"Let them loot. It's only property." Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake
April 29, 2015
By: Linda Case Gibbons
Single-celled slime molds solve mazes. Brainless plants make correct decisions. And bees, with brains the size of pinheads, handle abstract concepts.*
If slime can make good decisions, why can't our leaders?
Like Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.
Why did she side with thugs rioting in her city's streets instead of protecting her police force and her citizens?
After all, that is her job.
Why did she wait a full day to impose a curfew, tell her police officers to "stand down" and instruct them not to wear riot gear?
After all, she was elected to take charge if the city was ever threatened.
But she didn't. Instead this elected "leader" allowed mobs to shut down the streets of Baltimore, hurl bricks at policemen, loot businesses, burn buildings and terrify that city's citizens.
Her explanation?
"I worked with the police and instructed them to do everything that they could to make sure that the protesters were able to exercise their right to free speech.
"It's a very delicate balancing act, because while we try to make sure that they were protected from the cars and other things that were going on, we also gave those who wished to destroy, space to do so."
Interestingly enough, her take on the situation, strange as it was, was not unique. In fact, it was the same as that of other leaders.
Remember former head of the New Black Panthers Malik Zulu Shabazz? Did you see him? He was there as the violence raged. He was one of the leaders spearheading the riots.
And when reporters interviewed him, did you hear him liken protesters to Palestinians going against the Israelis?
His organization isn't that fond of Jews.
And when missiles were hurled at cops, to Shabazz, that was no big deal.
"It's just some light-weight bottle throwing," he said, from "very intelligent young black men who are expressing the real facts and statistics of the socioeconomic decay in this community."
His organization isn't that fond of cops. And white people, either, come to think of it.
In case you aren't familiar with Malik Zulu Shabazz, he's the guy who has, in his career, referred to the United States and Israel as terrorists, and who said, "Kill every goddamn Zionist in Israel!" This was back in 2002 during a protest at B'nai B'rith International Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
He's also was the guy who expressed his approval of the Nation of Islam and his commitment to support its efforts.
In case you aren't familiar with the New Black Panthers, the Southern Poverty Law Center describes the group as "a virulently racist and anti-Semitic organization whose leaders have encouraged violence against whites, Jews and law enforcement officers."
And the Poverty Law Center is a far left, liberal organization!
If you remember, the New Black Panthers were charged with voter intimidation during the 2008 presidential election, for threatening voters outside a polling place in Philadelphia.
One of the men charged was Minister King Samir Shabazz.
Dressed in military gear and wielding a bully club, Shabazz threatened voters with his club and shouted racist slurs, including "white devil," and you're about to be ruled by the black man, cracker."
He's also was the guy who stated, in a 2009 National Geographic documentary, "I hate white people. All of them...You want freedom? You going to have to kill some crackers!"
You may also remember that when the opportunity arose for the Department of Justice to secure a default judgment against the New Black Panthers for voter intimidation, Attorney General Eric Holder dropped the case.
Curious? Yes, but you have to realize that Shabazz, Eric Holder, and, for that matter, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan, all come from the same ideological place.
And the mayor of Baltimore.
They all believe the protesters are victims.
And other leaders agree.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) blames the Baltimore riots on "the rich."
The president blames us.
Obama told all Americans to do "some soul searching," because once again we are the ones who are at fault.
And he basically blasted the media for covering the news!
It was wrong, he said, for the media to focus on the CVS, the one the mobs torched, when the coverage should have explored the lack of educational and economic opportunity that exists in urban areas.
It stands to reason he'd say that, in the Rose Garden, in front of the Japanese Prime Minister. That's how he likes to do it. That's the way he always does it.
But after the fires died down and the cops ushered protesters away, isn't it a shame what happened in Baltimore?
Isn't it a shame for the 98 cops that were injured, the owners of the 100 vehicles that were destroyed and the 15 innocent "folks" whose homes were burned to the ground?
It proves that "their" kind of leadership doesn't work. Letting them get away with temper tantrums? It doesn't work with kids and it sure doesn't work with thugs.
Tough as it is, parents have to parent and leaders are supposed to lead. And when they do it poorly, it is only themselves that are to blame.
Hold the line, America.
*Jeremy Narby, "Intelligence in Nature"