This happened over a week ago, but I missed it:

“People keep saying, ‘We need to have a conversation about race,’” Ms. Morrison told the (U.K.) Telegraph in an April 19 interview.

“This is the conversation. I want to see a cop shoot a white unarmed teenager in the back,” said Ms. Morrison, who also has won the Pulitzer Prize for her work, which includes the bestsellers “Beloved” and “Song of Solomon.” “And I want to see a white man convicted for raping a black woman. Then when you ask me, ‘Is it over?’, I will say yes.”

No, this is the conversation: I want to see Toni Morrison shunned for having a small ugly racist heart.

By the way, the linked piece says cops kills whites more than blacks (not necessarily per capita), so it’s not like it doesn’t happen. Someone tell this harpy so she can start her happy dance.

[UPDATE: Please comment on this post here.]

[guest post by Dana]

Sadly, 25-year old Freddie Gray was laid to rest today in Baltimore. After his funeral, rioting broke out, leaving 15 police officers injured and two hospitalized. This afternoon, Gov. Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard. The city will be under a curfew beginning tonight.

Most frighteningly, rumors of rival gangs uniting to attack the police were found to be credible:

The police said early in the day they had received a “credible threat” that “members of various gangs, including the Black Guerrilla family, Bloods and Crips” had “entered into a partnership to ‘take out’ law enforcement officers.” But officers kept a low profile in the neighborhood during the Gray funeral.

As a result of today’s rioting, Baltimore Mayor Rawlings-Blake is now finding herself taking heat for a press conference she held Saturday night wherein she expressed that a space for rioters to destroy and wreak havoc would be set aside:

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 during a press conference Saturday night.

“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.”

(The full press conference can be seen here)

Under increasing pressure, the mayor today attempted to walk-back her statement:

“I did not intentionally give space to those wanting to destroy”.

With that, while the Baltimore school superintendent hopes to “use this looting as teachable moment”, President Obama has not yet officially weighed in.

To the contrary:

President Obama dodged potential questions about violent street protests in Baltimore on Monday when he met with Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

Obama met with Lynch for the first time since she was sworn in, but the White House barred print, radio, and television reporters from covering the Oval Office meeting. Only still photographers were allowed inside.

The president and his new attorney general said nothing while their pictures were taken, photographers told a pool reporter.

During the meeting, Lynch updated Obama on the situation in Baltimore and said she “stands ready to provide any assistance that might be helpful there,” the White House said in a statement.

However, while the president may not have made an official comment about Baltimore burning, he was nonetheless, intently problem solving in the unique way that he does:

If you aspire to be a better community organizer, this is for you: http://t.co/Nrmi9c8SLo

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 27, 2015

For a complete roundup of news coming out of Baltimore, Weasel Zippers is providing updates.

–Dana

UPDATE BY PATTERICO: Ha! Now it’s Dana’s turn to be the double poster! Turnabout is fair play; I am leaving her post up but asking you to comment on my post, here.

She actually said this:

We also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well.

It’s right there in the video. That’s what she said.

Unfortunately, people decided they wanted to destroy more than the space they were given for that purpose. Specifically, they wanted to break a few officers’ bones too, and ideally kill one or two if they could manage it. So far, they have come close:

Police on Monday clashed with crowds of young people who tossed rocks and bricks at officers, looted stores and damaged police cruisers, injuring several officers.

Police said that 15 officers have been hurt in incidents that began near the Mondawmin Mall in the Reisterstown Road area. Some officers suffered broken bones and one officer was unresponsive, police said in an afternoon press conference. By Monday night, two officers remained hospitalized, they said.

Next time maybe the mayor will turn over a couple of cops to those who wish to kill officers. In the interest of keeping the peace, you see.

UPDATE: OK, she has issued a statement claiming that she was trying to say, in effect, that giving the protestors a space had the unintended side effect of giving a space to those who wanted to destroy. That sounds plausible, although not nearly as funny. We’ll just chalk this one up to a horribly phrased sentiment.

[UPDATE: Comment on this post here.]

Of course:

Ian Reisner, one of the two gay hoteliers facing boycott calls for hosting an event for Senator Ted Cruz, who is adamantly opposed to same-sex marriage, apologized to the gay community for showing “poor judgment.”

Mr. Reisner put the apology on Facebook, where a page calling for a boycott of his properties, the gay-friendly OUT NYC hotel and his Fire Island Pines holdings, had gotten more than 8,200 “likes” by Sunday evening.

“I am shaken to my bones by the emails, texts, postings and phone calls of the past few days. I made a terrible mistake,” wrote Mr. Reisner.

. . . .

Mr. Cruz faced some backlash among conservatives over the event, but it was nothing compared to the criticism both Mr. Reisner and Mr. Weiderpass faced from the gay community.

“I was ignorant, naïve and much too quick in accepting a request to co-host a dinner with Cruz at my home without taking the time to completely understand all of his positions on gay rights,” Mr. Reisner said.

“I’ve spent the past 24 hours reviewing videos of Cruz’s statements on gay marriage and I am shocked and angry. I sincerely apologize for hurting the gay community and so many of our friends, family, allies, customers and employees. I will try my best to make up for my poor judgment. Again, I am deeply sorry.”

Mr. Reisner’s apology came before a scheduled protest march tomorrow evening in front of Out NYC.

It’s tempting to see this purely in the light of thuggery (sorry, Ken White) by the gays who brook no opposition to their views. But in truth, I’m torn on this one, as I often am with threatened boycotts.

On one hand, this business owner caters to the gay community. To the extent that his actions or words offend his clientele, he is alienating his clientele. As for the clientele, they certainly have the right to spend their money where they like, and it’s hard to blame them for not wanting to spend their money at a business that they believe is fighting an issue that is important to them.

On the other hand, the actions to punish Reisner seem to spring from an illiberal impulse: the desire to punish opposite viewpoints rather than debate them, or persuade someone that they are wrong.

Last night I listened to an episode of This American Life, and in one of the stories, a team of activists set out to go door to door and change people’s minds on gay marriage in California. If the reporter in the story is to be believed, they appear to have had some success — but only when the activist was gay and turned the discussion away from abstractions to personalizing the issue in a non-aggressive way that involved a lot of listening. Surprisingly, studies supposedly indicate that the changed attitudes in those cases are lasting and not feigned, though I don’t necessarily accept that at face value.

My main reaction to the story was surprise at the naivete of the activists. Why try to change people’s minds when you can go to the courts and ram the changes down people’s throats?

That is the illiberal way, and boycotts and organized letter-writing campaigns feel more like pressure than persuasion. You might bully people (sorry, Ken White) into claiming they have changed their views — but one wonders whether the claimed change of heart will be genuine or lasting.

Where you come out on this probably depends on whether you think opposing gay marriage is a reasonable view or an affront to decency. Gays and many leftists see it as the latter, and feel perfectly justified in bringing out the big guns of societal disapproval and training them on the offenders. For example, to go straight Godwin on you, who cares about persuading Nazis that they are mistaken? The proper thing to do with them is to denounce them and shun them.

I don’t feel that way about opposition to gay marriage, and I don’t think that Ted Cruz deserves to be shunned. But I think gay citizens should be able to spend their money (and vote) in whatever way they think benefits them.

UPDATE: Ha! Looks like Dana already did a post on this. I am cutting off comments to this post, and encourage you to leave your comments on her post, where the discussion has already started.

[guest post by Dana]

After hosting a non-fundraising “fireside chat” with Ted Cruz, gay hotelier Ian Reisner faced a barrage of attacks and a boycott for such a brazen act. As a result, he has bowed to pressure and issued an apology:

Ian Reisner, one of the two gay hoteliers facing boycott calls for hosting an event for Senator Ted Cruz, who is adamantly opposed to same-sex marriage, apologized to the gay community for showing “poor judgment.”

Mr. Reisner put the apology on Facebook, where a page calling for a boycott of his properties, the gay-friendly OUT NYC hotel and his Fire Island Pines holdings, had gotten more than 8,200 “likes” by Sunday evening.

“I am shaken to my bones by the emails, texts, postings and phone calls of the past few days. I made a terrible mistake,” wrote Mr. Reisner.
…

“I was ignorant, naïve and much too quick in accepting a request to co-host a dinner with Cruz at my home without taking the time to completely understand all of his positions on gay rights,” Mr. Reisner said.

“I’ve spent the past 24 hours reviewing videos of Cruz’s statements on gay marriage and I am shocked and angry. I sincerely apologize for hurting the gay community and so many of our friends, family, allies, customers and employees. I will try my best to make up for my poor judgment. Again, I am deeply sorry.”

Clearly, this was a preemptive strike:

Mr. Reisner’s apology came before a scheduled protest march tomorrow evening in front of Out NYC.

In addition to the boycott calls, Broadway Cares, a charity that focuses on curing AIDS, canceled an annual event at a nightclub the two men own.

At the event, Cruz had reiterated his view that gay marriage was best left to the states.

–Dana