5 Celebs You Should Listen to on Baltimore Violence

Footage of looters and fire burning in Baltimore Monday night sparked some thoughtful comments, and pleas for peace, from some celebrities.

Writer David Simon, who covered the police beat as a newspaper reporter in Baltimore and used that as creative grist for the HBO drama “The Wire,” blogged about the riots. He chided the rioters who filled the streets on the day of Freddie Gray’s funeral, even as the Gray family asked for peaceful protest.

Simon wrote, in part, “But now — in this moment — the anger and the selfishness and the brutality of those claiming the right to violence in Freddie Gray’s name needs to cease. There was real power and potential in the peaceful protests that spoke in Mr. Gray’s name initially, and there was real unity at his homegoing today. But this, now, in the streets, is an affront to that man’s memory and a dimunition of the absolute moral lesson that underlies his unnecessary death.

“If you can’t seek redress and demand reform without a brick in your hand, you risk losing this moment for all of us in Baltimore. Turn around. Go home. Please,” Simon wrote.

Baltimore Ravens star, and now ESPN football analyst Ray Lewis took to Twitter to share his dismay at the violence.

“Violence is not the answer. We must have peace in our city, we are a city that’s built on believing in each other,” Lewis tweeted. “We must come together, we can stop the violence as a community. These kids have to have real leaders, we need everybody to join this movement.”

Rapper Freddie Gibbs said via Twitter: “If u lootin’, u takin’ advantage of The Gray family and their loss, using it as excuse to be a thief during a riot. Quite cowardly of u.”

New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony, who moved to Baltimore as a child, said on social media: “We all want Justice. And our city will get the answers we are looking for. My deepest sympathy goes out to the GRAY Family. To see my city in a State of Emergency is just shocking. We need to protect our city, not destroy it. … If not yourself, then Think about the youth. How this will impact them. Let’s build our city up not tear it down.”

Cedric the Entertainer tweeted, “Hate to see Baltimore going thru what my hometown of Ferguson went thru. Change is necessary, but violence and destruction is not the answer.”

»Screenshot from WUSA TV

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