Baltimore Mayor Clarifies Use of the Word 'Thug'

That said, there’s no denying that communication and relationships lie at the heart of the matter. Case in point: Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

Yesterday, Jezebel posted a headline asking why Rawlings-Blake chose to continue “calling the protesters ‘thugs'” in media appearances. The reasoning behind the headline concerns both the fact that most people gathering in the city were not engaging in criminal behavior and the fact that Rawlings-Blake’s use of the word dismisses their concerns about the obviously poor relationship between the Baltimore Police Department and the citizens of certain neighborhoods it serves and casts the protesters instead as common criminals.

Here’s one of the statements in question:

Too many people have invested in building up this city to allow thugs to tear it down.