It was both skepticism and curiosity that inspired Philadelphia activist, Mr. Paul “Frosty” Jackson, to travel to Baltimore with comrades to “get the real scoop” after hearing and seeing so many news stories about riots and looting.
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Mr. Jackson was skeptical because he doesn’t trust the mainstream media.
“They lie a lot,” said Mr. Jackson, who informed me that he cursed out CNN’s Mr. Don Lemon for twenty minutes in front of Baltimore’s City Hall.
And he was curious because he wanted to see firsthand what was going on in communities surrounding what the news was calling a war zone. The news media’s description of Baltimore during the uprising, said Mr. Jackson during an exclusive interview with Techbook Online, was “extremely exaggerated.”
According to Mr. Jackson’s eyewitness account, there was plenty of solidarity in the streets, “the majority of folks understand why their youth were rioting,” he said.
The people of Baltimore, said Mr. Jackson, tried to communicate with their government through multiple channels, including writing letters, and they felt as though there was nothing else they could do.
“No other alternative,” said Mr. Jackson, mimicking the sentiments of the many people he encountered during his visit.
When asked whether or not he would’ve engaged in the activities that resulted in property damage, Mr. Jackson said no, though he wouldn’t be condemning them, either.
I asked a similar question to mayoral candidate, Mr. Nelson Diaz, at #TransparencyNow, a mayoral forum focused on police and criminal justice reform organized by Techbook Online and The Declaration, an online, alternative Philadelphia news source.
Mr. Diaz, a former City Solicitor, said if he was Mayor of Baltimore during the uprising, he would’ve been “outside with the protesters.”
“That’s where I belong,” he said, before relinquishing the microphone to Mr. Douglas Oliver, the youngest of the mayoral candidates, who suggested that Philadelphia could soon see similar uprisings.
Mr. Jackson agrees with Mr. Oliver.
“We’re a powder keg,” said Mr. Jackson, who was among the many protesters at the #PhillyisBaltimore rally who clashed briefly with police while attempting to take over the expressway. “There’s plenty of tensions and plenty of talk of it. Philly is Baltimore… the conditions are the same: large black population… police brutality.”
Mr. Jackson, whose political views are a blend of reformist, revolutionary thinking and radicalism, said tensions will ease up, at least for him, once police officers are treated, in terms of the law, like every other citizen on the planet.
“I want to see police put through the legal system in the exact way ordinary people are prosecuted,” he said, as he traveled to the 12th town hall meeting for the Philly Coalition for REAL Justice, which is held in Center City Philadelphia at the Friends Center on 15th & Cherry Streets.
Mr. Jackson refers to the meetings, which seems to operate on a consistent and indefinite schedule, as a “resource hub and connective body” for people who share leftist, radical and progressive views, but more importantly, individuals against police brutality.
When asked if he sees an end to the community gatherings anytime soon, or if there’s a demand or particular result they’d like to see, Mr. Jackson said the movement is over once the problem we came together to address is eradicated: white supremacy, capitalism and the systematic protection of police officers.
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