Another Black man is dead in the United States and the citizens have accused the police of murdering him. Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Black man from Baltimore died while in police custody. According to official statements, his spinal cord was severely injured. His voice box was crushed and his neck snapped before he slipped into a coma and died.
Protesters took to the streets following the death. In days that followed, especially on Monday, April 27, 2018, violence erupted and protesters attacked the police, injuring around 20 policemen and burned shops and cars. The mayor and the police chief along with other police and political officials in Baltimore have promised to get to the bottom of what happened to Freddie Gray and urged the masses to conduct peacefull demonstrations.
Despite the violence, more people held peaceful protests in Baltimore City center. During the protests, they expressed their scepticism about getting justice, mostly pointing to previous similar killings, such as the killings of the unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Walter Scott, shot dead by a police officer following a traffic stop in South Carolina, Eric Garner, who was chocked to death by a police officer in New York City, and Trayvon Martin who was shot dead by a neighbourhood watch member in Florida.
Baltimore, although not a isolated case, may be a turning point; at least that is hat most of the Black parents across the United States may be hoping. Perhaps the case would draw heightened attention to the strains in the race relations, biased policing targeting minorities, perceived prejudice and injustice towards minorities, poverty and the need to resolve the social issues plaguing the minority and power neigborhoods and communities in the US major cities. In 1968, Baltimore rioted for more than a week, following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The US Government, like this time, had to deploy the National Guard to keep peace.
