Editorial: Who are the leaders?

By now we have all heard about the riots taking place in Baltimore.

The police haven’t been enough to stop the rioting; the National Guard has been brought in; normal life in the streets has all but become impossible.

It all started with the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who was arrested and taken into police custody.

The death itself is still shrouded in mystery, but a few facts are clear.

When Gray was arrested in Baltimore on April 12 he was struggling to walk. By the time he got to the police station a half an hour later, he was unable to talk or breathe and was suffering from wounds that later caused his death.

This ramped itself up into the riots we are hearing about today.

Regardless of the details, most of which are unknown, the incident has clearly blown up.

The question is: why?

In the late 1800’s women marched nonviolently in the U.S. in order to receive the right to suffrage. Their demands were met. Susan B. Anthony is revered as the leader.

Between the mid 1800’s and the mid 1900’s one of the most influential nonviolent protests to ever occur took place in India.

Mohandas Gandhi was the remembered leader of the Indian independence movement during the British occupation of his country. Using nonviolent civil disobedience, India gained independence. It also inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

In the 1950’s and 1960’s there was a civil rights movement in the U.S. This was also done non-violently, with rabble-rousers asked to walk away and not participate. Martin Luther King Jr. is the preeminent leader of that movement.

And now, whether it’s Baltimore today or St. Louis at the end of last year, who is appearing as the leader of these untamed mobs?

Whether you regard the people creating trouble as “thugs” or just angry citizens, it isn’t clear any leader has emerged. Rather, it’s just individuals acting individually.

Yes, we see some people try and rise up to lead non-violent protests. But it’s clear those people get buried in a crowd of voices.

If the right person were to step in and try to organize the action in Baltimore, would they even succeed?

With messages and information traveling around the world at an alarmingly high speed, it’s easy for anyone to spread any message they choose to. The public doesn’t need to get in line and follow a single path that has been presented to them when they can follow a number of paths being offered via phone calls, text messages and social media web sites.

When every voice is spoken through a megaphone, none can be heard.

And while great protestors are often labeled as those who were able to protest without rioting, one voice explained why he understood riots happen.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said he couldn’t condemn rioting without also condemning the contingent and intolerable conditions that exist in our society.

“These conditions are things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard,” King said during a Sept. 27, 1966, interview with Mike Wallace for CBS Reports.

For our readers who may not agree with this quote, consider this: What if the Federal government took away gun ownership rights from citizens?

Would there be peaceful protests, or would riots break out?

Surely it’s simple to think that there would be organized non-violent marches. There’s no doubt those marches would take place. But is there a chance violence would break out, as well?

Who would our leaders be?

We’ll leave it to the readers to decide.