Martin O'Malley Quotes

Lawlessness is lawlessness. Anarchy is anarchy is anarchy. Neither race nor color nor frustration is an excuse for either lawlessness or anarchy.

Whoever is content with the world, and who profits from its lack of justice, does not want to change it.

Unless something drastic is done very soon, then bloodshed and violence are going to happen…almost inevitably… A people made desperate by despair and injustice and oppression will use desperate means.

I came to the cities in a time of disorder When hunger ruled. I came among men in a time of uprising And I revolted with them.

L.A. burns, and so many other cities smolder, waiting for the hose that will flood gasoline over the coals, and we listen to politicians who fuel our hate and our narrow views and tell us it's simply a matter of getting back to basics while they sit in their beachfront properties and listen to the surf so they won't have to hear the screams of the drowning.

When you cut facilities, slash jobs, abuse power, discriminate, drive people into deeper poverty & shoot people dead whilst refusing to provide answers or justice, the people will rise up & express their anger & frustration if you refuse to hear their cries. A riot is the language of the unheard.

In a change of masters the poor change nothing except their master's name.

In a war situation or where violence and injustice are prevalent, poetry is called upon to be something more than a thing of beauty.

Injustice boils in men's hearts as does steel in its cauldron, ready to pour forth, white hot, in the fullness of time.

My view is when you use violence on your people, that never ends well.

Racism and injustice and violence sweep our world, bringing a tragic harvest of heartache and death.

When you loot or behave violently, you give grounds to those that try to justify illegal police abuse. You become the poster child for them to say, 'See, we have no choice but to shoot and kill, or use a chokehold, because just look at the way they behave.'

I don't want to constantly be writing about terrorism and strife.

What began as a political protest turned into a class war and a racial pogrom.

First, the urban guerrilla must use ... violence ... to win a popular base. Then the government has no alternative except to intensify repression. The police roundups, house searches, arrests of innocent people make life ... unbearable. The general sentiment is that the government is unjust, incapable of solving problems and resorts ... to the physical liquidation of its opponents ...

A riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.

Urban riots must now be recognized as a durable social phenomenon. They are a special form of violence ... mainly intended to shock the white community.

We will have demonstrations until the injustices that have caused them are eliminated.

Old forms of government finally grow so oppressive, that they must be thrown off even at the risk of reigns of terror.

The poor man … will be swayed by his sense of injury against the men who try to hold what they have improperly won… the most awful passions will be let loose.

Government violence can only do one thing and that is to breed counter-violence.

Rebellions broke out, from the full-scale political revolution of Dorr’s rebellion in Rhode Island to urban violence and protest, often by out of work whites taking out their anger on African Americans or Irish Americans. In response, leaders had to come to terms with the role of force in a democracy.

There is no more justice in France. There is only the revolver.

Negro poverty is not white poverty. Many of its causes and many of its cures are the same. But there are differences—deep, corrosive, obstinate differences—radiating painful roots into the community and into the family, and the nature of the individual. These differences are not racial differences. They are solely and simply the consequence of ancient brutality, past injustice, and present prejudice.

Viciousness and prejudice flow from economic dislocation, and in turn feed it.