Baltimore was the epitome of chaos on Monday as thousands of protesters took to the streets to raise their voices over the untimely death of 25-year-old resident Freddie Gray. What began as a peaceful movement turned ugly when demonstrators allegedly collided with a number of violent critics. The rest, sadly, is history.
While many are picking up the pieces from yesterday’s looting, a number of celebrities have shared their heart about the events. Tyrese Gibson tweeted a call for peace telling fans, “These images are breaking my heart.”
Russell Simmons also commented on the rioting that plagued the city by asking Baltimore police to “show constraint + be peaceful.” In addition, the Hip Hop mogul told fans that everyone must work together to find a common ground. “As a society, we must take care of our young ppl, even during moments of anger. Let us embrace them with love during this very painful time.”
Perhaps the celebrity who said it best during the chaos was Baltimore native Jada Pinkett-Smith. “I know we are angry, I know we want to be heard,” said the star. “We want answers, we want justice but most of all we want the corrupt systems of authority in our neighborhoods that continually steal the lives of people of color and the underprivileged to be revealed and rectified. But we must do our part. Today, I see that violence begets violence making it difficult to differentiate the victims from the perpetrators.” Jada went on to encourage residents of her hometown to seek out non-violent tactics saying, “Don’t give the very system that has been using violence to terrorize and exterminate us any justification to use that very violence upon us to keep us in order.”
Freddie Gray died last week while in police custody, after being arrested for evading officers. Law enforcement officials have since admitted that mistakes were made during his arrest, one being that officers failed to get medical aid to the 25-year-old in a timely manner.
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