the following 'privatized city jobs, angered local unions and approved tax breaks for developers to stimulate business.' This is related to his mayorship of Baltimore....and this is the linkage I draw to that most recent crisis...
I can't say it any better than John Angelos, COO of the Baltimore Orioles and son of Baltimore Orioles' owner.
"That said, 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."
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/04/orioles-john-angelos-baltimore-protests-mlb
On a personal note of Baltimore's context - Inner Harbor in Baltimore is very well developed and I've been there for many years to enjoy The Aquarium, restaurant, shops, etc. etc. That was viewed as Baltimore's success story..(Harbor was developed 1950's-80's; by the 80's it was considered an international success story.).. Having said that, a city needs more than tourist attractions to support a healthy local economy. It needs mass transit, and other sorts of blue-collar jobs. The Professional sports teams which are well enough attended by local elites do not provide those kind of jobs. Baltimore no doubt gets the spillover effects (both good and bad) from the Washington, DC area.
Don't know the details of the O'Malley Administration to see what he did - according to Wiki article, his record is mixed. According to articles from 2007, his Maryland budget cuts were made by downsizing state programs most critical to the poor.
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