Finneran: The Death of Freddie Gray

Friday, May 01, 2015

Tom Finneran, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™

 

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Freddie Gray, dead at 25. 

Baltimore burns.

Police officers are depressed, defensive, and demoralized.

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President Obama is asked to do the impossible-i.e.-heal race relations in America.

And Freddie Gray’s family grieves. Welcome to America, 2015.

A few takeaways from recent events:

A lot fewer families will be going to Baltimore this summer to watch the Orioles and to enjoy the city. Convention planners and organizers will be in short supply as well. A poor city will become poorer.  Red Sox “roadsters”, otherwise known as crazy fans who follow the team everywhere, will bypass Baltimore for what seem to be safer destinations. Tourists and conventioneers will say “never mind” and head elsewhere.

Black business owners will give serious and heart-breaking thought to moving out of the city, leaving their black customers behind and praying that some new customers will come and find them in their new neighborhoods. That’s not a good business model but it might be the only model that’s left open to them. Flames and fury don’t attract many paying customers.

Black middle class families will decamp the city for the suburbs. Their interests are the same as those of white middle class families—safe streets, good schools, effective governance. Those interests trump racial solidarity. There will be fewer role models, fewer Scout leaders, and fewer coaches.

I wonder—who has the tougher job? Is it the President, a police officer, or a single parent? 

The President cannot win. If he speaks he’s “interfering” and “taking sides”. If he’s silent he’s seen as aloof and uncaring, a tight-lipped traitor to his race. Given these circumstances, Iran and Russia must seem like easy issues. He’s got a brutal job.

Pity every good police officer. They want to help people. They want to keep them safe from bad guys. They want to do their job well each day and get home safely to their families each night. They protect vulnerable and frightened folks from violence and harm. They see the very worst side of humanity on a regular basis. Their response to danger and violence is microscopically picked apart and criticized by attorneys, agitators, and the media. Nonetheless they cannot snap, even under the ugliest provocations. They have a brutal job.

Oh the so-called joys of the single parent. Usually poor and constantly worried about money, safety, and children, the single parent is screwed every which way. Why Hollywood and television would celebrate the “joys” of single parenthood is beyond me. There is very little joy and there is abundant overwhelming fear. Fear of the streets is certainly justified. Fear of the cops is very rarely but sometimes sadly justified as well. Food is a concern. Clothing is a concern. Housing is a concern. Little daughters growing into young women are a concern. Little boys becoming young men are a concern. City schools can be as dangerous as the street and nowhere near as enticing. So thirty year old single moms become thirty year old single grandmothers and the sadness multiplies. There is no joy because there is no hope. And hope dies early in the city.

 Freddy Gray may not have been a model citizen but to be dead at 25 is very strange. And strange circumstances create strong suspicions. Add in black and white issues and the door of horrors swings wide open. Witness the flames of Ferguson and Baltimore.

A final thought on the commentaries of the week---

We are losing our language to bullies and thieves. Do not let your language be stolen. Protesters protest and their legitimacy is as American as apple pie. Hopefully America’s future will be as filled with protest as its glorious past. But rioters are rioting, not protesting. And looters are looting, not protesting. There is a world of difference between looting and protesting. The looter seeks a cloak of legitimacy for his criminality. The protester seeks redress of a wrong. It’s the difference between right and wrong, night and day.

Honor the protesters breathing life into the First Amendment. Condemn the looter and his cloak of excuses. And pray for the soul of Freddie Gray.

{image_2}Tom Finneran is the former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, served as the head the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, and was a longstanding radio voice in Boston radio.

 

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