Murder, Manslaughter, and Assault charges Filed Against Officers In Baltimore
This seems like a big deal. Via TPM:
[…]
“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 Mr. Gray was punrestrained by a seat belt in the custody of the Baltimore police department wagon,” Mosby said at a morning news conference.
Tags: Baltimore, Freddie Gray, Police
They have got us all believing this rough ride crap, like the whole thing could be addressed by upgrading the shock absorbers on police vehicles. They haven’t yet admitted to the stop where six cops beat the crap out of him.
That’s what trials are for.
Additionally and importantly…
“…no crime had been committed by Mr. Gray.” –State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby
Puck, a “rough ride” is not a description of the ride, but rather a nickname for a practice where police shackle someone’s hands and feet in the back of the wagon without securing them with a seat belt. The driver then responds to other calls for service throughout the city driving recklessly with a defenseless and shackled passenger bouncing around the back of the van like a pinball. That is what is called a “rough ride” and it can lead to all types of trauma
No, the charges are all aimed at the rough ride hypothesis, which is their best shot at covering up the beating. Is the ME report public? If the prosecutor is serious she will cut some deals and get the six cops to turn on each other.
The rough ride theory is the new
“He fell down the stairs.” A verdict of manslaughter or negligent homicide will be a victory for police.
I disagree Puck. You can’t prove the beating. You can prove that they gave him a “rough ride” which is an illegal practice and that it did cause his death. Which would be much easier to use in order to prove 2nd degree murder.
However, if the prosecutor went into court claiming an incident where officers beat him up, they would have to prove that incident happened and they would have to prove that the injuries sustained came from that beating, which they cannot.
wrong, you do not WANT them to be able to prove it, because that will challenge the White America belief that if a black man is killed by cops, he deserved it. As per the Medical Examiner… who is employed BY THE POLICE… the injury that killed him could only have been sustained by being thrown against the van. Are you saying some other black man came and beat him up?
Oh look… it seems like the “Freddie Gray had a switchblade” charge was a lie.
You guys obviously don’t understand what a “rough ride” is. Which is not surprising. It is worse than getting beat up. It’s not hitting pot holes…. Its being left in a open van, in shackles while the driver drives erratically and the defenseless person goes head first into walls and benches without being able to brace themselves. Rough Ride is a nickname for an illegal practice. It isn’t simply a bumpy ride. It is far easier to prove that they did that (which they did), than it is to prove that they stopped to kick is ass on a dark street without witnesses, which no jury in America would ever find a police officer guilty of. How do we know?… because we’ve seen cops beat black people up on tape and still get no charge.
The prosecutor is filing the right charges and will get a conviction. Your ideas of charging the police with “beating him up” might work in a jury trial if the victim were white, but if you’ve been paying attention for the last 230 years, accusing police of beating up black people never gets a conviction.
Is the ME report consistent with a beatng? No really – who has seen the report?
I don’t think the cops meant to kill Freddy Gray, but I can picture the scenario, and I believe the driver and passenger (partner) will be convicted of some degree of negligent manslaughter with the driver receiving the worst of the punishment.
Do to the nature of the injury, I figure the driver purposely hit the breaks with the intent of injuring Freddy Gray, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the passenger cop was looking in the back, and told the driver when to do it.
Conviction you say? I’ll believe it when it actually happens, until then I would suspect the fix is still in. Just not the Grand Jury Game as they wore that one out.