Baltimore Rising Page #5

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- Give me a couple...

Test me, then. Test the waters.

Give me a couple things

you want me to do.

- We been talking about it

all year, bro.

- A football game,

a basketball game.

- We want a football game, man.

We want to play ball.

But you get what I'm saying?

Like, just like we're playing

cops and robbers

when we was kids,

let's put on some pads...

'cause it's a lot

of athletes out here, Chief.

I can still run, man.

- Yeah? All right. I can't.

- I'm about to go meet up

with my attorney.

I'm not taking no charges.

I'm not taking no conviction.

But I also want

to send a message, like,

this is not about to

keep happening to protestors

who haven't broken the law

and have only been exercising

their First Amendment right.

- You are on the scene.

They're gonna come to you

because, for good or for bad,

you are seen as a leader

of the movement.

- I'm, like, the only protestor

facing, like,

serious jail time, you know.

I'm the most visible person.

- Arrest is the last resort,

and that is a citable offense.

Right, so the only reason,

from my experience,

that somebody in command

would make an arrest

is if it's pre-planned.

- Where would that directive

come from,

from your experience,

when you were there?

- It's gonna come from Command.

It's not gonna come from...

it's gonna come from somebody

that is a captain or above.

Somebody that's in what they

call "Command Staff."

- The perception that you have

nothing to lose,

that's a scary thing for people

who got a whole lot to lose.

So that's the threat you pose.

Whether you mean to express

that threat or not,

to the establishment,

that's what you represent.

- This is my last one, I swear.

For today.

I don't get why they're picking

this bone so hard.

- But that is why

they're picking the bone.

- Yeah.

- So they can hold you back

during the whole next...

I don't know.

When's this gonna be?

Six months, seven months?

- I am still gonna protest.

I'm still gonna be out here

before my case.

- Well, it's your constitutional

right to protest.

- Well, I don't get

those rights.

- We have heard

closing arguments

in the final phase

of the Officer William Porter

trial.

Right now the prosecution

has wrapped up

its portion

of closing arguments.

- Prosecutors contend

Porter is criminally negligent

because he didn't call a medic

when Gray requested one

and he didn't buckle Gray

into a seat belt.

- Have you ever been inside

of a police van?

And I'm like this, right?

Now, you got a back door here.

Now, if she has

this much room...

because, remember,

you have a wall here

that divides both sides

of the wagon.

- It's narrow in the back.

- So what can I do

to her from here?

I could kick her.

I could punch her.

- I'm over here...

- I could spit on her.

I can do this, but...

- I'm not gonna put myself

through that,

because when I get injured,

first of all, the city not

gonna want to take care of me.

- We had the gentleman

that came here...

it took six guys to try to

get him out of the cell

and he said, "You're gonna

have to Freddie Gray me

"out of this motherf***er,

because I'm not walking

on my two feet."

- It puts everybody at risk.

- It's crazy.

- Right now, since April,

the community,

the Command, the government,

the media, has effectively

erased the blue line

that protected all

of these people

and the result is, you know,

a record year,

and it's only gonna get worse

and worse and worse.

- Well, the death

of Freddie Gray

has put a glaring spotlight on

Baltimore

and its police force.

In the months

since Gray's death,

arrests in Baltimore

have plunged.

Murders have actually surged.

- After the uprising

in Baltimore City,

I talked to the police

in West Baltimore.

They were saying,

"Colonel, can we keep it real?

"We're tired of getting

out of the cars.

"We got to keep

looking over our heads

"and ducking bottles

and dirty diapers

"and all this crap, and we just

want to do our job.

"When we make a legitimate,

good arrest,

"all the cameras come... wham,

in our face!

And just hatred being spewed.

Colonel, that hurts."

Facts speak for themselves.

And I understand it.

We stopped policing.

- We carry our children.

We feed them.

We do all the right things

for them.

And then one day we wake up

and get a phone call that said,

"Ms. Austin,

homicide is coming.

They want to talk to you."

My husband went to the scene,

and there was

our 22-year-old son

at a block party

with his brains blown out.

- They say black don't crack.

Sh*t, my brother sent me

a picture he took of a guy

laying on the concrete

with his top peeled back

like a convertible Honda.

We praying for mamas.

Our kids are going to paradise.

No, no, no, not the Bahamas.

- You guys know Petey?

Here, I want y'all to take

some of these.

I want y'all to take

some of these flyers,

'cause y'all his friends, right?

Back in my day,

if something like this

happened down here,

those people who

this was intended for...

they wouldn't even be allowed

to even stand on a corner again

until they did the right thing

for this family.

- Right.

- You got people dying

in neighborhoods

where they grew up at,

and people say

absolutely nothing.

Thinking back to...

to all the memories

I had as a child...

thinking about all

the other families

falling apart...

I don't think a child

should ever have to go through

what I went through.

You had the Stanfields, who

ran this entire area out here.

They always used my house

as, like, the stash house.

So we'd be in there

sleeping with guns.

Every guy in that house,

every guy in that organization

was a pedophile.

None of them could keep

their hands to themselves,

and I'd get in trouble,

because I would open up

one of their packs, and...

they always had liquor

and different stuff.

So I would pour... like,

take a bunch of heroin

and pour it in a cup

and pour alcohol in it,

and I'd sit there and think,

"If I drink this,

how fast would I die?"

And I used to play

with the guns.

I'd pick it up,

look at it and figure...

I used to always sit there

and think,

"This is gonna make a mess.

"How are they gonna find me?

I'm not even gonna die.

And I'm gonna still

be right back here."

And, um... and I was...

you know, 15 years old.

- So, if you had a chance

to play football

against the police,

what would you do?

- Well, play... play my heart out

against the police.

- I'm saying...

- Against the police?

Yeah, I would definitely catch

a few "unnecessary

roughness"-es.

15-yard penalties.

I would definitely catch a few.

- So they know the deal.

- The only time we see

the police officers

is when they're pointing guns

at me and calling me

a d*ckhead or an a**hole

or some sh*t like that...

shooting some unarmed dude.

How can I treat you

like a person

when you never act like one,

and how do I get you

to do that in a neighborhood

you don't live in?

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