Marilyn Mosley is frustrated. This State’s Attorney in Baltimore, Maryland, angrily dropped charges against the remaining three police officers not already acquitted in the death of Freddie Gray, who died from injuries sustained while in police custody.
Clearly, Mosley lacked the evidence to convict these officers of murder, manslaughter, false arrest, etc. Were the charges politically motivated, as police allege? Or did police impede her investigation, as she charges?
I don’t know. But here’s what we do know:
Upon sighting police April 12th of last year, Gray ran but was apprehended. Police confiscated a knife, which was perfectly legal to carry. Then police called for a van, and video captured police dragging 25-year-old Freddie Gray, screaming in agony, to that van.
Police transported him on a very circuitous route “downtown” that ended up at the hospital, after police discovered during a stop that he wasn’t breathing. A week later Freddie died.
The cause of death was a spinal injury.
The video suggests impairment before the travel therapy administered by police, though the injury could have been worsened in transit. Gray wasn’t wearing a safety belt. In fact, the medical examiner ruled it a homicide based on his not being belted in.
Whether the spinal injury was a freak accident, caused by police misconduct or, as alleged, Gray was trying to injury himself to seek damages, the medical evidence shows no serious bruises or broken bones — just the spinal injury.
We don’t know what happened.
What we do know is that a man was taken into police custody without any legitimate charge, not treated or attended to as he should have been, and he’s dead.
There’s no victory or vindication here for police.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
AND ANOTHER THING: To what degree is Freddie Gray a casualty of the war of drugs? Back in June, defense attorneys for the police released an email that Prosecutor Mosley’s office had sent to police asking for an “enhanced” police presence to combat drug dealing in the area Freddie Gray was arrested. That was three weeks prior to his arrest.
7 replies on “Freddie’s Dead”
I think the truth would reveal more police on individual torture particularly in this case and several recent cases. I am honestly surprised more police are not ambushed.. What did police expect after years of hostile and abusive treatment toward ordinary people.. Not saying two wrongs make a right, but the behavior of many police is reprehensible. When people feel there is justice in the court system, people lash out. They are and feel powerless. Blowback is for real.
Freddie Gray was a model citizen. He had only been arrested 18 times.
You miss the whole point. If we do not protest the assumption on too many instances, of the police claiming the right to be jury, judge and executioner, ‚we all lose.
Lynn — Thanks. That’s why we need to make real legal reforms and not just have a never-ending conversation about race, and certainly not resort to choosing sides where we condone police brutality or attacks on police. Ending the War on Drugs and civil asset forfeiture and requiring police cameras won;t solve the entire problem, but would be three giant leaps forward.
JATR4 — Even non-model citizens deserve fair treatment.
I feel sorry for his mother — having to deal with 18 previous arrests of her punk son. 18 bail bonds and shyster lawyers. What ever happened to Gray’s traveling companion in the paddy wagon — the one that said Gray was pounding his head against the walls of the wagon? Was Freddie on his way to college that day?
“Clearly, Mosley lacked the evidence to convict these officers of murder, manslaughter, false arrest, etc. … did police impede her investigation, as she charges?”
You’re leaving out a possibility — indeed the most likely one — here.
The officers who were tried were not acquitted by a jury of their peers. They availed themselves of the privilege of “bench trials” so that they could be judged by a fellow government employee instead of by 12 ordinary citizens. And surprise, surprise, surprise, the government employee sided with the government employees.