XPost: balt.general, sac.politics, misc.survivalism   
   XPost: alt.politics.democrats, talk.politics.guns   
   From: liberal-crimes@barackobama.com   
      
   Editor's note: The following column originally appeared in the   
   Washington Times.   
      
   All around us failed Democratic leadership is insisting on being   
   recognized. As Baltimore, a great American city, teeters on a   
   precipice, media and politicians still tiptoe around the truth,   
   knowing if reality was actually acknowledged, the entire liberal   
   narrative would collapse.   
      
   Thirty years of liberal leadership is dooming Baltimore. Mayor   
   Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, a Democrat, is also the secretary of   
   the Democratic National Committee. She is now infamous for her   
   comments at a press conference during the riots that she wanted   
   police "to make sure that the protesters were able to exercise   
   their right to free speech," and announced, "we also gave those   
   who wished to destroy space to do that as well."   
      
   Ms. Rawlings-Blake has since said her comments were taken out of   
   context, but I found them refreshingly honest. Finally, a   
   Democrat admitted the agenda. Later, a senior law enforcement   
   official told Fox News that the mayor had issued a stand-down   
   order to the police during the riots.   
      
   Cities such as Baltimore, Detroit, Los Angeles and New York   
   don't just suddenly lose their minds and mysteriously decline   
   into a state of nature. Having no trust in the citizen, liberal   
   politicians feel it is their duty to micromanage people's lives.   
   Because, you see, they're better than us and they're gonna prove   
   it.   
      
   A native Baltimorean, Ms. Rawlings-Blake's father was a member   
   of the Maryland House of Delegates, and in the early 1990s she   
   was a lobbyist for Young Democrats of Maryland. She represents a   
   long history of liberal activism that has consigned so many in   
   Baltimore to despair and hopelessness.   
      
   Cities such as Baltimore, Detroit, Los Angeles and New York   
   don't just suddenly lose their minds and mysteriously decline   
   into a state of nature. Having no trust in the citizen, liberal   
   politicians feel it is their duty to micromanage people's lives.   
   Because, you see, they're better than us and they're gonna prove   
   it.   
      
   Consider the condition of Freddie Gray's Baltimore neighborhood.   
   Mr. Gray's death while in police custody is what started   
   protests, which degenerated into self-serving riots by thugs,   
   victimizing the entire community.   
      
   On Friday, the new city prosecutor charged six police officers   
   involved with Mr. Gray's arrest and death with several offenses.   
   The fact is, though, the horrible series of events we're facing   
   is only a byproduct of decades of political abuse and   
   abandonment of a community.   
      
   Christopher Ingraham of The Washington Post linked on Twitter to   
   a February 2015 report from the Justice Policy Institute and   
   Prison Policy Initiative. He tweeted this shocking reality: "Jaw-   
   dropping stats on Freddie Gray's Baltimore neighborhood: half of   
   residents not working, 33 percent of homes vacant."   
      
   Those statistics (through just 2012) tell us even more about   
   what decades of liberal leadership gets you: 51.8 percent   
   unemployment for those ages 16 to 64; families receiving federal   
   welfare assistance: 25 percent; 9th-12th grade students   
   chronically absent: 49.3 percent; population 25 years and older   
   without a high school diploma: 60.7 percent; number of narcotics   
   calls per 1,000 residents: 464.8; mortality rate for 15-25 year-   
   olds: 19 per 1000.   
      
   If numbers could illustrate despair and hopelessness, these   
   would do it. One of the arguments from the report is redirecting   
   funds from prisons would help the community. Yet more money   
   doesn't cure incompetence and malevolence. Democrats keep   
   arguing it's the "1 percent" and insist the issue is race-based.   
   For a city run by Democrats, mostly African-American, and a   
   police department that is comprised almost evenly of white and   
   black officers, that usual liberal narrative doesn't hold water.   
      
   Bottom line: Generations of Democratic so-called leadership is   
   why so many great American cities are in trouble — they're   
   imploding under the weight of generations of hopeless, victim-   
   based liberal politics and polities.   
      
   Cities such as Baltimore, Detroit, Los Angeles and New York   
   don't just suddenly lose their minds and mysteriously decline   
   into a state of nature. Having no trust in the citizen, liberal   
   politicians feel it is their duty to micromanage people's lives.   
   Because, you see, they're better than us and they're gonna prove   
   it.   
      
   In New York, once again under the boot of the liberal menace,   
   the Democratic city council speaker is proposing decriminalizing   
   "minor" offenses, like urinating in public, drinking in public,   
   jumping turnstiles to beat fares, littering, riding a bike on   
   the sidewalk, being in a park after dark and making excessive   
   noise.   
      
   All these activities make a neighborhood unsafe and unlivable.   
   They may seem minor, but they speak directly to the quality of   
   life. One of the arguments is arresting people for these crimes   
   disproportionately affects people of color in their own   
   neighborhoods.   
      
   The truth is pandering to the creeps and losers in society   
   condemns the law-abiding in those neighborhoods to a   
   disgustingly lower quality of life. All in the name of improving   
   the quality of life for people of color.   
      
   No matter what your complexion, no one wants to step over a   
   puddle of human urine while avoiding the biker on the sidewalk   
   after you've had no sleep because the police won't come for the   
   drunk jerk honking his horn and screaming all night long, only   
   to be hit in the face by another jerk throwing his to-go coffee   
   cup outside his car. Because littering, not a big deal.   
      
   This is the madness wrought by liberals. Crime goes up, people   
   move away, buildings become vacant, depression increases, crime   
   increases, cities collapse. Combine that with the liberal   
   economic punch in the gut of regulations and taxes that   
   discourage entrepreneurs, destroy small businesses and jobs, and   
   you have the typical American city run into the ground by your   
   friendly neighborhood I-feel-your-pain, hope-and-change Democrat.   
      
   Last week New Yorkers also heard their city council was   
   contemplating ordering the "dimming" of the New York skyline.   
   Why? Because bright lights interfere with the comfort of the   
   nesting sea turtle. And disturb monarch butterflies. And upset   
   the mating habits of frogs. Seriously.   
      
   Last year, Maryland rejected the successor to its fool of a   
   governor, Martin O'Malley, and gave the job to a Republican. The   
   new Baltimore prosecutor is from Boston. The people of Maryland   
   and their great city perhaps are realizing they need to choose   
   different leadership if they are to survive. I hope all great   
   American cities under the liberal boot are realizing that as   
   well.   
      
   http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/05/04/generations-democratic-   
   leaders-have-doomed-baltimore-and-other-   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)