I lived just outside of Baltimore City and worked in Baltimore City at night, during the Freddie Gray riots.
I lived just outside of Baltimore City and worked in Baltimore City at night, during the Freddie Gray riots. I remember seeing the smoke and fires the Friday night after he died and seeing the boarded up windows and destroyed buildings the next morning on my way home. Then over the weekend and Monday seeing smoke rise up from the city while I sat on our stoop.
To be 100% honest, from everything I’ve read and my gut, something odd happened in the back of that van. It could be anything on the spectrum from a “rough ride” to refusal of medical treatment. The community and the prosecutors rushed to judgment, leading to riots and harsh charges without first gathering all the facts. This then lead to a rushed and uninformative trial. If everyone would have taken a minute to breathe and think, they might have convicted some of these officers. But a Walgreens was looted and set on fire and the city reacted too quickly. Why did the New York Times leave that out of this article?
I remember the media also having to spin the story in the days after Gray’s death. The profile of all the officers did not match the narrative. They ended up having to pivot and make it about “police conduct” because half of the officers involved were minorities and it did not fit the evil white man narrative. In fact the officer who had the most serious charges was African American. The media did not even take the time to watch the initial video that was released and study it for the race of each officer. Talk about inciting violence.
Direct Quotes:
Baltimore’s chief prosecutor charged six police officers on Friday with a range of crimes including murder and manslaughter in the arrest and fatal injury of Freddie Gray, a striking and surprisingly swift turn in a case that has drawn national attention to police conduct.
The state’s attorney for Baltimore City, Marilyn J. Mosby, filed the charges almost as soon as she received a medical examiner’s report that ruled Mr. Gray’s death a homicide, and a day after the police concluded their initial investigation and handed over their findings. Officials had cautioned that it could take considerable time for her office to complete its own investigation and decide whether to prosecute.
The officers who were arrested, three white and three black, include a lieutenant with 17 years on the force, several near-rookies and a woman who had just been promoted to sergeant.
The most serious charges were brought against Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr., who was driving the van that carried Mr. Gray to a police station after his April 12 arrest.
The death of Mr. Gray, 25, a week after he suffered a spinal cord injury brought to a boil long-simmering tensions between the police and poor neighborhoods in this majority-black city, culminating in rioting and looting on Monday.
The Baltimore chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police called the speed of the prosecutor politically motivated. “The actions taken today by the state’s attorney are an egregious rush to judgment,”
Despite repeated stops to check on Mr. Gray, the van driver, Officer Goodson, and other officers never belted him in, she said, at times leaving him face-down on the van floor with his hands behind him. Though there has been speculation that the police intentionally gave Mr. Gray a “rough ride,” intended to slam him against the metal sides of the van
Mr. Gray was unresponsive, yet no action was taken. He died of his injuries a week later.
But Abdullah Moaney, 53, an information technology worker from East Baltimore, said that “peace has lost its credibility.” Seeking to justify the violence that broke out Monday, he said that “if it wasn’t for the riot,” charges would not have been filed.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake of Baltimore said most of the city’s officers were good
When the van finally arrived at the Western District police station and officers tried to remove him, “Mr. Gray was no longer breathing at all,” she said. A medic was summoned and found Mr. Gray in cardiac arrest. Then he was rushed to a hospital.
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