printI’m going to defend Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who claims she misspoke or was misconstrued when she said about the rioters in Baltimore: “We also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well.”
This is a case of English misspoken. These days I no longer understand what most people around me say, because they can’t put together grammatically coherent sentences. What the mayor meant to convey is that there were unintended consequences to giving the crowds the “space” to protest: hooligans took advantage of the provisions put in place for peaceful protest.
“We also gave those who wished to destroy, space as well” came out wrong. The fact that the mayor’s response to the riots mirrored her botched words—her police force stood down—didn’t bolster the credibility of her office’s clarification.
* The post’s title is a botched play on E. M. Forster’s “A Room With A View.” Sorry, my bad.