Ameliorating (NOT!) race relations.

• Author: Vatz, Richard E.
• Position: Law & Justice - Riots in Maryland

"As long as politicians focus on limited aspects of the complex matter of violent and social unrest, this unrest will continue--with periods of quiet followed by violence ad infinitum."

THE BALTIMORE, Md., riots of 2015 followed the death of Freddy Gray, a drug dealer who may have broken the law by the type of gun he was carrying. Gray was arrested on a weapons charge, then ushered into a van where he was not seat-belted. When he exited the vehicle, he was suffering from a spinal cord injury and subsequently died.

A curfew was installed as city protests became violent, and the National Guard was called in to keep the peace. There were high-profile losses, such as the burned out-CVS pharmacy and, as Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan described to The Baltimore Sun, "About 250 businesses, mostly minority-owned, were destroyed, burned, or looted; more than 170 cars were vandalized; more than 100 fires were set the night of April 27 alone, and a number of homes were damaged."

Other reports indicated that there were 113 police officers injured, 144 vehicle fires, and 15 structure fires, including the $16,000,000 senior senior housing/community center that was 40% complete. Some 3,000 National Guardsmen were deployed; 150-plus National Guard vehicles utilized; and around 52,500 pounds of food delivered by the Maryland Food Bank to pantries in Mondawmin, Druid Hill, Pimlico, Forest Park, Union Square, Howard Park, and Irvington. For five nights, there was a citywide curfew of 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

As for future costs, there were cancelled conventions and travel, attenuation of businesses locating in Baltimore, and, according to Jonathan Murray, managing director of the financial services firm The Murray Group, untold immeasurable costs of the many enterprises that, in the foreseeable future, no longer would locate in Baltimore.

Moreover, according to Anirban Basu, CEO of the economic consulting firm Sage Policy Group, " ... Businesses lost tens of millions of dollars because of the curfew, and the loss of several Orioles games cost the economy as much as $10,000,000, but the biggest hit to the local economy will likely come in the long ran. Tourism and business recruitment efforts could be significantly hampered by images of the Baltimore riots being broadcast to international audiences on CNN and Fox News."

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake saw the problem of arson, pillaging, and random mayhem as quite secondary to the dilemma of a supposedly out-of-control...