On April 12th, 2015, Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, allegedly ran away from a Baltimore police officer on a bicycle who had made eye contact with him. He was caught, arrested for possession of a switchblade, and dragged into a police van. At some point between his arrest and his delivery at a trauma center 40 minutes later, Gray sustained severe injuries that left him in a coma with a nearly-severed spine, several broken vertebrae, and an injured larynx. He died on April 19th. Major protests have taken place in Baltimore since his death, some peaceful, some involving violence and property damage.
As I have with some other current events, I am posting this as a place to collect links to works by philosophers and other academics on these events and the issues they raise.
Two that have been brought to my attention already are:
“Why is Baltimore Burning?” by Katrina Sifferd (Elmhurst) at Pleas and Excuses
“Folk Ideal Theory In Action” by Jacob Levy (McGill) at Bleeding Heart Libertarians
If you know of others, please add them in the comments.
Dave Zirin in The Nation: “Apartheid Games: Baltimore, Urban America, and Camden Yards” http://m.thenation.com/blog/205561-apartheid-games-baltimore-urban-america-and-camden-yards
There’s this from UPenn’s Chaplain Charles Howard: ‘Baltimore: The Dehumanizing Gaze and Thug Life’ ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-howard/baltimore-the-dehumanizing-gaze-and-thug-life_b_7163740.html?utm_hp_ref=black-voices )
Thanks for doing this, Justin! We do need more philosophers to share our insights with the public, especially on such a momentous concern.
Not about Baltimore in particular, though the author is from Baltimore:
The Morality of Peacekeeping, by Daniel H. Levine
https://books.google.com/books?id=ikmrBgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false
It was posted here in November, but it seems worth remembering Christian Coons’ “How many Police Shootings are Tragic Mistakes? How many can we Tolerate?”
https://www.academia.edu/9482167/How_many_Police_Shootings_are_Tragic_Mistakes_How_many_can_we_Tolerate
While I appreciate Daniel’s kind mention of my book, it’s less “not about Baltimore in particular” and more “not about Baltimore at all.” There is a brief discussion of the morality of imposing curfews in the section on use of force, but that’s about as close as it comes to being relevant.
I see Daniel did just post about the topic though, here: http://www.warskeptic.com/?p=199
From Leigh Johnson:
http://www.readmorewritemorethinkmorebemore.com/2015/05/our-dirty-war.html
A bunch of links, several of which are philosophical, are here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B_oyOyu_tAwOVq5MY1oJL3orN6ps04O82JxWxnkGpho/preview?sle=true