Today was revealing about the place of policing in this country.
As Kent noted, it saw the naming of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake as the first featured office holder to speak at the Democratic National Convention. Ms. Rawlings-Blake has presided over three quite notable episodes during her tenure: the Freddie Gray riots, in which she directed the police to stand down; an ensuing huge increase in the number of murders in her city; and what at this point must be considered a largely concocted case against six police officers, not one of whom has been convicted of anything.
As this was going on, Baton Rouge buried Montrell Jackson, the last of three policemen to be gunned down in a staged attack eight days ago. To my knowledge, neither Ms. Rawlings-Blake nor any other Convention speaker mentioned Jackson, his murder, or his funeral.
Yep, and the press said nary a peep Ms. Rawlings-Blake's comments. This is where Democrats have a built-in advantage. In any sane political system, the Baltimore Mayor would be an embarrassment, and the press would be asking hard questions about whether her orders to stand down caused harm to people and property. But no.
More on Mayor Rawlings-Blake:
US Mayors in Cuba: 38 years later
oncubamagazine.com 1 June, 2016
"Led by Rawlings-Blake ...
‘The US Conference of Mayors has a long history with the Cuban people’,
the CEO and Executive Director, Cochran said to OnCuba referring to the
1978 visit. We came to visit during the Jimmy Carter administration with
a delegation of 40 of us. We were received by President Fidel Castro. ...
Havana is the same; it lacks the presence of Fidel Castro, one of the
most dynamic people I’ve met ..."
* * *
"Under the leadership of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM)
President Baltimore (MD) Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake ... These
meetings and visits will provide U.S. mayors and Cuban officials the
opportunity to share best practices for providing city services in
education, healthcare, infrastructure, and transportation."
marketwatch.com
Morons of Cuba:
Inside the Cuban Hospitals...
panampost.com OCTOBER 6, 2015
By the time I climbed the steps of the emergency room entrance in San Miguel, Havana, I could already tell that the supposed first-class health care provided
in Cuba was a myth.
Hospitals in the island’s capital are literally falling apart.
Friends told me to dress “like a Cuban” and not to speak while inside, since
my Argentinean accent would give me away the moment I said hello.
. . .
- - ] “We have been waiting for an ambulance for 4 hours,” yelled a man ...
- - ] The only working bathroom in the entire hospital had only 1 [dirty] toilet.
- - ] Orderlies were also nowhere to be seen. A young man had to push his
mother on a stretcher until he reached the line of those waiting ...
- - ] I saw biological waste discarded in a regular trash can.
- - ] The beds had no linen, and the only equipment around was the bag of IV
fluids hanging above them.
- - ] All doctor’s offices had handwritten signs on the doors, and at least 4 patients waited outside each room. The average wait time for each was around 3 hours.
I left the hospital after a couple hours. Once outside, puzzled by the large
bags the people entering the hospital were carrying, I asked my friend to
explain.
“Well, they have to bring everything with them, because the hospital
provides nothing. Pillows, sheets, medicine: everything,” he said.
Nailed it.
If Republicans had led off their Convention with a mayor who had presided over a politically and racially tinged trial; rampant arson and looting; and a 60% increase in the murder rate, what do you think the chances are that this would go unnoted in the media's coverage?