Former Baltimore mayor Catherine E. Pugh may end up in prison on corruption charges. From the Washington Post:
It also raised further questions regarding the roles of Baltimore City Comptroller Joan Pratt, who co-owned a business with Pugh that prosecutors say was used to launder an illegal campaign contribution and which filed a false tax return, and of a major city contractor who wrote out a check to that business in addition to buying Pugh’s books…
Prosecutors told the judge that Pugh knowingly sought to defraud purchasers of her “Healthy Holly” books, reap financial and political benefits, and pay little or no taxes. They accused her of compounding an array of problems already facing the city and of feigning an interest in addressing childhood obesity with the books on healthy lifestyles for kids.
If you actually believe that she’ll serve nearly five years in prison for her crimes, then you’re being naive. If she serves any time at all, it will be minimal. Perhaps she’ll even get reelected, as mayor, after she gets out – like Washington DC mayor Marion Barry.
You can be forgiven if you’re confusing her with the Baltimore mayor who infamously said, regarding the most recent Baltimore riots:
It’s a very delicate balancing act. Because while we try to make sure that they were protected from the cars and other things that were going on, we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well.
That was actually Stephanie Rawlings-Blake – who is also black, and also female.
On that note, I would suggest that the voters of Baltimore take a break from any concerns they may have about Diversity, and instead focus on electing mayors who actually care about the city. Being black, or being female, shouldn’t be a qualification; being an upstanding citizen is more important.
Re her “space to destroy” remark.
I hate to have to tell you this, even though it’s better that you hear this from me, instead of the streets.
But her “space to destroy” remarks were merely a very inelegant and foot-in-mouth way of stating what is a very establishmentarian strategy when dealing with brewing black riots.
Put the enforcement wall in too closely, and it will make the black kids angry, and they’ll explode. Put it out too far, and they’ll have easy pickings and riot for a long time.
The strategy is that if the enforcement wall is in the Goldilocks Zone, then they’ll have “space to destroy,” but not destroy very much, and then their victory riot energy will wear out as quickly as practically possible.
Yes, I think you’re right – but the only reason this is so is that black hoodlums have been given free reign for too long. They’ve been sent a message that they can get away with a lot. If, someday, we get leadership with more backbone, and the hoodlums are met with real force, then the rules would change.
From your mouth to God’s ears. Really, that’s what we all want.
Until then, bet on the fact that at some major think tank of major consequence, e.g. the RAND Corporation, that, at some point not so long ago, the brains that work there started with these real world suppositions:
(1) The United States will continue to have identifiable extensive urban or urban-ish ghettos of black people for a very long time to come
(2) From time to time, there will be riots in those ghettos
(3) And those riots will almost 100% of the time be precipitated by a questionable accost between a cop and a black civilian
With those suppositions in mind, and with the experience of previous black riots in the 1960s, the brains at RAND (or wherever) cooked up the establishmentarian strategy, which Stephanie Rawlings-Blake very inelegantly described with her “space to destroy” comment.
We Used to Shoot Looters #1:
http://4racism.org/shoot-looters.html
Deterring crime, mayhem, arson, and war can be an act of #RacismIsLove #4Racism love . Deterring violence with credible threats of government violence means protection of innocent victims, and even of potential rioters.
We Used to Shoot Looters #2:
Now we give them “space.” The riots, looting, and arson in Baltimore are yet another case of what began as a demonstration against alleged police misconduct but turned into violence. It was not political protest. People who want better treatment from the police don’t set fire to retirement homes, try to break into ATM machines, or burn down drug stores.