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Tag: Baltimore 6

  • Baltimore Officers Cleared

    The saga is finally nearly over for the officers involved in the 2015 arrest and deadly transport of Freddie Gray. Today Lt. Brian Rice, the highest ranking officer on scene was cleared of all administrative chargesin relation to the case. Last week Officer Caesar Goodson Jr. was acquitted of all 21 administrative charges. Two other officer agreed to minor discipline to avoid an administrative hearing. Had these officers been convicted of any administrative charge, they could have been fired at the discretion of the police commissioner.

    There is still one more administrative trial on the docket, for Sgt Alicia White. But with the two officers most culpable acquitted (the van driver and the highest ranking officer), Sgt White will almost assuredly be acquitted as well. This is finally the end. All officers had previous been acquitted of criminal charges (or the charges were dropped). The family of Freddie Gray received $6.8 million dollars from the city. But the city itself has yet to recover from the two-thirds increase in deadly violence crime that immediately followed the 2015 riots.

  • All charges dropped against the Baltimore Six

    Marilyn Mosby said she is dropping all charges against the six Baltimore Police officers in the custody death of Freddie Gray. In the press conference she sounded like a petulant child who was caught out doing bad, and so blames everybody else instead. “Systemic issues,” she said. I think a voice of humility, noble humility, might have served her better. But then she’s not trying to get my vote.

    Former commissioner Batts, who lost his job over all this, was against criminal prosecution (or so went the rumor, now confirmed by Batts), hit back strongly against Mosby:

    “She’s immature, she’s incompetent, she’s vindictive and that’s not how the justice system is supposed to work.”

    Come on Anthony, tell us what you really think.

    “The justice system is supposed to be without bias for police officers, for African Americans, for everyone…. Don’t create more flaws in that broken system,” he said. “And you don’t do it on the back of innocent people just to prove that point.”

    OK. Remember, this is coming from a black chief who basically once called the entirety of Baltimore’s black police officers a bunch of Uncle Toms.

    And Batts continued:

    “There was no question that Freddie Gray should have gone home after that interaction. But sometimes when people are doing the job of police work, bad things happen sometimes.”

    …

    “My heart bled for these officers as they went through these steps. I think Marilyn Mosby is in over her head… I didn’t see any malice in the heart of those police officers. I don’t think those officers involved are those you would put in the class of bad or malicious or evil police officers.”

    Batts said Mosby cannot make police her scapegoat by saying officers obstructed her investigation to protect their colleagues. “There was no obstruction,” Batts said. “I would have taken off anyone’s head if I knew they were obstructionist. … The judge said it: (The case) didn’t have merit and you can’t put that on anyone else.”

    Here’s my question, what changed in the past few days that led Mosby to her decision. She could have announced this weeks ago. But she did so today. So something changed. Despite her solace in prayer, I don’t think it was God telling her. Does anybody know?

    Two ideas:

    1) Word came from the top, perhaps the top of the Democratic party, perhaps via the mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who is secretary of the national Democratic Party. Rawlings-Blake defendedthe judge and said she “certain [does not] agree” with Mosby’s comments disparaging the criminal justice system.

    Now Mosby is an independent elected official. Does she know it’s not normally wise to fight city hall?

    I like this theory more:

    2) Perhaps the new prosecuting team said they didn’t want to move forward. The whole State’s Attorney’s Office is facing lawsuits related to unethical prosecution. And the charges, whether they’re proved or not (I kinda doubt they will be) are not groundless. If you’re a lawyer, perhaps you really do have objections to prosecuting a groundless case. You certainly should. But even if not, why would you want to open yourself up for hassles, lawsuits, and potential disbarment in a losing case?

    Now we’ll see how the internal discipline process works out. I’d love to be a fly on the wall of Commissioner Davis’s office for these discussions.

  • “Who’s really to blame in the Freddie Gray case”

    My piece over at CNN:

    Those who have not been following the trial assume there was some justification to the state’s charges. This assumption may be too generous. The prosecution not only failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, but as presented, the facts failed to show even evidence of a crime.

  • 10-32. They’re all going to be acquitted.

    I’m calling this trial for the defense. Now I’m only following on twitter, so take this with a grain of salt, but the trial of Goodson — the most culpable of the officers on trial for the death of Freddie Gray — is not going well for the prosecution. Judge Williams told the defensethat they may “truncate their case.” The defense filed a written motion for judgment of acquittal. (Doing so in writing is unusual.) Such a motion is rarely granted, and this case is probably no exception, but think about it: how can you tell the defense to “keep it short” if there’s a chance you’ll decide for other side?

    The prosecution called Neill Franklin, my old police academy commander, co-author, and co-believer in ending the drug war. The prosecution paid Neill to testify as an expert witness regarding “rough rides.” He didn’t know much about them. What cop would?

    Franklin did get busted for not knowing his 10-codes, which I find kind of funny. Now 10-codes are city specific and Franklin, in his defense, was never a street cop in Baltimore and has competing 10-codes to account for. But he was responsible for the department (Education and Training) that taught 10-codes. Franklin was brought in as an expert witness in “general orders, policies and procedures.” Well, in that case you should know your local 10-codes. I still know my 10 codes (admittedly, I’m a bit rusty on ones I probably never knew, like “request animal shelter.”)

    What are 10 codes? Think 10-4. You know what that means. Well there are a few others. Along with the “signal and oral codes,” Baltimore City has 10-6 (wait), 10-9 (repeat), 10-11 (meet me at… which, if used on a call, is a non-emergency call for more officers), 10-14 (wagon), 10-15 (emergency wagon), 10-16 (backup, but means emergency backup, and is less than a balls-to-the-wall “Signal 13”), 10-18 (shift is over!), 10-20 (location), 10-23 (arrived on scene), 10-29 (records check), 10-30 (wanted, but I hope some cops still use “thirty-dash-one” without knowing what it refers to), 10-31 (in progress), 10-32 (enough units on scene, ie: stop contributing to the clusterfuck), 10-33 emergency. And maybe since last year codes like 10-34 (civil disturbance) and 10-90 (looting) entered the Baltimore 10-code lingua franca.

    Now keep in mind these 10-codes are Baltimore City specific. And the fact that there isn’t a standard list of 10-codes (except 10-4, and 10-20 always means location) makes them not only useless but potentially dangeriou, especially when disaster strikes and you need inter-agency communication. There’s a justified movement to move away from 10-codes and go to plain English.

    That said, there is something efficient and clear about 10 codes. That is worth something. Also, they’re kind of fun.

    So Franklin didn’t know 10-15. That doesn’t look good for an expert on Baltimore arrest procedure. But the former major in charge of the police academy would have basically zero dealings with prisoners or prisoner transport; Maryland state police don’t use wagons. He did testify that seatbelting does not ensure an individualis secure and that it’s possible for prisoners to unseatbeltthemselves.

    Now Franklin’s job (yes, expert witnesses are paid) is not to do what the prosecution says or help any side. His job was to come to court, be put on the stand under oath, and answer questions honestly to the best of his abilities. He did that. That he didn’t help the prosecution is not his concern. But it is a problem for the prosecution. A big problem.

    There’s this:

    If Franklin really is the best witness prosecution can call in the least weak case the prosecution has? Well, that’s why I say it’s over.

  • Legal summary of the Baltimore trials

    This isn’t new, it was just hard to figure out. And I wanted to add it to my Baltimore Primer.

    What exactly was argued in the acquittal of Officer Nero was hard to figure out. Mostly because the State’s Attorney, Mosby, has repeated changed her story. Initially she claimed the stop of Freddie Gray illegal and the arrest was illegal. But that wasn’t true. There was clear reasonable suspicion for the stop, and the knife is probably illegal — or at least a reasonable officer could believe so, as saidby a court commissioner — so the arrest was legal. (And no, despite what Mosby has argued, cops don’t have to ask about the legal justification for a foot pursuit to join in.)

    So what the prosecution tried to argue, which is really quite absurd, is that because of the length and style of the detention — the time when Gray was already in handcuffs (as is standard after catching a fleeing suspect), at some point during the period between the legal stop and the subsequent arrest — at some point the stop became an arrest before the knife was found. And at the point of arrest, the legal standard needed by police would rise from “reasonable suspicion” to “probably cause.” So if an arrest happened before the knife was found, police officers would not have had probable cause for an arrest. This is an amazing, novel, and almost incomprehensible legal argument. And it rightly failed in the trial of Officer Nero.

    The other issue that will come into play, especially in the Goodson trial, is denied medical care. It’s not clear that this happened at a criminally negligent level. But even if there was no crime, at least the basic legal argument here makes sense.

  • “Nero Should Never Have Been Charged”

    Writing in the Baltimore Sun, co-authored with my friend, Leon “HL Mencken” Taylor:

    Mr. Nero, who had but a tangential role in Gray’s detention, should never have been charged. He committed no crime.

    …

    The prosecutor, in her desire to achieve “justice” for Freddie Gray, wanted somebody — anybody it seems — to pay for his death. But justice doesn’t work that way. And the ill-conceived effort to pin the blame on these six officers has at best distracted from and at worst exacerbated Baltimore’s most pressing problems.

    …

    Let us prevent the next prisoner’s death. There are safe, modern, camera-equipped prisoner transport vehicles. Replacing Baltimore’s entire prisoner transport fleet would cost less than the payout to Gray’s family. But Baltimore either lacks the money or leadership to invest in them.

    The trouble is, the political leadership in Baltimore is more interested in votes than addressing the deeper issues of the poorest Americans.

    …

    The mayor taps anger fueled by failed social policy and malign neglect. But we’ve never seen her or any Baltimore politician ride in a police car to see what officers see every day.

    …

    Politics and policy put Freddie on that drug corner and also gave police the task of moving him off of it. The failure of Freddie Gray is a collective failure. So why does “justice” depend on convicted police officers? Baltimore elected officials need to focus on the city’s real problems, which do not take legal acrobatics to explain.

    After the April riots, the murder rate doubled. Last year in Baltimore 304 black men — 131 more than in 2014 — were murdered. That’s roughly one in every 220 black men aged 15 to 35 murdered in one year. Think of those odds. Americans shouldn’t have live and die like this.

    There are actual criminals in Baltimore. Those who pick up an illegal gun and pull the trigger to kill a fellow man. Police deal with them every day. So when criminals are seen as the victims and police are made out to be the problem, it’s as if the inmates have taken over the asylum.

  • “Baltimore’s Dangerous Prosecutors”

    The latest from Page Croyder. It’s all good, but this is the part that clarified what exactly was being argued:

    They argued to trial judge Barry Williams that in the 2-3 minutes after Gray was handcuffed, but before the illegal knife was found on him, Nero, by not instantly finding out why the supervisor wanted Gray detained, committed a crime. In other words, the mistake they made was neither in the chase (for which they had reasonable suspicion) nor in the arrest for the knife (for which they had probable cause.) In was in the extremely short delay before finding the knife in which they hadn’t pulled out all stops to find out why they were asked to detain Gray.

    And the ominous (yet justified) conclusion:

    So, Baltimore, when one of your citizens is a victim of crime, don’t be surprised if the police do nothing more than take a report. Detaining a suspect puts them in legal jeopardy under the Mosby regime. And don’t expect the prosecutor’s office to help you out, either. Their leaders are either watching the Gray trials (Mosby) or spending the first two years of their administration inventing new crimes for which to convict its police officers.

    But click through and read it all, especially if you haven’t been following as closely as you should have been.

  • Officer Nero Acquitted on all Charges

    Good. Judge Williams used the law. There was no case. I don’t find this surprising. But then I’ve learned to be surprised by these absurd trials.

    And I was speaking to a friend here in New Orleans who, naturally, assumed the officers are guilty. She hadn’t read my primer and had no idea this trial had nothing (except politics) to do with Freddie’s death.

    Judge Williams ruled that Nero had nothing even to do with Freddie Gray’s arrest.

    Update: I generally discount the “anti-cop mainstream media” hype you hear from a lot of people. But I just received a call from a station out west and told them what I thought about the verdict. I was told, “I totally agree with what you’re saying, but we’re looking for a more ‘agnostic’ guest.” I’m not sure whether “agnostic” mean ignorant or biased. But facts be damned, they won’t be satisfied until they get “both” sides of this story equally represented. It’s how false narratives are built.

  • Illinois v. Wardlow (2000), the Good Parts Version

    For all ya’ll too lazy to read Illinois v. Wardlow (2000), here is the key part that relates to the constitutionality of chasing suspects who run from a drug corner. The Freddie Gray scenario is almost exactly similar to Wardlow. (I’ve selectively bolded and also removed the citations, but you can click through for the court cases and such):

    In Terry v. Ohio, we held that an officer may, consistent with the Fourth Amendment, conduct a brief, investigatory stop when the officer has a reasonable, articulable suspicion that criminal activity is afoot. While “reasonable suspicion” is a less demanding standard than probable cause and requires a showing considerably less than preponderance of the evidence, the Fourth Amendment requires at least a minimal level of objective justification for making the stop….

    [Officers were] converging on an area known for heavy narcotics trafficking, and the officers anticipated encountering a large number of people in the area, including drug customers and individuals serving as lookouts. It was in this context that Officer Nolan decided to investigate Wardlow after observing him flee. An individual’s presence in an area of expected criminal activity, standing alone, is not enough to support a reasonable, particularized suspicion that the person is committing a crime. But officers are not required to ignore the relevant characteristics of a location in determining whether the circumstances are sufficiently suspicious to warrant further investigation. Accordingly, we have previously noted the fact that the stop occurred in a “high crime area” among the relevant contextual considerations in a Terry analysis.

    In this case, moreover, it was not merely respondent’s presence in an area of heavy narcotics trafficking that aroused the officers’ suspicion, but his unprovoked flight upon noticing the police. Our cases have also recognized that nervous, evasive behavior is a pertinent factor in determining reasonable suspicion. Headlong flight — wherever it occurs — is the consummate act of evasion: It is not necessarily indicative of wrongdoing, but it is certainly suggestive of such. … The determination of reasonable suspicion must be based on commonsense judgments and inferences about human behavior. We conclude Officer Nolan was justified in suspecting that Wardlow was involved in criminal activity, and, therefore, in investigating further.

    Such a holding is entirely consistent with our decision in Florida v. Royer, where we held that when an officer, without reasonable suspicion or probable cause, approaches an individual, the individual has a right to ignore the police and go about his business. And any “refusal to cooperate, without more, does not furnish the minimal level of objective justification needed for a detention or seizure.” But unprovoked flight is simply not a mere refusal to cooperate. Flight, by its very nature, is not “going about one’s business”; in fact, it is just the opposite. Allowing officers confronted with such flight to stop the fugitive and investigate further is quite consistent with the individual’s right to go about his business or to stay put and remain silent in the face of police questioning.

    Respondent and amici also argue that there are innocent reasons for flight from police and that, therefore, flight is not necessarily indicative of ongoing criminal activity. This fact is undoubtedly true, but does not establish a violation of the Fourth Amendment.

    It’s rare that one decision so perfectly mirrors a current case. And this makes it all the more absurd that there’s any question about the police officers’ stop of Freddie Gray.

    Also, it’s worth pointing out, as I did in Cop in the Hood, that Wardlow and Terry are both great examples of how those who live in the high-crime ghettos are granted less constitutional protection than those who live in “nice” neighborhoods.

    Police in a poor black neighborhood can (legally) get away with things that would never fly in a nice part of town. There is is a different constitutional standard based on geography and crime (and hence race). Of course people aren’t running from drug corners — or shooting each other so much — in neighborhoods without public drug dealing. Crime and “commonsense judgements” do matter. But at some level it’s still kind of messed up. It reminds me of Anatole France’s famous line: “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”

  • A primer on the Freddie Gray trials

    A lot of people still don’t know the basics about the death of Freddie Gray and the trial of six Baltimore City police officers. I understand people have other priorities, but many of those with no clue still hold very strong opinions. So here’s a selective primer on the trial of the officers in the death of Freddie Gray.

    Update, June 27: (Don’t want to say I told you so, but…) all charges have been dropped.

    Update, June 15: We’re in the middle of the Goodson trial (the van driver). And ready to call it all. It’s over. Everybody is going to be acquitted.

    Legal Summary Update, June 8: This has been surprisingly hard to figure out, because the State’s Attorney, Mosby, has repeated changed her story. Initially she claimed the stop was illegal and the arrest was illegal. But that was false. There was clear reasonable suspicion for the stop, and the knife is probably illegal — or at least a reasonable officer could believe so, as said by a court commissioner — so the arrest was legal. (And no, despite what Mosby has argued, cops don’t have to ask about the legal justification for a foot pursuit to join in.)

    So what the prosecution tried to argue, which is really quite absurd, is that because of the length and style of the detention — the time when Gray was already in handcuffs (as is standard after catching a fleeing suspect), at some point during the period between the legal stop and the subsequent arrest — at some point the stop became an arrest before the knife was found. And at the point of arrest, the legal standard needed by police would rise from “reasonable suspicion” to “probably cause.” So if an arrest happened before the knife was found, police officers would not have had probable cause for an arrest. This is an amazing, novel, and almost incomprehensible legal argument. And it rightly failed in the trial of Officer Nero.

    The other issue that will come into play, especially in the Goodson trial, is denied medical care. It’s not clear that this happened at a criminally negligent level. But even if there was no crime, at least the basic legal argument here makes sense.]

    [The original post starts here]

    Fact 1: Freddie Gray had not been injured when police put him in the wagon. Video not withstanding (yes, he looks hurt to me, too), this seems to be the greatest misunderstanding. The medical examiner’s report was clear that Freddie was physically OK when he went in the van. I defer to the doctor. Also, arresting officers are being charged with everything including the kitchen sink, but they are not being charged with hurting Gray. This is not in doubt. This is not what the trials are about. Gray was hurt after being put in the van and (obviously in hindsight) wasn’t given essential medical care.

    What this means: Before he was put in the van, Gray raised a fuss to attract attention and went limp, so officers had to carry him into the van. This is hardly unheard of, by the way. It doesn’t necessarily mean he was totally faking it, though that could be. Maybe Gray was honestly claustrophobic. That could be for real. One officer I know knew and arrested Gray. He said Gray never resisted arrest, but he would freak out when confronted with the closed confined reality of being in the wagon. But the important thing to understand is that the video that started this all, that led to riots, and this prosecution, is now almost a non-issue.

    Fact 2: Gray died as a result of a major injury sustained in the police van. Gray suffered very severe impact to his neck, similar to a diving injury, which caused major damage to his spinal cord. His spine did not snap, but the nerves were so broken that it was “like” his spine had snapped. We don’t know exactly how this damage happened. But we do know it happened in the police van. After picking up Gray, the police van made five stops en route to the Western District police station. One of those stops happened because Gray was raising such a fuss that the van driver stopped to further restrain Gray. The van even picked up at least one other prisoner, who reported nothing unusual in terms of crazy driving.

    What this means: While Gray’s death could have been caused by an intentional effort by the wagon driver to hurt Gray, it’s equally likely it was an accident. In the end, Gray was shackled by his hands and feet and placed on the floor of the van, face down and head first. My guess is that either Gray slid forward when the van braked, slamming his head into the front wall. Or Gray tried to get up and failed, cracking his head on the hard bench falling down. Is there a better and more expensive way to transport prisoners? Sure. But Baltimore won’t pay for a better system because Baltimore is broke.

    [May 16 Update: from twitter.]

    It might be worth mentioning, not to say I didn’t understand the theoretical concept, but as a former Baltimore cop I wasn’t even familiar with the term “rough ride” until these events. Baltimore police culture does not allow you to pass your dirty work to another cop. If you wanted to hurt a prisoner, you would need to do it yourself. And you don’t mess with a guy after the cuffs go on.

    Fact 3: A prisoner is your ultimate responsibility. A human being is literally in bondage, and you are their keeper. When you have a prisoner, you are 100-percent responsible for their well being. You can’t go into police custody alive and come out dead. Period. If you make an arrest, the prisoner is yours until the wagon driver assumes responsibility. When this happens, the wagon driver will search the prisoner (again), and there will be a swapping of handcuffs (unless disposable flex cuffs were used in the original arrest). Responsibility of the prisoner transfers exactly at this moment. (It’s also, as a prisoner, your last good chance to make a break for it!) When you get your cuffs back, the prisoner is no longer your responsibility. This is actually one of the very few clear-cut understandings in a police world generally lacking in them. (Responsibility transfers again at Central Booking. But Gray never made it there because Central Booking won’t take prisoners who need medical care. Despite obvious need, there is no doctor at Central Booking. Why not? you might ask…)

    What this means: If Gray went into the wagon OK, the responsibility for his death, right or wrong, falls on the wagon driver. Those are the rules. This doesn’t imply intent or even criminal action on the driver’s part. But prisoners are not allowed to die in your custody. Period. (well, maybe if they have late Stage 4 cancer or something… )

    Fact 4: This is more of a “fun fact.” But it seems worth mentioning. It was a directive from the State’s Attorney that directly led to Gray running from police on a Sunday morning and dying. Ironic, no?

    On March 17 (three weeks before Gray’s arrest on April 12, 2015) Joshua Rosenblatt, working for Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby (the State’s Attorney is the elected public prosecutor, known in some other places as a District Attorney), contacted the Western District Police Station (one of nine police Districts in Baltimore City) and asked them to target the corner of W North and N Mount “for enhanced prosecutorial (and hopefully police) attention.” [May 17 update] I think this pressure originated from the Fulton Baptist Church, a block away, whose parishioners got tired, in their Sunday walk from their car to their church, of being bothered by drug dealers, addicts, and small-time hustlers like Freddie Gray.

    Baltimore Police Lt. Brian Rice (whom I worked with briefly, back in the Eastern, many years ago) received instructions to begin a “daily narcotics initiative” focused on North Avenue and Mount Street. “Daily measurables” would be collecting on their progress.

    Over the past few years there has been (by my rough calculation) an average of one homicide every three months just within 1,000 feet of this intersection! We’re talking four murders a year in 1/7th of a square mile.

    What this means: Police officers would love to reduce crime and solve neighborhood quality-of-life issues, but when orders come to produce “daily measurables,” “stats” they will produce. This means stopping people, making low-level discretionary arrests, and otherwise hassling the drug dealers, drug addicts, and other hangers-on of this drug “shop.” This may not be ideal policing, but it isn’t necessarily bad policing. (You got a better idea?) For what it’s worth, during the weeks of “special attention,” there were no homicides.

    Fact 5: These are weak cases, criminally. Just because somebody died doesn’t mean one officer, much less six, is guilty of any crime. It is close to undisputed that the police chase, stop, detention, frisk, search, and arrest of Freddie Gray were legal. Things get complicated here, as Mosby is throwing in every charge she can think of, but case law and precedent are very well established here. The legal case against the officers for what they did do (as opposed to what they didn’t do) is incredibly weak.

    What this means: Soon after Mosby charged the cops, she would modestly take credit for ended the riots. This was contrary to reality (the riots had already ended) and legal ethics (you can’t charge innocent people to placate a mob). In her rush to bring charges against cops, Mosby’s office seemed shockingly unclear about both what happened and basic legal concepts related to stop and frisk (yes, that is a possibility).

    You do not need “probably cause” to “stop” somebody; you need “reasonable suspicion.” (I’m putting the legal terms in quotes.) The Supreme Court has specifically ruled on the matter of running from a drug corner (Illinois v Wardlow). Running is not a crime, but running from a drug corner at the sight of cops gives police “reasonable suspicion” to justify a “stop.”

    The concepts of “reasonable suspicion,” “stop,” and “frisk” all come from Terry v Ohio (1968). Terry gives officer the right to “frisk” a suspect for weapons. During a “frisk,” which is defined as a patdown of outer clothes for weapons, you might feel “contraband” (a weapon or, in most states, drugs). If you can “articulate” this based on “plain feel,” you now have “probable cause” to “search” that area and dig out whatever is there. If it’s illegal, you can arrest the person.

    Currently (May 2016 trial of Nero) the prosecutor is claiming that Terry doesn’t give officers reason to detain Gray for any length of time. This is downright crazy. It won’t work. If Judge Williams thinks otherwise, his decision will A) be overturned on appeal or B) Maryland v. Nero will become a landmark Supreme Court case that overturns years of established legal precedent.

    In this case Gray had a knife that most likely violates Baltimore City ordinances. There’s ambiguity here as to what the law means, with its reference to an “automatic spring.” But — and get this — even if the knife were legal, it wouldn’t automatically make the arrest illegal. The legality of the knife would matter only to the prosecution of the suspect with the knife. The legal standard by which a police officer is judged is “reasonableness.” Could a reasonable officer believe the knife was illegal? Yes, especially if it is. And given that the prosecutor’s office won’t show us the knife, I suspect there’s no question here. But we don’t know for sure.

    Now make no mistake, officers wanted to arrest Gray because Gray ran. That’s the penalty for making cops break a sweat and chasing you on an otherwise quiet Sunday morning. But running is not a crime. (We sardonically call it “felony running.”) And if Gray had had no knife (and cops couldn’t figure out some other minor charge to get him on) cops would have had to let him go.

    Fact 6: It is departmental policy to seat belt suspects. But it is not a law.

    What this means: It’s not clear. Is failure-to-seat belt negligence? We’ll see. But it’s a stretch.

    And then things get downright curious here… (Not as curious as, say, sabotaging an FBI investigation about police overtime at a Staples by breaking into a secret internal affairs office, stealing files, and then dumping them in a Dunkin Donuts dumpster curious… but curious). So there was this memo that was supposedly issued just a few days before Gray’s arrest clearly mandating seatbelt use. The department issues its first memo in 17 years on seatbelt policy just a few days before Gray’s arrest and consequent shitstorm? What a coincidence. I don’t know anybody who saw this email before Gray’s death. In other words, the memo may have been backdated.

    Could the department and the State’s Attorney not know police department policy? Sure. There’s no index in the book of “general orders.” You can’t just quickly look something up. All this said, the irony is that the new memo issued a policy that already was department policy! I just don’t think they knew this.

    Regardless, policy isn’t law. And department policy can and should be ignored, depending on the circumstance.

    In my days most suspects were belted in. Now, they say, not so much. Either way, it is the wagon driver’s responsibility. I think common practice changed because now there’s a middle barrier in the van (for prisoners’ safety, from each other). Space is very tight. And if a suspect is resisting, it indeed may not be practical or safe to use a seat belt. In this case, there was an angry crowd on the scene (being fed false rumors by Gray’s friend, Brandon Ross). And Freddie Gray was thrashing around, uncooperative. The police goal then is to get out of there before things get really ugly.

    Fact 7: After the riots on April 27, 2015, violent crime in Baltimore doubled. Overnight. I know of no other time in human history that violent crime changed so dramatically on one specific day. Overall, homicides increased from 211 in 2014 to 344 in 2015. Literally (roughly) one in every 220 black men aged 18 to 34 was murdered in 2015. Think about that. This is a solider-in-war level of mortality. This is shameful. This is wrong.

    What this means: Policing in Baltimore changed after the riots and the criminal prosecution of the six officers, at least five of whom did nothing wrong. Murder and rising violence should be higher on our list of concerns. Many on the anti-police left want police to have less discretion and be less proactive. And this is what happened, out of choice and necessity. We see this correlated with increased violence and homicide. And yet so many, mostly on ideological grounds, try to deny this reality or downplay its significance.

    Summary: Gray died in police custody. You’re not allowed to die in police custody. But that doesn’t necessarily make death a criminal act. We have a tort system and civil lawsuits to resolve cases of accidental deaths. But, you might be asking:

    If the cops are so not-criminally guilty, why is Baltimore’s leadership wasting so much time and effort prosecuting six innocent police officers? Is Mosby really attending the trial and is her number-two person the trial attorney? This is a misdemeanor case. Who’s minding the shop? Doesn’t Mosby, well, have better things to do?

    Well, you’d have to ask her, but apparently, in a city with hundreds of unprosecuted murders, she doesn’t think so.

    And do consider that Mosby and Mayor Rawlings-Blake may simply not be good at their job (and include former police commissioner Batts in this category). I mean, you can form your own opinion, but Baltimore might have really bad elected officials. The mayor inadvertently stoked the riot by saying, and I quote: “We also gave those who wish to destroy space for that as well.” She said these “space to destroy” remarks were “mischaracterized.” But she never corrected or clarified them. The riots were her Ray Nagin’s Katrina moment. Later the mayor had the gall to say that other cities should be envious to have had such a little riot. Even with skyrocketing crime rate and crumbling infrastructure, you can win elections in Baltimore by being a “progressive” “reformer” calling for “justice” against the police. You don’t seem to lose your job by doing a bad job.

    As to State’s Attorney Mosby, here’s what I think: after watching the video of Gray being led to the van and listening to people unclear on legal concepts, Mosby decided Gray was illegally arrested and severely injured by the arresting officers. In her rush to bring charges, Mosby jumped the gun. Turns out she was wrong about what happened. (Hence the now-dropped assault and false imprisonment charges.) When facts (such as the medical examiner’s report) became known, they didn’t support her Plan A, so she had to go to Plan B or C. Admitting she made a mistake (which actually is a prosecutor’s ethical responsibility) is not going to happen. And honestly, Mosby, who comes from a long line of bad cops, may have deeper issues with cops and police departments. But no matter my Freudian analysis, Mosby’s political career — not to mention her Vogue appearances — hangs in the balance. She can’t afford to lose.

    The police officers being charged (and trial dates as of March 16):

    Officer Edward Nero is on trial for second-degree assault and misconduct in office. (He was originally also charged with false imprisonment.) These charges have nothing (except politics) to do with the death of Freddie Gray, which makes the case both weak and somewhat absurd.

    Update, May 23: Nero was acquitted on all charges. Judge Williams did not buy the “accomplice theory,” saying it is “not an appropriate application of the law.”

    Officer Caesar Goodson June 6. As the van driver, he faces the most serious charges: second-degree depraved-heart murder (nobody is really clear what “depraved-heart” means), manslaughter, second-degree assault, two counts of vehicular manslaughter, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment.

    Officer Brian Rice July 5, involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, two counts of misconduct in office, and reckless endangerment. (He was originally also charged with false imprisonment.)

    Officer Garrett Miller July 27, second-degree assault and misconduct in office. (Also originally charged with false imprisonment.)

    Officer William Porter September 6 for a retrial after his first trial ended in a hung jury on charges of involuntary manslaughter charge, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, two counts of misconduct in office.

    Officer Alicia White October 13, involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment charges. Rice also faces an additional count of misconduct in office.

    The other players:

    Freddie Gray: Died in police custody.

    Brandon Ross: Gray’s friend and a witness who recorded Gray being dragged to the van and falsely claimed that Gray was beaten and tased by the arresting officers. He’s since been arrested for stabbing somebody.

    Michael Schatzow and Janice Bledsoe: Attorneys prosecuting Nero.

    Judge Barry G. Williams: The judge. And since Nero’s trial is a bench trial. He alone makes the call. No jury.

    Marc Zayon: Nero’s attorney

    Bystanders that pop up include Freddie Gray’s civil lawyer William “Billy” Murphy. If it’s a lawsuit against cops, it’s usually Murphy or Dwight Pettit on the case. There’s also Douglas Colbert, a media hound and law professor who is always ready to give an anti-police spin to reporters.

    For more on Freddie Gray, see the coverage in the Baltimore Sun.