Camden Yards Standoff Between Police and Freddie Gray Marchers

April 25, 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland, after Freddie Gray protest rally and march to Camden Yards during Orioles ballgame. Marchers had declared they would shut the ballgame down, but the police out maneuvered them. This video shows where the police had forced the marchers to an intersection one block away from Camden Yards. It also shows that there were no more than two protesters to every cop. Most of the marchers did not join in standing in front of the police lines.

[Watch this in HD on Full Screen, if you can.]

Photography by David Robert Crews

{a.k.a. ursusdave}

Baltimore Harbor Place Being Guarded on April 29, 2015

Baltimore Harbor Place being guarded, during the Freddie Gray unrest, on  April 29, 2015. National Guard and police - many of the police from outside of Baltimore - were on guard for about a week, which prevented more property damage and theft from happening in the Inner Harbor areas.

[Watch this in HD on Full Screen, if you can.]

Photography by David Robert Crews

{a.k.a. ursusdave}

Troops Go Inside Baltimore Hotel April 29, 2015

National Guard Troops going inside a Baltimore hotel, during the Freddie Gray unrest, on April 29, 2015. They were being given a good place to eat and rest, probably in a large conference room. All over Baltimore, businesses and other people gave comfort and words of thanks to the soldiers and police on guard duty by any means they could. 

I - a former U.S. Army Photographer - shot this video for every soldier in it to have as part of their own history. 

[Watch this in HD on Full Screen, if you can.] 

Photography by David Robert Crews 

{a.k.a. ursusdave}

Troops on Move in Baltimore April 28, 2015

National Guard Troops on the move in Baltimore, Maryland. It was during the Freddie Gray unrest, April 28, 2015, and on Pratt Street by the Inner Harbor.

[Watch this in HD on Full Screen, if you can.]

Photography by David Robert Crews

{a.k.a. ursusdave}

Edge of Freddie Gray Rally

View of the Fayette St. side of the May 2, 2015 National Freddie Gray Rally - in Baltimore, Maryland.

[Watch this in HD on Full Screen, if you can.]

Photography by David Robert Crews 

{a.k.a. ursusdave}

Adolescent Tanerra Collins Speaks at Freddie Gray Rally

At the May 2, 2015 National Freddie Gray Rally, young, adolescent, Tanerra Collins, speaking so well talking hard truths, until stating "you brought us over here on those slave ships." 

No one alive had anything to do with those slave ships. As long as young blacks and other people believe that anyone alive today is responsible for what happened over 150-years-ago, massive suffering of social ills shall continue. 

Legal slavery in America was ended because a majority of white Americans opposed it. 

Everyone needs to accept the fact that there were plenty of white people held in legal slavery back then, too. If a person is the child of a black parent and a white parent, they are half white. Right?! Then that child grows up and has a child with a white person, that child is three-fourths white - quadroon. Making them more of a white person enslaved than a black person enslaved. Next in lineage were people one-eighth black & seven-eighths white - known as octoroons. Octoroon women were often used in brothels and as sex slaves in the homes of slave owners. Some states' laws said that anyone with any amount of African ancestry can be held as a slave. Which, according to my family's oral history, includes me - because it's been said, amongst several past generations, that we have an African ancestor. If I can ever afford to take a DNA Test, I'll find out. 

No one has a right to lay any of the blame or guilt for what happened to people over a century-and-a-half ago on anyone today. Many people who are only seen as white Americans today, may very well have direct ancestors who were slaves back then, and if slavery was still legal, many of us who are considered to be white people would be held in slavery, too.

[Watch this in HD on Full Screen, if you can.]

  Photography by David Robert Crews 
{a.k.a. ursusdave}

F*** THE POLICE T-Shirts In Front of Police

Video of F*** THE POLICE t-shirts worn in front of police who were lined up between the the May 2, 2015 National Freddie Gray Rally and Baltimore City Hall. Those t-shirts, that ill-conceived, untrue, hateful way of insinuating that all cops do all kinds of wrong to everyone they deal with, is no way to help change things for the better. If those t-shirt individuals were just hurt in a car wreck and a cop was first on scene and was giving them First Aid (as cops do), I bet they wouldn't say "f*** the police." Police arrest a criminal who committed a crime against one of the t-shirt people's loved ones, what will they say? Probably not "f*** the police." 

I use the f word, but not in front of kids or any other people who it might sound bad to. I have heard that word used by kids and also (most shockingly) parents in front of their children, but it is offensive to many people, so I don't like it on t-shirts worn in public.

I did not use video software to make the f word unreadable on those t-shirts in the video because it did happen in public, and I want the world to have a clear record of what it was at that point in time in that spot in Baltimore, City and how the police and protesters stayed away from violence - even though they were on opposing sides of a terribly bad situation in Baltimore's history.

This video is also a fair representation of what it was like to be in the crowd.

[Watch this in HD on Full Screen, if you can.]

Photography by David Robert Crews

{a.k.a. ursusdave}

Malik Shabazz Speaks at Freddie Gray Rally

Malik Z. Shabazz speaking at the National Freddie Gray Rally, on Saturday, May 2, 2015, in Baltimore, Maryland, at War Memorial Plaza in front of City Hall. He is the national president of Black Lawyers for Justice, and he organized the rally. I agree with what he says in the video, but I am not in line with all he says. My main purpose in creating this video is to present a historical document showing some of what the experience was being there and how we participants peacefully, powerfully interacted to create a human event that reveals good people are a strong & community minded majority in Baltimore.

[Watch this in HD on Full Screen, if you can.] 

Photography by David Robert Crews 
{a.k.a. ursusdave}

Harbor Place May 2, 2015 Saturday Afternoon After National Freddie Gray Rally in Baltimore

Harbor Place, May 2, 2015, Saturday afternoon after national Freddie Gray Rally in Baltimore. I left the rally before it went on a peaceful demonstration march north in the city, with Harbor Place being 5 or 6 blocks south of the rally at City Hall. At Harbor Place, I was relieved to see that, though the outside edge of it was still lined with national guard and police, some of the businesses were open and people were there enjoying the gorgeous May day. 

After a good job at photographing the rally, and feeling right about supporting the peaceful changes the other rally participants are also working towards, it was great to see that the previous week's violent riots had not kept everyone else from having a good day in Baltimore Inner Harbor. Which meant that other areas of town were also OK and not too scared or emotionally scarred to go out. 

This video shows you how nice it was that afternoon, as police (most from other jurisdictions) and Maryland National Guard kept the place safe while us civilians there had a nice time in Baltimore City. The cops and guard in their uniforms were having fairly nice times, too, but let me tell you, though you might already know (I know from pulling guard in the army and working security guard jobs), no matter how safe the situation is, the solid potential for trouble coming at you maintains concern, fear, tempering of fear into defensive power and thinking out your potential defensive actions as a steady flow right down the middle of you. Only a fool forgets that being there on guard duty means serious, violent, even deadly, foe may attack, and I saw no fools in uniform there. 

Some people think that nothing bad happening at the Inner Harbor while all those police and National Guard were on duty shows that they were not needed. Nothing bad happened while the Guard & cops were there because they were there. I have spent more of my life in the Greater Baltimore Metropolitan Area than any other place on earth.  Five months ago, from Southeast Baltimore City, I moved in one block from the Harbor Place. Ever since the day Harbor Place opened, I've been going there to shop, to join in on great public events & holiday celebrations and/or to relax on a bench & converse with other visitors. Gotta nice photography portfolio of it. I am fully qualified to know & say that those troops of guard & cops were completely necessary.

I shall still be going over to the harbor a lot. Security will be enhanced, more effort & funding will be going into making all of Baltimore better, and - as you see in the video - people of all kinds still enjoy it and are relaxed and happy there too. 

This video was shot and edited as a historical document, and to show people today what it was like in the Inner Harbor as the heavy week wound down. It is also done to show those who don't know what the place is like what it is like. In particular, the families and friends of the National Guard troops and police support from other jurisdictions, who don't know what it is like, can see where the place of duty was that took the guard & police members away from home for awhile. Also, it was done for the armed Americans stationed there on guard to look back on in years to come. Ever since I was a U.S. Army photographer in 1969-71, I've loved producing photographic memories for armed forces personnel, and everyone.  

[Watch this in HD on Full Screen, if you can.] 

Photography by David Robert Crews

{a.k.a. ursusdave}

Baltimore Inner Harbor Saturday May 2, 2015 After Protests of Freddie Gray's Death

Saturday May 2, 2015 in Baltimore Inner Harbor, during the week-long troubles, after Freddie Gray died in police custody. You'll see National Guard troops stroll by; you look left, up on the balcony to see more, and there were guard troops and police all through and around Harbor Place. This video was shot and edited as a historical document, and to show people today what it was like in the Inner Harbor as the heavy week wound down. It is also done to show those who don't know what the place is like what it is like. In particular, the families and friends of the National Guard troops and police support from other jurisdictions, who don't know what it is like, can see where the place of duty was that took the guard & police members away from home for awhile. Also, it was done for the armed Americans stationed there on guard to look back on in years to come. Ever since I was a U.S. Army photographer in 1969-71, I've loved producing photographic memories for armed forces personnel. And everyone.

 [Watch this in HD on Full Screen, if you can.] 

Photography by David Robert Crews

{a.k.a. ursusdave}

Air Nat'l Guard Leaving Baltimore's Harbor Place

Sunday, May 3, 2015, the Air National Guard is heading home after being called up to help protect Baltimore during the week-long troubles after Freddie Gray died in police custody. This video was shot and edited as a historical document, and to show people today what it was like in the Baltimore Inner Harbor as the heavy week wound down. It is also done to show those who don't know what the place is like what it is like. In particular, the families and friends of the National Guard troops, who don't know what it is like, can see where the place of duty was that took the guard members away from home for awhile. Also, it was done for the members of the guard there to look back on in years to come. I did my best to get the face of every member on the video. Ever since I was a U.S. Army photographer in 1969-71, I've loved producing photographic memories for armed forces personnel. And everyone. 

[Watch this in HD on Full Screen, if you can.] 

Photography by David Robert Crews

{a.k.a. ursusdave}

My Other Blogs

The Way That I See It Is...---a blog about anything and everything I want to blog about. Lately, it's a lot about International Super Scammer John. D. Infantino, who is still out there adding to his millions of victims all over the world. In America, he specializes in putting the screws to American Military Veterans. But none of the many in our government and media whom I have made sure know what Infantino does will do anything about him.

Northern Maine Adventures Photo Album---this one began as a place to post and share my snowmobile photos from 1969, and tell how fantastic motorized sled riding was up there in those days. Then I realized, if I had been a kid from rural Western Maryland, who got his first rifle at 12-yrs-old and went deer hunting with it, lived and worked on a farm, that kind of guy would be expected to fit in well up in the woodsy country life of  Northern Maine. But I was from the suburbs of Baltimore and hung out downtown with other rebellious - avant garde - Mod Kids, going to Rolling Stones Shows, boppin' up and down crowded sidewalks of streets in popular shopping areas, and on real cool back streets and alleys too. Then I went to Maine - where they was way back years behind Baltimore in all things hip & happening in the groovy '60s, and I fit right in with them Mainer country folk. Maine was lots of hard work, lots learned, plenty of fun, good times with good people. It was quite the "boy comes of age" adventure.

Northern Maine Adventures (One Hell of An Experience)---this features parts of my whole Maine story that are not in my short stories, which are published on several web sites in Maine. It is a well composed, entertaining look into the life of a kid from suburban Dundalk, Maryland who moved up to Patten, Maine and fit right in with the country folks living there, and became a bear hunting guide and country girl's delight. You can have a real good, interesting time on the Internet while viewing the photos and reading the text and stories on this site. It does, though, deal with emotional abuse that I suffered because of the way that my aunt and uncle in Maine treated me. But the very fact that I have written it all out in such an informative yet entertaining way and have had various parts of the whole story published all over the World Wide Web and read by thousands of people is a great triumph for me.

30th Artillery Brigade Okinawa 1970-71---is about my time as a US Army photographer assigned to peaceful, but wild and crazy, Okinawa, during the Vietnam War. It starts off with a great set of photographs from back then, most were taken the day the Army donated baseball backstops to Okinawan Schools. Then it deals with a very crappy situation that I was forced to endure, which still affects me to this day. I was illegally assigned as brigade photographer for the 30th Arty Bgde, and the photo lab I worked in was totally, completely, militarily illegal and immoral. This was devastating to me. I have been struggling to prove all this for over three decades, and now I am in a running battle to prove the full facts of my story. This is about fighting for what is right. The fighting is getting way more intense and about to get very interesting. I am battling to have the record set straight.

An American GI On Okinawa 1970-71---this also deals with the crappy situation I suffered through on Okinawa, but it goes into the wild and crazy kinds of times that many of us lower ranking GIs shared over there back then. It also tells of the great friendships we formed amongst ourselves, our music listening pleasures, the way we lived in our barracks, the bar and red light districts, plus true stories about our asinine leaders and our good leaders too. And how we got along with the residents of a foreign land. Fortunately, I have a natural need to write about the good times as well as the bad, this will help you to understand all that my time on Okinawa means to me.

Blue Skies Over Dundalk Maryland---where I grew up and lived for other years. A thoroughly misunderstood place, which is the brunt of massive disrespectful misinformation and self-righteous humor by the Maryland media and a million other ignoramuses. It has wonderful photos and truthful text about the real Dundalk.

David R. Crews' Ramblings and Photos---this site features greet photos and text about areas in Eastern Baltimore City and County that I love. Dundalk is in Eastern Baltimore County, but it needs and deserves to have its own site built and maintained by me.

Duckin' and Divin' Techniques of a Recycle Ranger---a blog about gathering up previously owned, currently unwanted items that are still good. I tell you about some of my best and worst finds, how to be safe and sanitary while dumpster diving, and how make the best uses of what you yourself may find discarded in a dumpster, at the curbside or in the alley on trash collection day, or anywhere it may have been discarded. America is very wasteful; take advantage of that sad fact. And enjoy reading the fun stories about Duckin' and Divin' that are on my blog.
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Fells Point Fun Festival 2000

I have been to 3 or 4 Fells Point Fun Festivals, but the only one I did much photography at was in 2000. And I made a blog/poor man's website with a set of photos from then. It's at:

http://fellsfest.blogspot.com

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