Rampant Police Violence in Baltimore

The police authorities in the USA must be better controlled and better equipped. Only in this way can the often excessive violence against blacks, like in Baltimore or Ferguson, be checked.

Like the pictures show: houses and cars burn, policemen flee from stone-throwing demonstrators, the heavily armed National Guard enters the city. This was the situation in Baltimore after peaceful demonstrations against police violence escalated — just like in Ferguson a few months ago. In both cases rage erupted against a police force that systemically discriminates against blacks. In Ferguson, a police officer shot the young unarmed African-American Michael Brown without any compelling reason. In Baltimore the young black man Freddie Gray died of an injury to the spinal cord that he probably received from the police during his arrest. They ignored his calls for help in contradiction to their regulations.

Memory of Racial Discrimination

There’s a pattern to these episodes: Excessive police violence against blacks has been rampant for a long time in the USA. Some experts feel reminded of the racial discrimination of the ‘60s. Eric Holder, who has just left the attorney general’s office, was therefore right to launch so many investigations against police officers — unlike any of his predecessors — and initiate reforms. Because only when the police are better controlled as well as better educated and equipped can they match up to their task.