Baltimore Police Commissioner: Riot’s Violent Agitators Not From Baltimore
Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said Sunday that he believes “very violent agitators” who showed up in numbers at an otherwise peaceful protest for Baltimore resident Freddie Gray, who was critically injured in police custody, are not from Baltimore.
Around 1,200 officers were reportedly deployed to try and keep the peace. “I’m proud of our residents,” Batts said. “The majority of the people here did a great job.”
The protest reportedly started peacefully, with thousands marching through downtown streets before the demonstration turned violent and volatile. “Unfortunately a small group of agitators turned what was otherwise a peaceful demonstration into a violent protest,” Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said.
One of the protest’s organizers, Malik Shabazz, President of Black Lawyers for Justice, said that the protesters’ anger is not surprising. “When there’s no justice, they tend to want to take matters into their own hands,” he said.
This all begs the question: From whence did the “outside agitators” come from, and what was their motivation? It would not be the first time in recent history that such groups turned peaceful protests, which occurred amidst allegations of police brutality against black citizens, into widespread rioting.
It is also widely believed by those studying the phenomenon that the actions of these agitators have been facilitated by the Obama administration and its surrogates. Both outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama are known to have black nationalistic leanings. Holder’s office directly initiated protests against George Zimmerman as a jury in Florida deliberated in his trial for killing Trayvon Martin in 2012. Inasmuch as it involved the Department of Justice itself, the matter was never investigated.
