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What you really need to know about Baltimore

From TPM, Catherine Thompson on everything we know about the death of Baltimore’s Freddie Gray. What you really need to know about Baltimore, from a reporter who’s lived there for over 30 years. In Freddie Gray’s Baltimore neighborhood, half of the residents don’t have jobs. Bryce Covert on the economic devastation fueling the anger in Baltimore. These two maps show the shocking inequality in Baltimore. Globalization and Baltimore: Orioles’ COO John Angelos’ explanation for the unrest in Baltimore has been widely shared — is he right? Obama says “this Congress” won’t do the things needed to prevent future Baltimores. Jamil Smith on what Loretta Lynch must do now: As Baltimore bleeds, the new attorney general needs to shift police culture in a short time.

From The Baltimore Sun, a special report on “Undue Force” (from September 2014): The city has paid about $5.7 million since 2011 over lawsuits claiming that police officers brazenly beat up alleged suspects; one hidden cost — the perception that officers are violent can poison the relationship between residents and police; and Doug Donovan and Mark Puente on how Freddie Gray not the first to come out of Baltimore police van with serious injuries. Conor Friedersdorf on the brutality of police culture in Baltimore. Lee Fang on how Maryland cop lobbyists helped block reforms just last month. Folk ideal theory in action: In the American racialized system of policing and imprisonment, the normative is not normal. Justin Hansford (Saint Louis): The Whole System is Guilty as Hell: Interrupting a Legacy of Racist Police Culture Through a Human Rights Lens. The myth of police reform: The real problem is the belief that all our social problems can be solved with force.

What is there to say about the Baltimore riots? Chas Danner on how the media is reacting to the Baltimore riots. 11 stunning images highlight the double standard of reactions to riots like Baltimore. Black Riot: Raven Rakia on how the difference between riots and protests has more to do with who and where than what. Adam Serwer on the biggest mystery of Baltimore’s riots. Josh Israel on how Lyndon Johnson responded to Baltimore’s last riots. Fox host Gretchen Carlson offers her “take” on Baltimore unrest by quoting MLK — but decides not to opt for his famous statement that “a riot is the language of the unheard”. Shep Smith shuts down dumb Baltimore questions from fellow Fox hosts. The NRA is already lying about what’s happening in Baltimore.

From The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates on nonviolence as compliance: Officials calling for calm can offer no rational justification for Gray’s death, and so they appeal for order. “It took this to bring the light to everything”: Baltimoreans say calls for peace are futile without an agenda for change. Elizabeth Nolan Brown on how resistance isn’t always rational: We needn’t endorse the means of desperate people to acknowledge their ends are worth fighting for. Freddie DeBoer on t-shirt radicalism: “At some point, the self-impressed peacocking on social media stops being about the protesters in Baltimore and starts being all about you. Maybe you should slow down and consider the vulgarity of that situation”. Alyssa Rosenberg on The Wire, the burning of Baltimore and the limits of art (and more). If ever a photo should exist to explain how we feel every day, from the moment we arise til we fall asleep.