While it is of course true that arson and destruction of public property are crimes, it is also true that the death of Freddie Gray could have been an even worse crime, one that as of yet has not been solved. Brushing over that fact merely fans the flames of outrage that rioters are demonstrating. As one friend put it on Facebook, people aren’t just rioting because Gray was killed—”they’re rioting because the punishment for the men responsible for killing Gray has thus far been constrained,” despite incriminating evidence released by the police department thus far, and “no significant action has been taken by the authorities. That’s why people are angry.”

But here’s the second point about Walsh’s article: he is certain that, merely by showing some initiative ( “Get a job. Get a vacation.”), the communities of Baltimore can quickly and easily fix themselves. This seems to demonstrate an incredible lack of empathy and ignorance of life’s difficulties. True, it’s incredibly important for individuals to exercise initiative, diligence, and perseverance—and people demonstrating such things can bring about amazing stories of reformation and progress. But we shouldn’t expect such stories to be the norm: we are deeply influenced and guided by our community, our home environment, the atmosphere in which we grow up. As Loftis writes, Baltimore’s poor communities “want to feel safe and don’t want to live in fear of the violence that drug dealing brings. … Violent perpetrators aren’t rats in a cage who kill less often when they’re less poor; they’re human beings who are part and parcel of the structural injustice that other community members experience even as they often fall victim to it.”

It would be easy for people like Walsh and me, who grew up outside such communities, to wonder and shake our heads at the unemployment and crime, the “lack of initiative” demonstrated by its inhabitants. But we really, honestly don’t know where we would be if we were in their shoes.