Baltimore Mayor: City 'Gave Those Who Wished to Destroy, Space to Do That' (Video)

“Baltimore Mayor Stuns With Remarks on Violent Freddie Gray Protesters Who ‘Wished to Destroy'”, Jason Howerton writes at the Blaze:

Protests over the death of Freddie Gray, who died in police custody, took a violent turn on Saturday, resulting in dozens of arrests and widespread property damage. During a recent press conference, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake confirmed that the protesters were being given “space” to “destroy.”

“While we tried to make sure that they were protected from the cars and the other things that were going on,” the mayor said of the protesters. “We also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well. And we work very hard to keep that balance and to put ourselves in the best position to deescalate, and that’s what you saw.”

As author Gary Harrington tweets, “You have to be carefully taught to utter those remarks without the slightest sense of self awareness.” And Rawlings-Blake is more than willing to spread her worldview beyond Baltimore; as Wikipedia notes, “A member of the Democratic Party, she currently serves as secretary of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Vice President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.” An earlier member of Democratic National Committee who also created safe spaces for violence and destruction could not be reached for comment.

H. L. Mencken, the best-known journalist to ever emerge from the Baltimore Sun famously said, “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” But even he didn’t mean it this literally:

Mayor of Baltimore: “We Provided Spaces For Protesters To Destroy If They Chose To Do That” http://t.co/ZuCwPmO1gQ pic.twitter.com/bMEWhXU7Ku

— Bill (@DefendWallSt) April 26, 2015

Nothing says “I want justice” like stealing from neighborhood stores.. #Baltimore pic.twitter.com/ZxopieNv9R

— anne (@amr033) April 26, 2015

The government at the behest of @MayorSRB is taking an *active* participatory role in allowing total chaos and destruction.Let that sink in. — #ReadyForHurrycane (@LilMissRightie) April 27, 2015

The Orwellian nature of Rawlings-Blake’s statement is compounded by the Baltimore police chief saying that the rioters were “outside agitators,” as spotted by on Twitter by Tennessee State Sen. Frank Niceley.  The Baltimore Sun adds that “Despite police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts’ insistence that a minority of out-of-town instigators caused the violence, online court records Sunday showed that only three of those arrested during Saturday’s protests were from outside Maryland.”