{"id":6243,"date":"2015-05-28T17:39:08","date_gmt":"2015-05-28T17:39:08","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2021-03-30T10:14:03","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T14:14:03","slug":"baltimore_a_tragedy_of_liberalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2015\/05\/28\/baltimore_a_tragedy_of_liberalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Baltimore: A Tragedy of Liberalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

RUSH: By the way, I\u2019ve got this stuff at the bottom of the Stack<\/a>. All hell is breaking loose in Baltimore again. And Marilyn Mosby, the state\u2019s attorney, the mayor, it\u2019s an absolute mess. Crime is just out of control, running rampant. The cops are sitting idly by, not doing anything, which is what the administration wants them to do. In fact, just these Drudge Report headlines…<\/p>\n

“Street Anarchy in Baltimore.”<\/p>\n

“Residents Fearful Amid Rash of Homicides.”<\/p>\n

“Eight-year-old Boy Fatally Shot in Head.”<\/p>\n


\n“Police say mobs are gathering around police officers when they respond to calls.”<\/p>\n

“A Maryland sheriff said cops have been ‘eviscerated and disemboweled.'” That\u2019s true. The cops have been blamed for all of this, from Barack Obama down to Eric Holder to Al Sharpton to Marilyn Mosby, to the mayor, you name it. The cops, starting in Ferguson — well, started before the modern era of Ferguson, the cops, everybody\u2019s been told the cops are the reason all this crime is happening \u2019cause there really isn\u2019t any crime. The people of Baltimore are peace-loving people, don\u2019t commit crimes. It\u2019s just the cops make \u2019em do all this. The cops are provoking all this stuff.<\/p>\n

So the Regime gets hold of the cops, pulls \u2019em back, new guidelines. Six cops indicted, arrested, various degrees of murder and manslaughter. The city is supposed to say, “See, we\u2019re looking out for you, we got the bad cops off the street.” And ever since that happened, there\u2019s utter out of control crime and mayhem in Baltimore. And the cops aren\u2019t involved. The cops have been pulled out of the way, out of sight. And when the cops do show up, when it gets so bad that somebody has to show up and the cops do, they\u2019re being surrounded, and they\u2019re all being videotaped by citizens.<\/p>\n

So even in the midst of utter anarchy in Baltimore, the cops, the one group that\u2019s supposed to keep order and make things safe, property and people, when they show up in the midst of this, they are still surrounded and made to be the problem. And people wonder — well, people wonder a lot of things, but what common sense is behind this? Even in the midst of this, the objective to still blame the cops for this. Who\u2019s benefiting from this? Who\u2019s benefiting from street anarchy in Baltimore? Who\u2019s benefiting from the residents being fearful? Who\u2019s benefiting from a rash of homicides that are going unreported?<\/p>\n

Who benefits when an eight-year-old boy is fatally shot in the head? Who benefits when the cops are surrounded by mobs of citizens when they respond to calls? Who benefits when the cops have been eviscerated, disemboweled, and basically ordered out? Who benefits from all this? Somebody is or it wouldn\u2019t be happening, folks. Somebody is benefiting from this, otherwise it wouldn\u2019t be happening.<\/p>\n

Now, common sense tells us, common sense and just a modicum of desire for civilization, basic civilization, basic sophistication would tell you that whatever it takes to stop this, move in and stop it. This isn\u2019t helpful to anybody. This kind of out of control crime, out of control anarchy, which, by the way, has been going on in Chicago for years now. Most of that is black-on-black crime, so you can\u2019t talk about that. That\u2019s when you start blaming the guns. Yeah, most of this you really can\u2019t talk about. I\u2019m out on a limb talking about it the way I\u2019m talking about it.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re not supposed to talk about this stuff. Somebody\u2019s benefiting from this. You may think, “Rush, who in the world?” That\u2019s my question. But somebody is or it wouldn\u2019t be happening. This has been going on in Baltimore like this ever since those six cops were indicted. That was supposed to stop this. It\u2019s only gotten worse. It\u2019s only gotten more intense. Where is the show of force, the authority, the power, that could stop this? Who are they? Well, you say it\u2019s the cops, but it isn\u2019t the cops. The cops have been blamed. Six cops have been indicted for murder. (interruption) That\u2019s who you think is benefiting? (interruption) The White House could stop it? Obama? What can he do, fly down there and have a meeting… (interruption) Of course not, he doesn\u2019t go to these kind of neighborhoods. He wouldn\u2019t be caught — he wouldn\u2019t be seen going there.<\/p>\n

This is an abject failure of what Obama and the Democrat Party say they stand for. They\u2019re not gonna get anywhere near it. Yet they might be the primary benefactors in this. Now, don\u2019t shake your head at that. What are people gonna demand? They\u2019re gonna demand what? More federal control over it, the more it\u2019s made to look like local officials are a bunch of idiots and incompetents and can\u2019t handle it. You know, Obama once said that one of the most beautiful sounds in the world is the Muslim call to prayer every morning. (interruption) What, the New York Times said that? It was in the New York Times. Well, that may be the second most beautiful sound. But I think the most beautiful sound in the morning in Washington is when any city calls Washington and begs for help.<\/p>\n

You basically beg the federal government to come in and fix a problem you can\u2019t deal with, primarily \u2019cause the federal government\u2019s been the one that\u2019s presented you with the problem in the first place. Which they have with these new silly guidelines on the behavior of cops and the structure of cops, the overall perception of cops. If you\u2019re gonna sit there and you\u2019re gonna take rampant city crime and you\u2019re gonna literally seriously blame the police departments across America for it, where do you go from there? If the police departments are for it and in the process you say, “Okay, let\u2019s pull the cops back.” They\u2019re not seen because we\u2019re told that the cops in uniform, that\u2019s provocative, that\u2019s like declaring war. You gotta get the cops out of these people\u2019s eyesight. You get the cops out of there and they\u2019ll be nicer and they won\u2019t care. They won\u2019t be provocative. They won\u2019t be violent.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Baltimore did. Look what happens. Exact opposite. So now you say, who should stop the cops? The Maryland sheriff is right, they\u2019ve been eviscerated. The cops show up on a legitimate call, they\u2019re surrounded by citizens, a mob, it is said, all of them with cell phones, video recording them, no doubt hoping to acquire evidence to charge them with misbehavior, the cops. I don\u2019t know what I would do if I was a cop and was called to one of these scenes, given this circumstance that\u2019s happening in Baltimore or anywhere else. Then when you hear the mayor speak, state attorney speak, you realize there\u2019s no competence there. So it\u2019s kind of a lost situation.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: You know, I just noticed, I don\u2019t know where the time is going. We gotta get into phone calls here pretty quickly, I promise coming out of the break the bottom of the hour here we\u2019ll get straight to the phones.<\/p>\n

Just one more thing. There\u2019s actually a couple of more additions here to the Baltimore story. But let me do this one. The headline: “Baltimore Mayor Snaps at Fox News Reporter for Asking Questions — Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake got into a war of words with a Fox News reporter who was asking about the high crime rate in Baltimore.<\/p>\n

“At her weekly news briefing Wednesday, Rawlings-Blake faced some tough questions about a surge in violent crime since last month?\u2019s riots from Fox News reporter Leland Vittert, and she didn?\u2019t like it one bit. And while Rawlings-Blake may not be accustomed to ‘aggressive\u2019 reporting –” because reporters of the same political stripe do not pester liberal officeholders “– Vittert wasn?\u2019t about to let that deter him from trying to find out why there has been an increase in crime. ‘Is that because the police are doing less?\u2019 he asked. ‘As I said before, there are a lot of reasons why,\u2019 Rawlings-Blake replied. ‘Is that one of them?\u2019 Vittert interjected. ‘Arrests are down 50 percent.\u2019<\/p>\n

Which is true, by the way. Arrests are down 50% while crime is running rampant. And the reason the arrests are down is because the cops have been portrayed as the problem there, from Obama on down. From Eric Holder on down. From Loretta Lynch on down. From the ASA, the SA, the mayor, they\u2019re all blaming the cops. Ferguson, Missouri, they blame the cops. Arrests are down 50%, the cops have gotten out of the way. And at this point when Vittert of Fox News says, “Is it one of the reasons why arrests are down 50%,” the mayor paused out of frustration.
\n“I am not 100% sure what you\u2019re doing.” She didn\u2019t say, “I\u2019m not sure what you\u2019re asking.” She said, “I\u2019m not sure what you\u2019re doing.”<\/p>\n

He said (paraphrasing), “I am a journalist. I\u2019m asking you, the mayor, some questions.”<\/p>\n

The mayor snapped back, “You?\u2019re not. You?\u2019re being rude, just like you were before. So if you would like to ask a question and give me an opportunity to answer, we can do this. Otherwise, I will end the conference.”<\/p>\n

Now, Vittert, Leland “Vittert was the first to report that the mayor told Baltimore police to stand down against rioters, saying ‘let them loot, it?\u2019s only property.'” She has repeatedly denied that she said that. But honestly, folks, you know what this is? She\u2019s not used to questioning. She goes out, does a press conference, the media rubber stamps it. She\u2019s not used to having to explain herself. Very few liberals are. I mean, here you have it. They\u2019ve arrested and indicted six cops to end the riots. They\u2019ve pulled the cops out of the way on the theory the cops are the problem. Arrests are down 50%, and crime is up across the board, and he says, “Why?” She doesn\u2019t have an answer. Well, she doesn\u2019t dare tell the truth about the answer.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: We have the audio here of Leland Vittert trying to get answers out of the mayor of Baltimore. This is yesterday during a press conference, the mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Vittert\u2019s opening question, “Is crime rising in Baltimore because the police are doing less?”<\/p>\n

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: There are a lot of reasons why.<\/p>\n

VITTERT: Is that one of them?<\/p>\n

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: There\u2019s — we\u2019re examining all the —<\/p>\n

VITTERT: Arrests are down 50%.<\/p>\n

MAN: Could you please let her finish?<\/p>\n

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: I\u2019m not a hundred percent sure what you\u2019re doing. This is a very orderly press conference that I\u2019ve normally held. We don\u2019t — I don\u2019t — your — your tactics are —<\/p>\n

VITTERT: I\u2019m just asking a question.<\/p>\n

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: You\u2019re not. You\u2019re being rude, just as you were before. So if you\u2019d like to ask a question and give me an opportunity to answer it, we can do this. Otherwise, I\u2019ll end the conference.<\/p>\n