How the Baltimore Mayor's office explains her infamous 'space to destroy' remark

How the Baltimore Mayor's office explains her infamous 'space to destroy' remark

BY PHILIP KLEIN | APRIL 27, 2015 | 8:20 PM


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si4fyB3YbDo

"I've made it very clear that I work with the police and instructed them to do everything that...With massive violence spreading in Baltimore on Monday, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is under fire for a statement she made over the weekend indicating that she ordered the city's police to give people the "space" to destroy property.

"I've made it very clear that I work with the police and instructed them to do everything that they could to make sure that the protesters were able to exercise their right to free speech," Rawlings-Blake said in a press conference.

"It's a very delicate balancing act, because, while we tried to make sure that they were protected from the cars and the other things that were going on, we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well. And we worked very hard to keep that balance and to put ourselves in the best position to deescalate, and that's what you saw."

How could a mayor actually say she asked police to allow people to destroy property?

According to her office, her statement didn't quite come out the way she intended it to.

"What she is saying within this statement was that there was an effort to give the peaceful demonstrators room to conduct their peaceful protests on Saturday," her office said in a statement released on Monday. "Unfortunately, as a result of providing the peaceful demonstrators with the space to share their message, that also meant that those seeking to incite violence also had the space to operate. The police sought to balance the rights of the peaceful demonstrators against the need to step in against those who were seeking to create violence. The mayor is not saying that she asked police to give space to people who sought to create violence. Any suggestion otherwise would be a misinterpretation of her statement."

The office also put out an updated version of her comments, edited in a way to reflect what the office said she really meant:
"I've made it very clear that I work with the police and instructed them to do everything that they could to make sure that the protesters were able to exercise their right to free speech. It's a very delicate balancing act, because, while we tried to make sure that they were protected from the cars and the other things that were going on, we also [as a result] gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well. And we worked very hard to keep that balance and to put ourselves in the best position to deescalate, and that's what you saw."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/ho...rticle/2563689