It appears that every month there’s a different Black man killed by the police in a different part of the country that results in marches, protests, rallies and even riots in the case of Ferguson and Baltimore, but it has not stopped the killings.
But for the first time officers are being charged. In the most recent it was Freddie Gray, who died in police custody in Baltimore, but a big surprise happened—six officers have been charged in that killing.
This is a first because before, at least from the Right Wing, people were saying that this was just the paranoia of Black people. That the police wouldn’t do anything like that, that if the police killed someone it had to be to protect themselves. But with cameras everywhere, police are being captured actually committing murder.
Six officers are being charged in Baltimore, compared to none being charged in the New York City Eric Garner killing.
Maybe it also has to do with more people in power are Black in Baltimore than the previous cities. It will be interesting to hear what the Right Wingers are saying about the Freddie Gray case.
The Baltimore incident has also illustrated the two sides in the Black community. The hoodlums, thugs, the lost and confused who are the people out in the streets rioting and burning their own community, in comparison to the people who created a wall between themselves and police to stop the burning and rioting.
One group really didn’t care or just didn’t understand why rioting and burning stores in their own community was hurting more than helping the situation.
The people who tried to stop the burning and rioting were people that many owned their homes, many either worked in these stores, or knew someone who worked there who was going to be out of a job because of the burning.
One thing history has taught us is that once these stores are destroyed in the Black communities they generally don’t come back. Just look at cities that suffered rioting and burning during the ‘60s.
Many of the Baltimore residents protesting the death of Freddie Gray have said they or someone they know has been treated unfairly by police.
In 2006, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a class action complaint alleging a pattern of false arrests. Of more than 76,000 people arrested the previous year, prosecutors declined to charge 25,000 with any crime — meaning roughly 30 percent of the arrests were basically bogus. In a 2010 settlement the city agreed to reform its police practices, though last year the Baltimore Sun reported on a persisting pattern of police brutality.
According to one news account, outside a gutted pharmacy in West Baltimore, William Tyler, a youth worker, illustrates the dilemma of policing in his city. Speaking about Freddie Gray, he complains that: “None of these police ever go to jail, they don’t get fired.
Police is nothing but gangs too.” Yet looking at the building behind him, burnt out by riots that followed Gray’s funeral, he adds, “and look at this store! This is where my mom gets her medicine. The police just stood right there and watched it happen. This weren’t the time for protocol. This were the time to go, go, go!”
Baltimore exploded into violence on the evening of April 27 after several days of largely peaceful protests against Gray’s treatment. Soon after the funeral, angry teenagers began attacking a mall in the northwest of the city and things expanded from there. Most reports say more than 200 businesses were damaged, with the majority being minority owned.
Things died down after Baltimore’s prosecutor brought charges against six police officers in the death of Gray, saying he suffered “a severe and critical neck injury” as a result of being placed “handcuffed, shackled by his feet and unrestrained” inside a police van.
The most serious charge was second-degree depraved-heart murder for the driver of the van, Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr.
“To the people of Baltimore and demonstrators across America, I heard your call for ‘No Justice, No Peace,’” said Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, a Black woman. “Your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man.”
In addition to the charges against Goodson, another officer was charged last week with several counts, including manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter. Two other officers face charges including involuntary manslaughter. An additional two officers are charged with several counts, including second-degree assault.
Mosby’s announcement brought cheers from onlookers at her news conference. Motorists in Baltimore honked horns and support exploded online.
In an open letter to Mosby, the city police union’s president said, “none of the officers involved are responsible for the death of (Freddie) Gray. To the contrary, at all times, each of the officers diligently balanced their obligations to protect Mr. Gray and discharge their duties to protect the public,” wrote Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police President Gene Ryan. Ryan asked in the letter as well as on national TV that a special independent prosecutor be appointed to look into the case.
Demonstrations were scheduled all over the country.
Mosby asked for the public to remain patient and peaceful and to trust the process of the justice system.
While the police investigation is complete, Mosby said her office would conduct its own inquiry.
She said that her office was not relying solely on the police findings, but rather the facts that have been gathered and verified.
The manner of death deemed a homicide by the Maryland state medical examiner is believed to be the result of a fatal injury that occurred while Gray was unrestrained by a seat belt in the custody of the Baltimore Police Department wagon, Mosby’s office said.
(Ulish Carter is the managing editor of the New Pittsburgh Courier.)
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