It was a beautiful mid-April day in Baltimore, Maryland. With Cherry Blossoms blooming and a slight breeze blowing, tensions were on the rise across the city. Exactly one week prior, an event occurred which would place the entire United States on the brink of mass civil unrest. Issues of race and liberty dominated the headlines five days later on April 18^th, as blacks, the local police, and state militia would soon clash with one another. The next day, the 19^th, events unfolded which would quickly evolve into all-out war.

If that sounds to you like the aftermath of the Freddie Gray murder in the midst of a police state, you would be mistaken. This is the story of the Baltimore Riot of 1861.

The American Civil War officially began on April 12^th, 1861 when Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter without casualty. Anxiety in Baltimore was especially high at this time because it desired to stay neutral in the ensuing conflict. Most Baltimoreans were anti-War, yet simultaneously sympathetic to Southern business interests. Confusing the matter further were the 25,000 freed slaves which lived in the city, often at odds with one-third of the local population still supportive of slavery.

The Commonwealth of Virginia seceded from the union on the 17^th, and the next day all of Baltimore wondered about the effects on the local economy and politics. After a scuffle erupted that afternoon between opposing militias crossing each other in town, the passion of the city’s people were lit. On the evening of the 19^th, a mob of Southern supporters met a brigade of Northern soldiers en route to Washington as the brigade traveled between train stations along Pratt Street. Chaos ensued, and the first blood of the Civil War was spilled. Local police intervened as mediators, but 16 people were killed and dozens more wounded. History was set in motion, and no longer could Baltimore or the rest of the country ignore the reality of war and its cost of human life.

Then-Mayor of Baltimore, George Brown would later opine that the Pratt Street Riot was the last element needed to create full-scale war, saying,

“Because then was shed the first blood in a conflict between the North and the South; then a step was taken which made compromise or retreat almost impossible.”

With riots in Baltimore once again a national story nearly two centuries later, and civil disobedience on the rise across the country, could this mean the start of the next Civil War? Is retreat impossible from the violence of law enforcement everywhere?

This is what makes Freddie Gray different than every police brutality story to come before it. Passions are once more lit, and the fuse is burning. The tension between those who want freedom and those who take it away are higher than they have ever been. Peaceful protests are still the norm, but for how long? What happens when that first shot is fired in an agry crowd of thousands? How long can Humvees and tanks roam public streets without inviting a total assault? Will it matter then if you’re a pacifist, feminist, or socialist? If you’re black, white, or purple? Is non-violent resistance the only option anymore? Will we spiral into barbaric fighting like 150 years ago, or can the police state be ended without the Second Civil War?

By Jordan Freshour, contributor for TruthVoice

The First Amendment was cast aside on Saturday night in Baltimore, as credentialed journalist Ford Fischer of News2Share was abducted by police under the false pretense of violating the city – wide curfew. The Baltimore Police Dept had exempted members of the press in possession of official credentials immediately after the curfew went into effect on Tuesday night. Clearly, something is amiss.

Fischer’s credentials (Andrew is his given name, Ford is a nickname) are authentic and even recognized by the White House.

Fischer, who was filming from a safe distance and not interfering with police business, was attempting to document the reality of what was going on in the city — something which couldn’t be done from the confines of the ‘designated media area’ which had been cordoned off the previous night. Without the ability for the press to move freely and document the reality of the situation, potential for police to abuse their power goes unchecked.

From the beginning of the video, it becomes apparent such abuse is common, as police use pepper spray against people who are already following their orders to disburse. Shortly after this, they even forcefully shove someone in the back, who, though in the process of leaving the area, apparently wasn’t moving quickly enough to suit them.

The incident leading to Fischer’s false arrest begins with someone lobbing a bottle at the police. After an MRAP pulls around the corner, the group of officers initiate a pursuit, with Fischer rolling tape alongside them. A still shot from the video along the way shows two young protesters cowering against a building as a cop points his gun directly at them.

The pursuit winds through several side streets, and ends when police pin the suspect down in order to make an arrest. Fischer approaches, but as to be expected,  almost immediately is told by the several police in full tactical gear to “Back up” and “You’re interfering”, despite his distance and neutrality.

Even after they bully him further down the street, the harassment continues and they all begin demanding “Where’s your credentials?” “Show me your credentials!” and even incredulously “Who do you work for?” At the same time as the officer holding his ID says “He’s credentialed media”, another who had approached from behind, shoves Fischer to the ground, appropriately saying

“I don’t care”.

Film stops as he’s placed in handcuffs on the ground, and starts again when Trey Yingst (Trey is the nickname he uses, but his given first name is Gerald as heard on tape) takes over. While Fischer is pinned to the ground, officers cut the straps on his equipment backpack, rather than briefly uncuffing him to allow him to remove it. Yingst repeatedly asks what Fischer is being charged with, and each time officers say “curfew violation” — a direct contradiction of the exception for properly credentialed media. Later that night, upon realizing they had no grounds for detaining Fischer, police arbitrarily switch the charge to a civil citation for disorderly conduct — a penalty that carries a sizable $500 fine, which he can choose to pay or go to trial.

Violations of our constitutionally protected freedoms occur more and more frequently, and it’s rather ironic that a journalist tasked with documenting those abuses winds up on the receiving end. Without freedom for the media to give people a voice when they’ve been victimized by the police state, the cries for justice and change will go unheard. An exception to sweeping curfew restrictions is completely nullified when the media is herded into a tiny pen ‘for their safety’. As if that weren’t insult enough, abducting a journalist under false pretenses is wholly inexcusable. No one is safe. Even those dubbed ‘cop apologists’ are subject to the same arbitrary abuse and random brutalization by the very police they place on a golden pedestal. This entire country desperately needs to come to terms with the fact there is a corrupt and oppressive government currently holding it hostage.

Article published by Claire Bernish for The Pontiac Tribune

About 40 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border in Raymondville, Texas, there is a facility nicknamed Ritmo, or Raymondville’s Guantánamo.  It was nicknamed Ritmo because of the terrible conditions that prisoners live in, which are ultimately the reason for the riot.

The prisoners were protesting poor medical attention,  cruel treatment and sexual abuse; all a common complaint in private prisons housing undocumented immigrants.

The riot – or “unrest” as prison officials called it – started early Friday at the Willacy County Correctional Center.  The center is operated by a privately held prison company named Management and Training Corp. on behalf of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Management and Training’s 10-year contract with the federal government is worth about half a billion dollars.

Prisoners refused to come out of their cells for breakfast or go to work on Friday, in protest of what they said was inadequate medical service at the prison. Inmates broke out of their housing structures and congregated in the recreation yard, setting fire to several outbuildings.  The prison guards responded with tear gas and other methods of crowd control, and only minor injuries were reported.

The riot left the prison “uninhabitable,” according to Ed Ross, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. As many as 2,800 prisoners will be moved to other institutions, he said.

The facility is not stranger to violence or controversy as last February authorities ordered a lockdown after a disturbance. State, county and local law enforcement agencies had to be asked to assist in guarding the facility, according to local media.

The ACLU report also found a pattern of abuse and inhumane conditions at four other privately run federal prisons in Texas that house immigrants.

Those facilities, known as criminal alien requirement (CAR) prisons for immigrants, house noncitizens, most of whom have been convicted of only immigration offenses.

“At the CAR prisons we investigated, the prisoners lived day to day not knowing if their basic human needs would be met, whether they would get medical attention if they were hurt or ill,” Carl Takei, a staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project, said in a press release last year. “The Bureau of Prisons creates perverse incentives for the for-profit prison companies to endanger human health and lives.”

The Willacy facility was an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center. But after AlJazeera reported rampant sexual and physical abuse and medical neglect at the facility from 2006 to 2011, ICE announced it was transferring detainees out of Willacy. Management and Training obtained a contract to hold prisoners for the Bureau of Prisons — the contract it operates under today, the ACLU said in its report.