The Mom of the Year award must go to the Baltimore woman captured on amateur video yesterday who responded to the mayhem in the streets — as embodied by the young man who one supposes must be her son — like a parenting superhero. (The hashtag #momoftheyear is trending on social media.)
She didn’t ask him to share his feelings, give him space to “blow off steam” or chant “No justice, no peace.” No, she took the no-excuses route, screaming some sense at the startled youngster while slapping him repeatedly in the face. Hard.
Warning: Explicit content
Hey, young man: You’ve just been publicly assaulted. Go ahead. Press charges. We’d all like to see you dare.
What Baltimore Mom and Baltimore Son illustrate is the forgotten truth that societal problems begin in the home. More often than we tend to admit anymore, problems can be solved there, too.
Some rioters, perhaps, try to make a political point through violence and destruction. This is the same basic idea that fuels terrorists.
Most rioters, though, lack even this thin pretext for actions like looting stores, such as the CVS that was burned to the ground yesterday. CVS’s efforts to sell aspirin and shampoo did not have a lot to do with the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old Baltimore man whose funeral Tuesday, after he died with a broken spine while in police custody, precipitated the unrest.
Most rioters are simply opportunists: They observe that lawlessness has temporarily replaced order, and they think, “Cool. I’ll go join the fun.”
Mom was watching TV when she saw Son (wearing a black hoodie and a mask or scarf that didn’t disguise him as well as he’d hoped) throwing rocks at police amid yesterday’s disturbances, WMAR-TV reported.
Grabbing, slapping, pushing and dragging Son, Mom physically propelled him away from trouble and behind police lines.
To the question, “You want to be out here doing this dumb s - - t?” Son should have said, “No, Mom, I don’t. You’re right.”
Instead he tried his best to maintain his dignity as she yelled, “Get the f - - k over here. Get over here now. Did you hear what I said?”
Having seen the video, Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said, “I wish I had more parents that took charge of their kid[s] out here tonight.”
Batts understands that parents possess the ultimate crime-fighting weapon: shame. Son is much taller than Mom. He could have slugged her in the face and gone back to merry rioting, but he didn’t — because she made him ashamed of himself. If it was humiliating to be called out in public by his own mom, it would have been even more wounding to his own pride if he had knocked her out of his way.
Parents have authority that a badge cannot confer. Son realized the person who knows him best, and is more interested than anyone else in his well-being, was right. So he submitted to her superior authority. Crime, conviction and punishment all happened without the criminal justice system getting involved.
Mom and Son both, I assume, share in the community’s concern about what happened to Gray and about police behavior in general. But joining a riot isn’t going to fix anything. Want to make the world a better place? Tend to your family.
Kids sometimes wander off the right track. It’s the duty of parents to steer, push or drag them back where they belong. Baltimore Mom, you’re a national hero. Baltimore Son, may your life be long and crime-free.