Political Rioting: A Moral Assessment
Avia Pasternak · Philosophy & Public Affairs · 2018
On April 12, 2015, three Baltimore police officers arrested a 25-year-old African American named Freddie Gray, on the suspicion of possessing a switchblade knife.A video recording of the arrest shows Gray screaming in pain as he is being dragged into a police van.Sometime during the arrest Gray sustained a spinal cord injury.Four days later he died. 1 Gray's funeral was held two weeks later at the Shiloh Baptist Church in Baltimore.In the afternoon of that day a crowd of young African Americans, coordinated through social media, gathered in front of the Mondawmin Shopping Mall in Northwest Baltimore.Police officers who were called to the area were met with chants of "Fuck the Police!" and "Don't Shoot!"Soon after, the crowd started throwing rocks, bricks and glass bottles.Nearby, a police car and some private vehicles were set on fire.A few streets away a CVS pharmacy was looted, and the hoses of a fire engine that arrived at the scene were slashed.The disorder continued for a few hours into the night.By the end of it, at least fifteen police officers were injured, and twenty-seven people were arrested.