So striking how a little sanity comes as a shocker these days. But Maryland State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby's
May 1 statement—that the medical examiner had ruled Freddie Gray's death a homicide, and that six officers were being indicted on a number of charges—defied the usual mode of official reaction to suspicious deaths in police custody.
More sanity and common sense: while insisting that all citizens must receive equal protection under law, Mosby
said—
I come from five generations of law enforcement. My father was an officer. My mother was an officer, several of my aunts and uncles. My recently departed and beloved grandfather was one of the founding members of the first black police organization in Massachusetts.
Mosby's entire statement was impressive, and it ended a tumultuous week in my hometown.
For days following Freddie Gray's unexplained death in Baltimore police custody, large crowds protested peacefully. Ultimately, a much smaller number prompted media to helicopter into town to supply the usual round of looting video. After all,
they are animals, whose inexplicable behavior is expected to preempt all questions about Gray's death.
Some reasons for frustration are suggested by the
Baltimore Sun's 2014 report, "
Undue Force." It describes a pattern of police behavior so egregious that money talked: since 2011, the city had "settled lawsuits claiming that police officers brazenly beat up alleged suspects," to the tune of about $5.7 million. Reporter Mark Puente's summary—
Over the past four years, more than 100 people have won court judgments or settlements related to allegations of brutality and civil rights violations. Victims include a 15-year-old boy riding a dirt bike, a 26-year-old pregnant accountant who had witnessed a beating, a 50-year-old woman selling church raffle tickets, a 65-year-old church deacon rolling a cigarette and an 87-year-old grandmother aiding her wounded grandson.
Those cases detail a frightful human toll. Officers have battered dozens of residents who suffered broken bones — jaws, noses, arms, legs, ankles — head trauma, organ failure, and even death, coming during questionable arrests. Some residents were beaten while handcuffed; others were thrown to the pavement.
And in almost every case, prosecutors or judges dismissed the charges against the victims — if charges were filed at all. In an incident that drew headlines recently, charges against a South Baltimore man were dropped after a video showed an officer repeatedly punching him — a beating that led the police commissioner to say he was "shocked."
Puente's pointed conclusions—
Such beatings, in which the victims are most often African-Americans, carry a hefty cost. They can poison relationships between police and the community, limiting cooperation in the fight against crime, the mayor and police officials say. They also divert money in the city budget — the $5.7 million in taxpayer funds paid out since January 2011 would cover the price of a state-of-the-art rec center or renovations at more than 30 playgrounds. And that doesn't count the $5.8 million spent by the city on legal fees to defend these claims brought against police.
In a very thoughtful interview,
David Simon considers reasons why abusive police tactics he observed as a local journalist thirty years ago have become unrestrained.
As soon as disturbances followed Freddie Gray's April 27 funeral, the ready-made narrative was broadcast day after day.
NPR, as is its wont, pretended to seriousness and "context"—by comparing this week in Baltimore
(A CVS was looted!) with the toll of 1968 riots in Baltimore and D.C. Just a quick glance at Wikipedia shows that in
Baltimore, 1968, "six people died, 700 were injured, and 5,800 were arrested. 1000 small businesses were damaged or robbed." According to the
D.C. entry, there were twelve deaths, 1,097 injuries, over 6000 arrests. Fires damaged or destroyed 1,200 buildings, including over 900 stores.
To compare that history with recent events in Baltimore is absurd, but was made worse by the forum NPR gave two white police and fire veterans of '68. Though they noted that Baltimore this week was minor compared to '68, there were casually patronizing remarks along the lines of how in '68 "it wasn't all the people" in
those neighborhoods who were troublemakers. This jumps out in the
audio, but is also not hard to spot in the
transcript—
[Retired police sergeant] MATTSON: Yeah, well, I was in the police department 56 years ago. It was 98 percent white officers and a few percent black. There were no women on the street in the 1950s and '60s, not the early 1970s. And we actually walked beats without radios. We had call boxes. I'm going back a long time ago. And in '67, things started to change. We started to get cars and radios and all these kind of things. And we lost touch with the people. The police lost touch. And leadership started changing, and we started bringing in new people. We used to laugh about it and say, you know, lower them standards and you get what you going to get.
MARTIN: And do you mean race by that?
MATTSON: No, not race. Just the standards got lowered. I'm an old-timer. You know, I come from an old police department, and I still think the old way. I'm an old Baltimore kid. But everything, the political spectrum has changed. And, you know, it used to be the Irish were in charge and the Italians were in charge, and the now the blacks have maintained the city. They're in charge. So does the responsibility fall on them? I think so.
Fox's coverage is a given, but the rest of the pack were there with the usual
they're just a bunch of thugs routine. While the right-wing Noise Machine hammered away at slandering the deceased, the
Washington Post added more fodder, by obligingly printing this leak—
A prisoner sharing a police transport van with Freddie Gray told investigators that he could hear Gray "banging against the walls" of the vehicle and believed that he "was intentionally trying to injure himself," according to a police document obtained by The Washington Post.
Charles Pierce's
response.
Police reaction to any death in police custody is about institutional protection.
NPR's story on the indictment included audio; this is from the officers' lawyer, but is pretty much the standard disclaimer from police officials and unions—
No officer injured Mr. Gray, caused harm to Mr. Gray, and they are truly saddened by his death. These officers did nothing wrong.
But why should police be expected to take responsibility for wrong-doing, when no one in the Too Big To Fail club need ever lose sleep over the victims.
Early in the week, after a curfew had gone into effect, Rep. Elijah Cummings worked the streets of West Baltimore, encouraging people to go home. Meanwhile, a Shawn Hannity crew showed up to interfere with his efforts (Fox footage
here was uploaded from a right-winger's blog).
In the video, an unidentified woman with Cummings says, "Too many people have died in custody of police," to be interrupted by Hannity, who relays to his minion the question, "Do you think the president rushed to judgement with this?" In a word, "No"—and Hannity talks over Rep. Cummings, who's trying to get back to business as the Fox crew pursues him.
The footage at that point makes obvious what Rep. Cummings observes of the crowd: "This is
media here;
the people have gone home!" As the minion continues to follow Cummings, Hannity's voice persists in whipping up the Two Minutes Hate.
Which actually was several minutes, each second excruciating to anyone with a sense of decency.
After Friday's indictment of the six officers,
Rep. Cummings was again a voice of sanity.
Did they see this man who was a mother's child? Did they see this man who was just trying to get through life? Did they see him as a human being? And I have come here today to thank God that Marilyn Mosby and her team saw him, saw him.
