I not only know about Freddie Gray’s paint chip eating, I wrote about it at length when it was current — the case was a great glimpse into the reality America’s Welfare Educational Complex. (A rather lengthy tangent follows, so disregard if you’re not interested).

Freddie Gray’s mother was a heroin addict who admitted to being intoxicated for most of his childhood. She was also kicked out of school for disciplinary issues. (Baltimore Sun article here: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-freddie-gray-lead-paint-20150423-story.html#page=1)

Despite Gloria Darden’s admitted negligence as a parent, she still received a significant settlement for her children’s lead exposure, enough to purchase a house for $112,000 cash in 2011.

And as far as the trope of blaming ‘poor schools’ Baltimore is home to the nation’s second most expensive school district (Again from Baltimore Sun: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-05-21/news/bs-md-ci-census-schools-20130521_1_school-system-per-pupil-spending-districts).

Baltimore also cashed in from Obama’s Stimulus, to the tune of nearly $2 billion. (http://freebeacon.com/issues/baltimore-received-1-8-billion-from-obamas-stimulus-law/) much of which was lost to pervasive corruption (http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-05-23/news/bs-md-education-funds-20130522_1_stimulus-audit-school-volunteers).

Really, the whole Freddie Gray: St Paint Chip meme is quite misguided, considering the considerable largess bestowed upon him. One could even call Freddie Gray emblematic of a new class: the welfare millionaire. Between Baltimore’s insane school spending, MD’s generous S-CHIP/Medicaid, Gray’s status as a Behavioral/Spec Ed student, SNAP and the lead paint settlement, Freddie Gray was probably the beneficiary of +$1,000,000 of largess in his 23 years; beyond any reasonable measure a significant quantity of money to spend raising someone to sling dope and play Hide and Seek from the cops.

Now, one can question whether that $$$ was wisely spent, but one certainly can’t act as if Gray was somehow neglected by the greater society — resources were put in place to offer opportunities, if anything it was a cultural failing that caused Gray’s problems (Although I imagine that you disagree with that conclusion).