In a statement today, President Obama made two key points. On the use of excessive force by police: “We as a country have to do some soul searching. This is not new. It’s been going on for decades.” And on the rioters in Baltimore: “They’re not protesting, they’re not making a statement, they’re stealing.” (Any article or media outlet that presents only one of these two points is a joke.)

+ David Simon makes a similar point: “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.”