By DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, MAY 4, 2015) — What are we to say about the aftermath of the death of Freddie Gray while in custody of the Baltimore police? The curfew has been lifted, and the city has conducted “victory” celebrations. Victory for what? Who won anything?

In a rush to judgment driven by political pressure, that city’s chief prosecutor pressed charges against six city cops with the ink still wet on the police commissioner’s report. Three of those officers are black and presumably understand that “black lives do matter.” Since they are also innocent, THE PLANET presumes the three white officers understand the same thing.

Given the violent protests following Gray’s death while in police custody,  Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby’s quick decision comes off as premature. Mosby has been on the job less than four months. Less than 24 hours after receiving the results of the investigation led by Baltimore police commissioner Anthony Batts (he’s black, too), Mosby brought the charges.

The indictments surprised many and shocked some. It helped release the steam building up on Baltimore streets, which had been victims to mob rule and the violence of young thugs, but it calls to mind a pressing fact: In this “nation of laws,” everyone must be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Mosby, Lynch: Black and Green

Mosby is a black woman green in the job. Watching over her shoulder is U.S. attorney general Loretta Lynch, a black woman barely two weeks on the job. Lynch heads the Department of Justice’s probe into Gray’s death. She follows a black man, Eric Holder, who at AG helped demonize all police, everywhere, leaving police departments across the country feeling that they would receive scant help from Washington in the polarizing issue of race.

Lynch has sent DOJ officers to Baltimore to meet with citizens, activists, community organizers, and other similar constituencies. She has yet reach-out to police officers there. It makes for a fair question: Whose “side” is she on? Has there been a rush to judgment? THE PLANET raises the questions. We don’t presume to offer an answer.

Caesar Goodson Jr., the black policeman who drove the police van that transported Gray to the station after his arrest on April 12, faces charges of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. Three of the officers — Sgt. Alicia White, patrolman William Porter, and Lt. Brian Rice — were also indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter. All six officers, including patrolmen Edward Nero and Garrett Miller, face lesser charges?

Is ‘Thug’ the new ‘Nigger’?

In the midst of all this, a new debate has emerged over a word many have used to described the behavior of the “protesters” who rioted, looted, burned, and pillaged, a mob consisting mostly of young black males who used Gray’s death as an excuse to have a little “street fun.” None of their actions helped Freddie Gray, his family, legitimate protesters, or anyone else.

Many, including President Barack Obama and Lynch, called these hoodlums “thugs.”

Enter the “N word.” THE PLANET hates expressions like “the N word” or “the R word.” Words are crafted by plucking from the infinite combinations possible from our 26-character alphabet. We have no need to fear words or the abstractions of language. Words like “nigger” and “retarded” exist, and words exist for a purpose. “Nigger,” in fact, when used in the black community, usually denotes affection and fraternal inclusion.

Within the black community,  the word “thug” connotes a certain type of “heroism.” So said the “expert” commentator on NPR. To be a “thug” there seems to be an admirable thing, something not surprising given the most pervasive, affective cultural paradigm for young people, black and white — hip hop, a homophobic, anti-women musical form of Ebonics that glorifies violence and lauds gansterism.

Revisionist Lexiconography a PC Fad

THE PLANET rejects revisionist lexiconography. We will not have a perfectly good word, “thug,” appropriated by linguistic degeneration. Words have precise meanings, and since the word “thug” came into the English language in the 19th century as an Asian import, we have been clear what it means. We remain clear. A “thug” is a thug, skin color notwithstanding.

As for race relations, it’s a time to jettison the emotions for reason, dispassion, and logic. That, of course, won’t happen. Patience and pace have been shredded to bits — and bytes. Everything must happen now or yesterday, even the rush to judgment in the indictment of six police officers who have been found guilty in the first second of their prosecution.

Meanwhile Brian Moore, a 25-year-old NYC police officer, lies dead from a bullet in the face. Demetrius Blackwell, owner of a long criminal record who was wanted on a weapons charge, has been charged with Moore’s murder. The gun Blackwell used had been stolen in Georgia. He’s black. Moore was white. Does it matter?

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“Get up in the morning slaving for bread, sir, so that every mouth can be fed.” — Desmond Dekker & The Aces, “Israelite,” (1969).

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.