IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Let Me Start: The riots in Baltimore

Today the Hardball Staff is talking about the riots in Baltimore, the Supreme Court hearing arguments on same-sex marriage and the latest on the 2016 race.
Firefighters battle a blaze on April 27, 2015, after rioters plunged part of Baltimore into chaos, torching a pharmacy, setting police cars ablaze and...
Firefighters battle a blaze on April 27, 2015, after rioters plunged part of Baltimore into chaos, torching a pharmacy, setting police cars ablaze and...

Let me start this morning with Monday's riots out of Baltimore.

"Hardball with Chris Matthews" brought you continuing coverage last night of the violence and devastation taking place in Maryland.  But what we weren't able to see was some surprising behavior from  unlikely Good Samaritans in the community.  There are now reports that gang members of both the Bloods and the Crips united to stand side-by-side against police brutality in Baltimore.  

Another unlikely stance on the protests came from Baltimore Orioles COO John Angelos, who is the son of owner Peter Angelos.  He argued that the violence was a culmination of a middle class and working class that have grown frustrated with the country's economic state "suffering at the butt end of an ever-more militarized and aggressive surveillance state."  

"...My greater source of personal concern, outrage and sympathy beyond this particular case is focused neither upon one night’s property damage nor upon the acts, but is focused rather upon the past four-decade period during which an American political elite have shipped middle class and working class jobs away from Baltimore and cities and towns around the U.S. to third-world dictatorships like China and others, plunged tens of millions of good, hard-working Americans into economic devastation, and then followed that action around the nation by diminishing every American’s civil rights protections in order to control an unfairly impoverished population living under an ever-declining standard of living and suffering at the butt end of an ever-more militarized and aggressive surveillance state."'

READ: Orioles Executive Offers Perspective on 'Lives and Dreams Cut Short'

But possibly one of the most notable images of a community member standing up to the violence is the viral video of a mother reprimanding her son for participating in the riot.  You can watch that below:

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court begins hearing oral arguments on same-sex marriage today.  A read in Politico discussed how children of Republican politicians are swaying their parents' views on the matter.

And finally, on our radar in the 2016 race was a read in Roll Call on Senator Rand Paul.  The Republican from Kentucky reportedly told a group of Jewish community leaders that he thinks the U.S. made a mistake when it ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein back in 2003.

Tune into "Hardball" tonight at 7pm/et to see what made our final rundown!