Three Baltimore police officers were acquitted of charges in the death of Freddy Gray in Baltimore last year. Charges against three remaining officers were dropped. Three of those police officers are Black, three White. If you didn’t know any of this before Thursday night’s airing on TNT of “American Race – Baltimore Rising,” you sure didn’t get it on this program co-produced by retired NBA player Charles Barkley.
In the first of a four-part series, Barkley opened the program by saying "race is the most divisive issue in America and we need to talk about it now. In 2015, Freddie Gray died in police custody. Baltimore exploded. Police brutality -- We're seeing too much of it. Baltimore, New York, Ferguson -- We've seen too much.”
Though a supporter of Black Lives Matter, Barkley said, “But I've always thought it was stupid to destroy your own neighborhood. I want to find out what the hell happened in Baltimore.”
Barkley asked citizens to help him understand the rioting and asked why they called it an “uprising.” He got back plenty of anger from African-Americans on the streets.
Viewers and Barkley heard at least four presidents skewered: Nixon, Reagan, Clinton and even Obama, who, we were told, had described rioters as “thugs.” The War on Drugs was decried by one person as a war on hippies and Black people. “Billy” claimed mass incarceration is aimed at black people so that “they could nullify the political progress.”
Touring the community in his car, Barkley interjected:
Police shouldn't just pull you over and you end up dead. And Freddie Gray, in his situation, he shouldn't have end up dead. So that's -- that's -- that's wrong, 100% wrong. If Freddie Gray was my son, I'd be mad, I'd be sad, and I would want the cops to pay for it. That's not the way the judicial system works. That's not the way the law works. But, more important, that's not the way humanity works. Unfair policies have been stacked against black people and poor people forever. I understand why there's distrust with the policemen. I need to know, are the cops trying to bridge the gap between themselves and the black community?
The black community has been hurting for a long time. I feel their pain. The cops say they're changing. We need them to work with the community, but also we need the black community to work with the cops. I want to get the community together and see where we go from here.
Barkley rode along on patrol with police officers, black and white, through streets where the rioting had taken place. He was saddened by run-down, poverty-stricken community.
The officers took him to headquarters where he underwent the same training procedures they are subjected to. Barkley was given a handgun and faced a huge video screen displaying life-threatening situations police are faced with. He was seriously stressed by the split-second decisions confronting him. Twice the supervisory officer told him an assailant had shot him. He appeared shaken.
His next assignment was almost as daunting. He appeared before a room full of angry African-Americans at a Baptist church. They didn’t like what he had to say.
Thank you. Well, number one, I want to thank y'all for having me. I want to hear what you have to say.
The rate of homicide in the black community is almost triple what it is in the white community than the black community. The fact of the matter is, is that we're dying, and it doesn't matter how we're dying or who kills us. The fact is that we're dying. But there's crime going on in our neighborhood. It has to stop.
Listen, I've never said the police do everything correct. I've never said that. But I know that they got a very difficult job. I spent a day with the cops. The split-second decisions they have to make -- I mean, we're talking split-second decisions. They can do 95% of things correct and 5% screw up, and we spend all our time talking about 5% screw up.
Barkley had crossed the line and floodgates of anger opened wide. Diane Butler (photographed above) responded: “First of all... I don't know you. I don't like you. You said you rode with the police. And you had a conversation with them. And it takes them only a split second to make a decision. Tell me why it took 15 to 20 minutes to beat my son to death. 15 officers! They did some horrific stuff to my child, and I know this to be real. Baltimore city's dirty! There's such much lying, deception up in there and corruption."
Barkley: “Listen, racism exists. What I'm trying to do is start a dialogue. These are kitchen-room tables of frustration. We're tired of talking. Okay, I appreciate that.”
From that point to the end of the church segment, many of the people who had been calmly sitting in the pews moved right up in front of Barkley and ranted about racism in the city. Barkley quietly absorbed it all.
As the evening wound up, one person was heard saying: “I think that they were actually communicating on different wavelengths, the people and Charles. After all of that venom and vitriolic language, at the end of the day, they're still victims, and they feel victimized. It made them feel like he was taking up for the police. Once the crowd felt like that, they went totally against him.” A woman thanked Barkley for listening.
Barkley concluded, “I came to Baltimore to talk about police brutality and also give the people a platform to voice their opinions. But it turns out, it's not that simple.”
