Baltimore Rising

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1

Bring yourself back online.

Can you hear me?

Do you know where you are?

Would you like to wake up

from this dream?

There's nothing to be afraid of.

Understand?

Have you ever questioned

the nature of your reality?

We must take this matter

into our own hands.

- Our city!

- Our city!

Tell us what you think

of your world.

What do you think of the guests?

Do you know where you are?

Will the things I told you

change the way you think

about your world?

Do you know where you are?

- I walked down the street

with a reporter

from a national network,

who looked around

and saw all of

these boarded-up properties,

and said to me...

"Councilman, you know,

that riot really tore up

this community, didn't it?"

And I said, "Look again.

"Look at the boards

on those homes.

"Do they look like they were

tacked up yesterday?

No, they've been there

20 years, maybe longer."

I said, "The riot didn't

tear up the community.

"The condition of the community

caused the uprising

that we had."

- Man, I've been

recording this.

I've been recording.

- When the police

and Freddie Gray

made eye contact,

Freddie Gray ran.

And he was arrested,

essentially,

for running while black.

- What may have followed

is a so-called "rough ride,"

or a deliberate tactic

used by police

to harm unbelted

handcuffed passengers.

- And he emerged

at the end of that ride

with an 80% torn spine.

- We had to get to the hospital

and find out if it was true.

We was thinking that

maybe it was a mistake...

maybe they had the wrong room.

This can't be happening

to our Freddie.

No peace!

No justice, no peace!

- That's right!

- We ain't gonna

let this happen no more!

We came to send them

a strong message

that black lives matter!

- Freddie Gray,

a young man arrested

by Baltimore City Police

last weekend, has died.

- By the grace of God...

By the grace of God...

- Justice shall prevail.

Justice shall prevail.

- The medical examiner

will list the cause of death

as trauma to the neck

and spine.

- There were thousands

of protestors at City Hall,

where they had gathered

after marching

from the police district

where Freddie Gray

was arrested a week ago.

- You'll see

there's police officers

in riot gear

trying to hold this position.

- I am taken back

by the amount of people

that there are...

community members.

- You're not letting me answer!

- I'm asking you...

- I'm saying to them,

"Family, let me talk to you."

"No, you don't say nothing!

You're one of them!

You're a Nazi!"

And I'm getting

all of this hatred.

Cops! Pigs! Murderers!

- There have been sudden,

spontaneous confrontations...

- We're not ignorant!

We just want peace.

- But so far,

no major eruptions

of violence in Baltimore.

- Now, there was information

that there was

these various sites

that were going to be targeted

by bands of young people.

- What they did, as smart as

the Baltimore City Police

Department is, they shut down

the Mondawmin Mall

bus terminal.

That's a major terminal.

So you shut that down,

kids can't go nowhere.

- These kids, clearly,

are getting frustrated.

- Rest in peace, Freddie.

- Western Baltimore

is under siege at this moment.

- The real story is that

Freddie Gray was murdered

by the police,

and my city took to the streets

and took this city back.

- Hey, guys, they just set

the CVS on fire.

- Hey, did they close

down the street?

- Cop cars

were being destroyed.

Businesses

were being destroyed.

It's like a demon

took over the city.

- Maryland governor

Larry Hogan declared

a state of emergency.

- The governor sends

2,000 national guardsmen

to help police

as Baltimore remains

under a state of emergency.

- Sir, thank you, sir.

- You're welcome.

- Might get loose...

- Anybody wear a small?

- I have to make it my size.

Because I get

walking pneumonia.

- I didn't grow up in the hood,

but I always was around

people who did

and always tried

to use the perspective

that I was fortunate enough

to have

by not growing up in the hood

to be able to say,

"It's not right."

- Yes, ma'am.

- Thank you.

- Everybody get one?

- The first time I heard

about Freddie Gray,

it was on TV.

I was downtown, I was working

at the Marriott Waterfront...

and my white coworker,

I remember her saying,

"Oh, my gosh.

Has anybody been hurt?

Has anybody been injured?"

And I remember saying to her,

"Yeah, somebody's been hurt.

"Somebody's been injured.

Somebody died,

and that's what this is about."

And she was saying, "No, no.

I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about the police."

Hands up, don't shoot!

- I mean, something

at that moment, like, snapped

inside of me,

and it was just like,

"Yo, I can't do this."

Like, "I can't just

sit on the sidelines.

This is a part of me."

From that Saturday on,

I would leave work,

and I would go protest

with my cousins.

I want you and Fox News

to get out of Baltimore City,

because you're not here

reporting

about the boarded up homes

and the homeless people

under MLK.

You're not reporting

about the poverty levels

up and down North Avenue.

But you're here for

the black riots that happened.

I didn't know who Geraldo was,

except for some little dude

with a big mustache,

disrespecting the scene.

Everything that had been

bottled up inside of me

from before Freddie Gray

was released in that moment.

I want the white media

out of Baltimore City

until y'all come here

to report the real stories.

You know, once I realized

that the cameras had recorded

me, I was concerned

about what my father

was going to think,

and so I went home that night.

I saw the video...

it started trending

and trending,

and then three days later,

I was fired.

- The manner of death,

deemed a homicide

by the Maryland state

medical examiner,

is believed to be the result

of a fatal injury

that occurred while

Mr. Gray was unrestrained

by a seat belt in the custody

of a Baltimore Police

Department wagon.

We have probable cause

to file criminal charges.

- Yes! Yes!

- There was jubilation

in the Baltimore neighborhood

where Freddie Gray was killed

after the prosecutor

announced charges.

- This is bigger

than Freddie Gray.

This is bigger

than Trayvon Martin.

This is bigger

than Eric Garner.

This is the way they treat

black people in America, man.

- Stop trying to make us

scared of ISIS

when we need to be scared

of our own judicial system,

'cause that's our terrorist

in our community.

- When we see the police,

our first objective

is not to stand there and get

in compliance... it's to run.

- Like, they chased me.

They didn't find drugs.

So they beat me

in the head with a gun.

- I wish my brother

could have ran,

but he stopped.

He pulled over.

He didn't give nobody

a chase or anything.

He pulled over,

had his hands out the window,

and was executed on the spot!

- A black man don't have

nothing in this world...

nothing.

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