Eyewitnesses: The Baltimore Riots Didn't Start the Way You Think

This just gets better and better. One way the attention on police misconduct gets diverted is if the protests turn violent. So, it's in the police's interest to make sure that they do...

Eyewitnesses: The Baltimore Riots Didn't Start the Way You Think

That has, unfortunately, been the manner in which police have acted in this country for decades, and it has been escalating and getting more blatant.

Ever since the 1968 police riots in Chicago, the police forces around the country have been converting to paramilitary units designed to emulate the abhorrent actions of the Chicago police. With the decision to allow the Pentagon to give their unwanted military gear to police departments, the situation has worsened.

I am glad to see the people of Baltimore and other cities taking to the streets to express their disgust with the actions of police departments. Last year, various states executed 35 people. During the same period, policemen killed - by some studies - over 1,000 people without trial and mostly without arrest.

Sickening. Maybe it's time to bring back the appellation, "Pigs." It's never been more deserved.

It seems to me the situation these days is similar to the late 1960s/early 1970s, when economic disparity, lack of social opportunity, rampant venal corruption in police forces and political leadership that has its head up its ass combine to create explosive confrontations.

It's Selma all over again.

Except we don't have a MLK or Malcolm X or Medgar Evers to lead the opposition.