording glitched, but I DID get introduced to really cool mixer. I think I’m now in LOVE with the QSC TouchMix!
April 27th in Baltimore, MD – it was an interesting day. The weekend’s protests re: the death of Freddie Gray have exploded into actual riots and there’s a lot of chaos going down as we run the open mic. 
Our featured artist as parts of Baltimore erupt in chaos : Andrew Luttrell. An old, old friend – the kind of the college open mic when I was back at MICA and the initial reason I’d heard of the Grateful Dead, here he is joined by Mosno Al-Moseeki on djembe and Jon Patton on guitar at the Teavolve Cafe & Lounge where we played our music despite calls to the contrary. 
So, this was probably about the most mirthful Tuesday night got. Though Monday night at Teavolve truthfully was (temporally) right in the middle of the Baltimore Chaos (though pretty well physically removed), the open mic FELT good. We were coming together in the face of the stupidity of our race and playing beautiful music. Tonight at the Board and Brew, however, just felt low-energy and sort of sad and strange. We never really lifted the energy out of the somber and I was all too eager for the night to be over. Fortunately, had a good time playing with Acacia Sears and her kid, and that made the night a little bit better.
