Baltimore Rising

Ignore comments about this documentary being liberal bias and about "thugs" -- this film is a historical and situational look into the lives of the Baltimore community, both citizens, police officers, and everyone in between. This documentary seamlessly ties together everyone's competing realities over Baltimore and the 2015 riots and asks bigger questions about the effectiveness and accountability that exists (or lack thereof) within legal and judicial systems in the United States, particularly Baltimore.

"Baltimore Rising" (2017 release; 95 min.) is a documentary about the rioting and looting which shook Baltimore following the arrest and subsequent death of Freddy Gray in curious/suspect conditions, and how the city tries to move beyond this. As the movie opens, we are introduced to a blighted neighborhood: "it's not the riots that caused this, it's the condition of the community that caused the riots", comments a Baltimore city council member. We then revisit the event of April, 2015.

Couple of comments: this is the latest film from actor-director Sonja Sohn (herself African-American). The initial part of the documentary, focusing on the events in April-May of 2015, are the hardest to watch, as there is so much senseless violence and pent-up anger and frustration in the African-American community, you can;t help but shake your head as you are watching it. Also, did you know that 3 of the 6 accused police officers are African-American? The movie finds its best footing in the aftermath. The Baltimore police reaches out to various leaders in the African-American community as the city awaits the trials of the police officers involved in the Freddy Gray events and the new police chief is desperate to avoid further rioting and looting, no matter what the outcome of the trials. A picture emerges of a segment in the African-American community that is eager to move forward and hence prepared to work with the police. "What can I do for you?", the police chief asks. "Jobs, bring us jobs", is the unanimous answer. Then there is another segment with the African-American community that will never be happy with anything, and instead looks at the rioting and looting as their "right" to protest. There are some startling moments in the film. Let me give you one example: at a certain point one of the social activists hands up a banner that reads 'BALTIMORE RISING" and one of the cops comes up and says "you have to take that banner down". When the activist asks: what law does this banner break", the cop is stumped and eventually mumbles "I don't know" (but the banner is still coming down), wow.

"Baltimore Rising" recently premiered as part of the HBO Documentary series, and I caught it the other day at HBO on Demand. While this documentary certainly isn't without flaws (it rambles a bit too much for its own good), I learned a thing or two from watching this documentary, and that's always a good thing. "Baltimore Rising" is worth checking out.

This documentary is based on the events that happened in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray.

Please skip this movie if you are someone who just wants to give it a bad rating without watching it or use it to inflame biases further. I liked it because it provided insight on what factored in to the responses of many residents after the death of Freddie Gray.

It's easy for people to overlook the catalyst that Freddie Gray's death was to recipe for disaster that had been mixing for some time. This documentary isn't a "woah is me" tale; it also doesn't try to "explain away" anything bad by some protestors. It does, however, provide some valuable insight to the mindset of those who observed, participated in, or were motivated to activism by Baltimore. The uprising in Baltimore was something that America had been on the precipice of for a while. Even if you watch this documentary with preconceived notions about minority "rioting", Freddie Gray's death or why the youth of Baltimore eventually responded the way that they did, consider keeping an open mind.

There's nothing wrong with seeing things from a different point of view or gaining a more well rounded understanding of an incident. I think this documentary helps with that.

1) murder of minorities and by minorities Baltimore has skyrocketed since the community policing and "violence interruptor" based nonsense this film extolls 2) The new mayor, Pugh, who is made a hero in the film is in PRISON for stealing the Baltimore citizen's money. 3) Two of the activists and BLM supporters in this film are in prison for violent crimes 4) A virtually all black jury EXONERATED the police, who did NOTHING wrong. 5) the prosecutor who pushed the case against the innocent police officers matter was accused of "either incompetence or an unethical recklessness" 5) Freddie Gray was a predatory VIOLENT criminal who had arrests for weapons.