BALTIMORE — In Freddie Gray’s neighborhood, where he was arrested, where people marched to protest his death, where the rioting and looting took place, there was both a moment of exultation Friday and an undercurrent of unease.
Drivers honked their horns and raised their fists in victory salutes. One man waved two fingers — spread in a peace sign — through the sunroof of his car as he passed through the intersection of Pennsylvania and North avenues.
“I think that’s justice. That’s what they are supposed to do,” said Justin Miller, 19. “I felt safer. Since this indictment, maybe it won’t happen again to any of us.”
But as much as people saw cause for relief after six police officers were charged in Gray’s April 19 death, there was apprehension about whether the officers would be convicted. Residents also expressed concern over whether, in the long run, conditions would improve in the impoverished Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood, where about half of working-age adults are unemployed.
“I’m happy that they did hand down charges, but at the same time, I don’t think anybody’s going to get convicted,” said Tracie Clemons, 24, who lives in Owings Mill, Md., but works in the city.
As evening fell, the mood of celebration and vigilance was reflected in a massive multiracial march that filled the city’s streets. Fronted by a banner blaring “Black Lives Matter,” thousands of demonstrators waved signs as they walked arm-in-arm and chanted: “All night, all day, we will fight for Freddie Gray!”
“We are looking for justice. Enough is enough,” Mary Salkever, 73, said as she joined the procession, her walking cane in one hand and a sign in the other reading: “The opposite of good is not evil. The opposite of good is indifference.”
The march began at the Inner Harbor, halting traffic as it snaked past City Hall and lines of police officers, some of whom held riot shields and nightsticks, others mounted on horses.
As the noisy spectacle made its way toward the epicenter of earlier unrest at the intersection of Pennsylvania and North, Monroe Reeves, clad in a black apron, stood on the sidewalk, weeping. A woman came up and embraced him.
“I see white America and black America fighting for right,” said Reeves, the African American manager of the Stang of Siam Thai restaurant. “What’s happening in Baltimore is going to change the whole social fabric of this country.”
Source: washingtonpost.com
