THE DREAM IS STILL ALIVE

Baltimore is an independent city and the largest city in the US state of Maryland. This, along with other US cities, has been marked by controversy regarding the civil rights of African Americans in this country.

 Indeed, in 1968, after Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, which is known as The Holy Week Uprising, the people took to the streets with a lot of violence, which left a total of 6 people dead. 700 injured, 4,500 arrested and over 1,000 fires set. More than a thousand businesses had been looted or burned, many of which never reopened. 

Today, despite the achievements of activists of the aforementioned period, the struggle for civil rights is still present due to the injustices by the police against African Americans. Since 2009, there are 12 killed by the police, 7 of which were African Americans and only 3 cases allowed imprison the guilty policemen. One occurred precisely in Baltimore in Sandtown neighborhood, where six officers arrested the young Freddie Gray by simply running from the police the April 12, 2015. 

 After this unwarranted detention, the prosecutor who handled the case, Marilyn Mosby said that according to a medical report, Gray’s death was a homicide, resulting from spinal injuries by the officers who took him prisoner. His death sparked protest against police in Baltimore, where citizens went out the streets in a violent way, in order to end the police abuse against African Americans.

 Beyond justify the violence, in my opinion, this was crucial to understand that it is the lives of people, something that has nothing to do with race of people. Despite the contradictory opinion by the Mayor Rawlings-Blake and President Obama, in my view, the facts accelerated the trial in the death of 25 year old Freddie Gray, in which already defined that the police are guilty. 

 What is the logic to establish superiority of race in some people? Which suggests an officer overlooking human rights? What are we doing wrong? The dream is still alive. 

By Jorge Vidal Salinas

 List of web pages that I used for writing this post:

• http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32400497
• http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/01/us/freddie-gray-who-is-he/
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/noticias/2015/04/150427_baltimore_disturbios_protestas_freddie_gray_fp
• http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2015/04/_1968_baltimore_do_the_riots_after_martin_luther_king_jr_s_assassination.html
• http://noticias.univision.com/article/2321541/2015-05-02/estados-unidos/noticias/manifestaciones-por-baltimore-en-la-costa-oeste-derivaron-en-disturbios-y-detenciones