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Michael Jackson Impersonator Turns Baltimore Riot Into Dancefloor

 
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Having spent hours scrolling through social media trying to make some sense of the pitched battles between police, national guards and citizens taking place in Baltimore following the funeral of Freddie Grey, a young black man who died in police custody after having his vertebrae snapped, we did come across one remarkable bit of footage, that's substantially different to the burnt out cars/ bins thrown at cops/ tear gas fired at kids narrative. As first reported by Dr. James MacArthur, of the Baltimore Spectator, it seems that last night, when the fighting first broke out, and looting was kicking off in the streets, a Michael Jackson impersonator climbed on top of a van, and started dancing to MJ hits blasted out at block party volume. Here's the footage of when he first started – it's pretty incredible looking. 

 

Beat It was followed by a quick costume change, and by the time he'd got into Smooth Criminal, a crowd started flocking towards him, taking a pause from looting to start raving. Here's a clip of the action – 

 

Soon enough MJ was joined by protestors on the roof of the van, getting down alongside him, and, according to McArthur, who's been a reliable ground level resource through the protests, violence was temporarily abandoned to have a shack out – 

 

We can't help but think that Michael, who spent his life protesting race issues (albeit from a somewhat bizarre place) would approve.