What went wrong in Baltimore

Baltimore’s burning should never have happened (“State of emergency declared after riots break out in Baltimore,” April 27). But it did, given the lack of leadership displayed by both Maryland’s governor and Baltimore’s mayor. Events actually got hot Saturday April 25 and extended into Sunday afternoon, when 40,000 baseball fans were locked down and prevented from leaving Oriole Park at Camden Yards for a period of time after the game.

The National Guard should have been activated at that point, to enforce an already in place dusk-to-dawn curfew. Instead, Baltimore officials waited to implement a curfew until April 29. This stupidity is astounding.   

To cap things off, Baltimore’s mayor made a ridiculous statement to the effect that room could be made to allow for some property damage protesters/rioters might cause as a means of exercising their freedom of speech rights. This statement lends itself to an incitement to riot.

These riotous acts of Monday are not First Amendment rights being exercised over a redress of grievances against the government but the actions of pillaging looters (not protesters, as the media continues to characterize them), who are breaking myriad property and personal injury laws, giving rise to abject anarchy and breaking the social contract between the people and government.

There will be future Freddie Gray and Michael Brown incidents that provide a catalyst and excuse for future acts of violent civil disobedience. Social media and exhaustive cable news coverage will exacerbate the consequences of these future riotous events. So, get ready America, because it is going to be a long hot summer.

Terre Haute, Ind.

Wake up and smell the injustice

Brent Budowsky (“Gay rights, black lives,” April 23) comments that “2015 will someday be known as … the year when too many blacks were killed by police.” I hope that 2015 will someday be known as the year when white America REALIZES that too many blacks were killed by police. 

Tragically, too many blacks being killed by police is not new. Perhaps this year, attention finally being paid to this fact will lead to change in this shameful reality.

From David Blockstein, Takoma Park, Md.

Is Clinton another McDonnell?

The Clinton cash scandal sounds suspiciously similarly to what Virginia’s former governor and first lady were tried, convicted and sentenced to prison for within the past year (“The Clinton cash controversy: What you need to know,” April 24). It’s chicken feed compared to the financial exploits of Bill and Hill, but the same (so far) in that there is no direct smoking gun, quid pro quo evidence — just plenty of “coincidences” from which to infer a deliberate pattern and much more than a mere appearance of impropriety. In an attempt to salvage his political career, Bob McDonnell threw his “henpecking” wife under the bus. The jury didn’t buy it; neither did we. But there’s still the appeal.

Our 41st president’s propensity for philandering is no secret, an anomaly for the otherwise less than candid former first couple. With a fresh batch of duplicitous dealings coming home to roost, will Hillary “egg” her spouse in her scramble to rescue her candidacy to crack the glass ceiling of the Oval Office? Rumor has it she has quite an arm. It’s her only hope of staying out of the fire and in a relatively friendly, perhaps even somewhat Teflon, frying pan.

From Karen Ann DeLuca, Alexandria, Va.