Baltimore Rising Page #4

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Give them something to do.

Something.

- So, basically, just let me

know what it is you need.

You know what I'm saying?

'Cause if we can facilitate

this, it'd create

a lot of opportunity

for a bunch of different

things, mostly for our kids.

You know what I'm saying?

The schools around here.

We can reduce

the police presence greatly.

- This is the voice mailbox

for Kevin Davis,

police commissioner

for the city of Baltimore.

- Hello, Commissioner Davis.

This is Genard Barr,

aka Mr. Shadow.

We met, um...

a little bit over a week ago.

You remember the question,

"What can we do

"to prevent a second uprising

if the trial does not go

quite like we thought?"

I believe I have an answer

for you.

I hope this reaches you

in peace,

and just as a side note,

I'll be bugging

the hell out of you

until I talk to you.

Thank you very much, sir.

- Jury selection

begins in the morning

in the trial of the first

of the six police officers

charged in the death

of Freddie Gray.

- Officer William Porter

is accused

of involuntary manslaughter,

reckless endangerment,

and assault.

- I always had pride in being

a law enforcement officer,

but... now, it's like...

people don't feel the same way.

I feel like a linebacker.

I'm one of the investigators

in the case.

So we have the court cases

coming up very soon...

the start of those...

and, um, you know,

that's, um...

you know, that's gonna be

a huge deal

for everybody involved.

And I don't know exactly

when I'll be testifying

in that case.

We're just kind of

in standby mode.

It's discouraging

when you just watch

people pit races

against each other,

the community

against the police.

See, out here you have to

kind of pick your poison.

You got to pick your poison,

you know,

what you're gonna

get engaged in.

When you got

young black men like this

who are just walking around

the street aimlessly...

you know...

they're doing

one of two things.

They're up to no good,

or they're selling drugs,

and then the next thing

you know,

you're gonna have a shooting,

and these are the results.

Graveyards... jails.

So, you know...

- Back in the late '50s

and early '60s,

Penn North was the cultural

center of Baltimore

because it was the home,

among other things,

of numerous jazz clubs.

This was the heyday

of the black family.

We didn't have drugs.

We didn't have guns.

You didn't see all

of these vacant houses.

It was an "onward, upward"

kind of feeling

about Baltimore.

The police were basically

foot patrolmen.

They knew who the bad kids

were in any given family,

who the good people were,

because they were familiar

with the community.

Blacks were treated

a lot differently

after the advent

of the motorized squad car.

And so, instead of

walking the beat,

the police department

in Baltimore

went from hot spot to hot spot.

They didn't learn

the community after that.

Then in 1968,

when we had the riots...

things went downhill

from there.

Add that to mass incarceration,

to mass arrests

in the black community...

now we have the destruction

of the same black families

who were thriving

in that part of town.

- My father was a cop.

Useless.

The dude my mother married

after my father

was also a cop.

He spent...

a good five years abusing me,

and that began the hatred

of cops...

the ineffective father

and the piece-of-sh*t

stepfather.

Around 15 or 16 or so,

I couldn't deal

with that anymore, so I left.

You know, there's only certain

ways a 16-year-old dude

is gonna take care of himself.

The environment I was stuck in

or pushed upon me,

or however the hell

you want to put that,

turned me into something else

for a means of survival.

I don't want my kids

to be turned into anything.

I want my kids to grow up

to be my kids.

- Hey, baby.

- Hey, Shadow.

- Oh, yeah, that's my...

- How you doing, man?

How are you?

- How you doing?

- Sorry I'm late. You good?

- Nah, actually, it worked out

that you're late.

- Hey, how are you?

Kevin Davis.

You know, why this year

and why right now

and why...

why post-April to May

is everything off the chain?

- You know,

when you're in a situation

where you have 7,000 people

and 300 jobs...

Things can be out of control.

Then on our side,

seven, eight generations

of fatherless boys.

And the only time

we ever see y'all

is y'all taking

our fathers from us.

- I hear you.

- That's why.

- And it just bubbled here.

- There are no

recreation centers.

There's nothing for kids to do.

There's nothing here.

- We are so angry...

and so upset.

We sit here,

and we have nothing to do,

so we agitating each other.

And then we have the cops

on top of our backs.

- Some of these dudes...

I done seen some of these cats

strip search people

in the street.

If you ever try to put

your finger in my ass,

talking about something,

you want to search for

some drugs, I don't give a f***

whether he got a badge or not,

I'm gonna stab him in his neck.

- I'm sorry that

law enforcement

in this community is like this.

- If you want to make

a change now...

I don't know who or how

we have to do it...

- You do... you do a lot...

- No, please let me finish.

- You do a lot.

- No, please let me finish.

Please let me finish.

I went through sh*t

that I should not have to.

I'm not even supposed to

be sitting here.

I got a bullet hole

in my head, Chief.

And that will not happen

to my children.

Do you understand?

This will not happen

to my children.

I will die doing this.

Okay?

- Your pain's not my pain.

I've never lived your life.

But that still...

Excuse me.

- Doesn't mean that...

- It won't happen

to my children.

I promise you, I have an army

of likeminded individuals.

But they're afraid of you all.

And until they stop...

- That breaks my heart.

- And until they stop

being afraid of you all,

it's gonna seem like

I'm doing it by myself.

Here's the deal...

- What do they want?

- Jobs.

- We need jobs.

- Jobs.

- We need them.

- Mm-hmm.

Can I be an advocate for jobs?

Yes.

Can I go over...

and stand in City Hall

and jump up and down?

Yes.

Will I? Yes.

But you know

my personal ability

as a police commissioner

to create jobs... is what?

- Hmm.

- For this moment in time,

I got the bully pulpit,

and I'll stand up with you

and go to whoever

those people are

who can make change.

I'll do that, but I need

you to promise me

that we're not gonna have

what we had in April and May.

Can you deliver that?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- To the best of my ability.

- This is the problem

that we're having,

with, you know,

the guys in the fraternity...

guys, you know...

They are worried about,

"If we take this step,

will y'all take

this step with us?"

You know, because they don't

want to look like fools,

and they don't want

any backlash.

- I don't want to

look like a fool either.

- You know,

it's time for us to stand...

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