The baltimore moment: race, place, and public disorder

ABSTRACT

The death of Freddie Gray in April 2015 sparked numerous protests and looting in Baltimore, Maryland.  But why did massive uprising take place in Baltimore?  What was so special about Baltimore that erupted into weeks of explosive incidents of race-based unrest, which garnered national attention? Using the Flashpoints Model of Public Disorder, this study examines the nature, causes, and dynamics of uprisings in the city of Baltimore, which lays the groundwork for understanding the conditions that can lead to future uprisings in other places.  Systematic application of the Flashpoints Model shows that unrest in Baltimore was the result of a complex set of causal factors that ignited years of pent-up tension and highlights the significance of race as an organizing feature.

KEYWORDS:

• Protest
• Baltimore
• flashpoints model of public disorder

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management and other city agencies completed a comprehensive review of communications, personal interviews, media reports, and official documents to provide accurate accounts of events as they unfolded.

2. This is a crime of breaking and entering a motor vehicle and/or stealing its contents (Criminal Law Section § 6–206).

3. This is in reference to The Purge, a 2013 movie in which any crime could be committed without punishment during a twelve-hour period, once a year.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jennifer E. Cobbina

Jennifer E. Cobbina is an Associate Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. Her research interests focus on gender and prisoner reentry, desistance, and recidivism. She also examines the intersection of race, gender, and crime as well as public response to police use of force. Her work has appeared in Criminology, Justice Quarterly, Crime and Delinquency, Deviant Behavior, and Race and Justice.

Erin Kerrison

Erin Kerrisonis an Assistant professor in the School of Social Welfare at the University of California at Berkeley. Her interests extend from a legal epidemiological framework, wherein law and legal institutions operate as social determinants of health. Specifically, her mixed-method research agenda investigates the impact that structural disadvantage and state supervision has on health outcomes for individuals and communities marked by criminal justice intervention.

Kimberly Bender

Kimberly Bender is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice at the University of Michigan-Flint. Her current research focuses on women in prison; prisoner reentry; and the intersections of race, class, gender, and crime.