Baltimore – What is Happening?

As some context for this post, my second trip to Baltimore was in the summer of 2015. I liked my first trip to Baltimore, although it was apparent that there were some issues with regards to poverty and exclusion.

In April 2015 there were some substantial riots which took place in Baltimore, with tens of buildings being looted, 150 vehicles destroyed by fire, multiple buildings damaged by fire and 250 arrests. It wasn’t a great time for the city, and it caused significant damage to the economy of Baltimore.

Anyway, I was in my hotel one early evening, which was the Holiday Inn Express downtown. There was a loud bang, and I looked out of my window to see the below.

My first thoughts were that there was some form of dispute going on, as the city were keen to stop any form of unrest very quickly to avoid the reputation of Baltimore being damaged any further.

So, now deciding that I could be an inner-city riot reporter, I bravely went down to see what was going on. Although, I’d add that it was with the safety of tens of police officers in front of me.

The actual incident was though something a little more mundane (although not to the people involved) as a car had been accidentally driven into a building next to the hotel. It was on the local news that the fire brigade were concerned that there might be a fire or building collapse, which is why there were more fire fighting vehicles than anything else.

All told though, it was an interesting little piece of drama for the evening….