To Smell the Putrid Smell of a City on Fire

‘The first condition of understanding a foreign country,’ the English poet Rudyard Kipling once opined, ‘is to smell it.’
If it works for countries, I suppose, it must work for cities too. Domestic even.
‘We could smell that putrid smell of burning tires and a city on fire when we came into the city,’ the moon-faced Michael Lewis, Wicomico County’s sheriff, told CBS news.
‘I was sick to my stomach like everybody else…
‘This was urban warfare, no question about it. They were coming in absolutely beaten down. The [city officers] got out of their vehicles, thanked us profusely for being there…
‘They were told to stand down, you will not take any action, let them destroy property. I couldn’t believe it, I’m a 31-year veteran of law enforcement…
‘I had never heard anything like this before in my life.’
Lewis is talking about, of course, Baltimore. And we believe him when he says he’s never seen anything like it before. Especially not out in Wicomico County.
Why, their biggest news yesterday was that Northern Snakeheads were found in the Wicomico ponds (which is actually a very bad thing) and that beer production is on the rise.
On the beer tip: The Guv’na, Larry Hogan, just signed House Bill 1039, also known as the ‘Evo Bill.’ This bill allows microbreweries to increase production to 45,000 barrels per year. Up from 22,500, due to the current law.
What a hero.
Aside from that, Wicomico is still reeling about Baltimore.
‘You think it’s a third world country,’ Lewis said to the local station WMDT 47, ‘you have no idea this is actually happening just two hours from Salisbury.’
Since our last coverage of the Baltimore riots (and ‘Uprising’), many have voiced their opinions on the matter.
In today’s episode, we’ll let two familiar all-stars have their say: Byron King and Jim Rickards.
Both offer very interesting perspectives on what happened here in the streets of Baltimore. And they have plenty to say, so let’s get to it.
First up to the stage is editor of Outstanding Investments, Military-Tech Alert, and Real Wealth Trader, Byron King.
‘Imagine a future,’ Byron begins, ‘in which rioters are scanned by camera – such as cameras hand-held by police, embedded in streetlights, downloaded from spectators’ smartphones or via small aerial drones with high-powered cameras.
‘The imagery immediately goes into a massive database of photos at the smart city command center – there, computers instantly review the driver’s license registry, police mug shots, high school portraits, social media photos, you name it.
‘Right away, authorities will have near-incontrovertible evidence of who is/was at the scene of riots. Names, addresses, recorded imagery. Couple that with the ability to track people via their smartphones and/or to go after social media data such as tweets, Instagram, etc. (‘Hey, here I am with my new television set.’)
‘Yes, it’s very ‘Big Brother-y.’

This post was published at Laissez Faire on May 15, 2015.