PAUL JAY: Hi, everybody. I'm Paul Jay from The Real News Network.
The world has heard the name of Freddie Gray, who was brutally murdered by Baltimore police.
Here's another name everybody should know: Rodney Todd. Mr. Todd lived in Princess Anne,
about 130 miles southeast of Baltimore. Rodney was described by family and friends as a devoted
parent and a hard, disciplined worker. Rodney couldn't afford to pay an electric bill, and
had been cut off by the Delmarva power company. He bought an electric generator to give some
light and give his children warmth. Why he ran the generator inside the house isn't clear.
People speculate it was because it was noisy and would have kept his neighbors awake at
night.
Rodney Todd and his five young girls and two young boys died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
They were last seen alive on March 28th of this year.
The media reports focused on whether the power company had illegally shut off his power.
In Maryland during winter months, non-payment of a bill is not supposed to be legal cause
for cutting the cord. The power company said it was a safety issue because of the type
of meter that was being used. They also said Rodney had never tried to set up an account.
And while it's criminal, or at least it should be criminal to shut off power to a family
under any circumstances, it's even more criminal that a working father can't afford to pay
an electric bill. Rodney Todd, an African-American worker, was paid $8 an hour for a full-time
job. That's Maryland's current minimum wage. He was supporting seven kids on $8 an hour.
What the major media didn't ask is, why was Rodney working for $8 an hour? When Baltimore
exploded after the death of Freddie Gray, CNN and other such media outlets, when they
weren't accusing the protesters of being thugs and criminals, which was most of the time,
paid lip service to the fact that the underlying conditions of poverty and the savaging of
communities by drugs, and they should have added and they didn't the war on drugs, helped
create the anger expressed on the streets of Baltimore. What they didn't address is
why poverty in Baltimore and cities across the country is chronic?
Why did Rodney Todd accept work for $8 an hour? Why are people working at Johns Hopkins
Hospital for 14 years cleaning surgical rooms, taking special drugs to avoid HIV infection,
and working for $13 an hour after 14 years of work? Because people are desperate for
jobs. There's a class of people that makes money out of desperation, out of high unemployment.
The more desperate people are, the lower wages they are willing to accept. Why are communities
in Baltimore and across the country faced with chronic drug addiction and gang warfare?
Same answer. There's enormous amounts of money being made out of the insane war on drugs.
The mass incarceration system, police, lawyers, judges. The for-profit bail bonding industry
alone is a multi-million dollar business, backed by massive insurance companies and
trade associations with the money and political power needed to shape the criminal justice
system in their interests.
In Baltimore it's only within the last year that an accused person had a right to be represented
by a lawyer at all at a bail hearing. Now most people rely on a public defender, because
now they can get one, but they don't get to see them for more than around five minutes
before a bail hearing. The public defenders are overwhelmed with cases. Sometimes on a
Monday morning, two public defenders are dealing with more than 150 cases. A dispute over $20
can mean bail of $25,000 for a homeless person.
In Baltimore City jail, a prisoner is not allowed a visit for 90 days, except by a lawyer.
No family, no friends. If you're represented by a public defender you're likely not to
see them again until a few days before you go to trial. What does this create? More money
made out of desperation, people desperate to pay bail bondsmen to get out of a hellish
prison.
The front line in this war to keep people poor is the police. Police violence against
people of color, that is, illegal violence usually without consequence to the perpetrators,
is not merely the product of too many law enforcement officers with racist attitudes.
Their name says it all. Police are enforcing laws, including with deadly force, to make
people obey legislation that at its heart protects people that own property. The more
you own, the more you're served and protected. When police use violence they do so as agents
of a legal system that must keep a lid on people who fight back against desperate conditions.
Whether they fight back blindly and often self-destructively, or more consciously and
politically, the elites have passed laws to keep people in their place.
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