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May 24, 2016
When Freddie Gray died following his suffering a broken neck while in custody in the back of a police van, the city of Baltimore, Maryland was racked with more than a week of protests that escalated into violence, looting and arson.

The city only returned to a semblance of normal after Freddie Gray became one of last year's rallying cries for groups that are today facing criticism as having been indirectly responsible for the rise of murders in major cities. That indirect responsibility has been laid at their feet because officials now say that many police officers are hesitant to take any action in many instances rather than face the same specter of prosecution and expense faced by the six Baltimore officers charged in Gray's death.

Yesterday, after waiving a jury trial, choosing instead to argue his case before Circuit Judge Barry Williams- a black man, officer Edward Nero was found not guilty of assault and other charges in the case.

Yes, there were protesters on hand- about a dozen of them, and they chanted something at Nero's brother as he left the court (escorted by sheriff's deputies), but the Freddie Gray family, surprisingly, praised Judge Williams for having not "bowed to pressure" from the black community. In fact, Gray family attorney Billy Murphy praised Williams, saying "the family might not be pleased with the verdict, but they respect the rule of law."

At this point, there are no reports of violence or arson in connection with the verdict, and the expected outpouring of social media commentary regarding the verdict seems pretty much equally divided for and against Judge Williams' verdict.

Surprisingly, there has been very little said or written about President Obama's just-announced decision to end the arms embargo that has been in effect against Vietnam since the 1960s. Calling the embargo "a lingering vestige of the Cold War" Mr. Obama called the embargo "unnecessary as he was signing a series of bilateral agreements that included the $11 billion purchase of Boeing 737 aircraft by the Vietnamese national airline VietJet.