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Tag: Baltimore 6

  • Why the stops matter

    Why the stops matter

    These stops are confusing and the numbering system is never consistent, but they still matter. Here are some maps from WBAL:

    The summary from WBAL:

    Prosecutors contend Porter is criminally negligent for Gray’s death, because he didn’t call a medic when Gray requested one, and he didn’t buckle Gray into a seat belt at the police van’s fourth stop [labeled 5, above] at Druid Hill Avenue and Dolphin Street, the stop where Porter testified he helped Gray from the van floor onto the bench.

    Porter said he didn’t call a medic, because Gray wasn’t specific about an injury, and he didn’t see any signs of external distress. Porter told the jury, at this point, he assisted Gray, who used his legs and could support his own weight.

    Officer Mark Gladhill testified for the defense Thursday and said at the van’s fifth stop [I’m not clear if this is 5 or 6 above] he saw Gray leaning, but he was supporting his back and his head:

    “You are positive that Mr. Gray was holding his own head up?” [Gladhill] was asked, to which he replied, “Yes. I’m positive.”

    This wouldn’t be possible if Gray had already broken his neck. If Gray wasn’t seriously hurt when Porter dealt with Gray, Porter can’t be neglectful for not taking care of an injury that hadn’t yet happened. There’s still the seat belt issue, but that’s weak in relation to Porter. Prosecutors contend Gray got hurt earlier. (I’m not exactly certain how the prosecution asserts how they know that the injury happened earlier.) Gladhill’s statement is important.

    From the Washington Post:

    Porter responded after the police van’s driver, Officer Caesar Goodson Jr., put out a call for a welfare check on Gray. Porter testified this week that he helped Gray off the floor of the van, asked him if he needed a medic (but never called one) and told Goodson to take him to a hospital. Those actions, [Baltimore police Capt. Justin] Reynolds testified, go “beyond what many officers would have done.”

    From WBAL:

    Porter said he asked Gray at the fourth stop if he needed to go to the hospital and Gray said yes. Porter said he told van driver, Officer Caesar Goodson, that Gray needed to go to a hospital. He said, “I could not order Goodson to do that.”

    Gray wasn’t Porter’s prisoner. That matters. Again from the Post:

    At the fifth van stop, Gray again told Porter that he needed a medic, and Porter told his supervisor, Sgt. Alicia White, that Gray needed to go to a hospital. Reynolds said it was “absolutely reasonable” for Porter to expect the supervisor to get help. White has also been charged in Gray’s death.

    Reynolds said that Goodson was ultimately responsible for Gray’s well-being and that the department’s general orders are “guidelines,” not strict requirements.

    “There are parts of general orders you have to violate to do your job,” Reynolds said. He cited a much-ignored rule that officers be quiet and civil at all times as an example. He added: “Common sense prevails over everything else.”

    If I were on the jury, I’d have more than reasonable doubt.

    If Baltimore were a white-majority city with a white political power structure, the political Left would be screaming at the racism and injustice of prosecutors charging an innocent black man.

  • “When is failing to act a crime?”

    Ian Duncan of the Sun explores the issue:

    David Harris … said American criminal laws are usually of the “thou shalt not” variety, rather than “thou shalt.”

    “We’re pretty stingy in this country and this culture with obligating people to do stuff,” Harris said.

    …

    Legal experts also said it’s difficult to find criminal cases against police officers accused of inaction.

    …

    David Gray … said the jury could decide to convict Porter of manslaughter — the most serious charge that carries a sentence of up to 10 years — based on one of two legal theories.

    Under one, the jury could convict Porter if they find beyond a reasonable doubt that he knew his failure to act posed a “substantial and unjustified risk of death or severe bodily harm,” the professor said.

    Under another, they could convict Porter if they find that he should have known the risk and that “his failure to recognize that risk was so wanton as to represent a gross deviation from the standard of care that any reasonable officer” would have given.

    …

    Philip Stinson, a professor at Bowling Green State University who maintains a database of police misconduct cases, found just two incidents among thousands he has logged between 2005 and 2011 in which police were charged with negligent homicide in a death that didn’t involve a gun or an automobile crash.

    …

    “The Maryland judiciary has, as far as I can tell, produced a surprisingly vague body of homicide law,” [Serota] said.

    Judges have called the state’s laws “treacherously ambiguous,” and “perplexing,” Serota wrote in a recent law article. In Maryland, he noted, the criminal code doesn’t define manslaughter other than to say it’s a felony and to outline the penalties.

    …

    [In another case after a jury convicted a Maryland police officer of involuntary manslaughter], the Court of Appeals threw out the verdict, finding that there was insufficient evidence. The judges ruled that reasonable officers would have acted the same way as [the cop], so he could not be found criminally responsible.

    The judges instructions to the jury will be very important. Are those public?

  • “There is no such crime as ‘homicide by no seat belt’”

    “Mosby is getting her rear end kicked in court. Not by a brilliant defense strategy, but by the facts. Facts that she could have discovered had she conducted herself professionally and ethically.” So saysPage Croyder, who retired in 2008 after 21 years with the State’s Attorney’s Office. My last post highlighted her insightful blog.

    In police trials like this, people look for solutions to grand moral and historical issues. But criminal prosecution is about the guilt of an individual. If you’re looking for answers to society’s problems, or just someone to blame for all the wrongs in the world, a criminal trial isn’t the right place.

    Even among those who love the idea of prosecuting cops, ideologues who lap up and purr any time they hear “progressive” talk, I’ve yet to hear anybody actually defend Mosby’s choices or competency. Even those who don’t trust cops (sometimes for good reason) may have to accept that these cops are innocent.

    Here is Croyder’s take on the current trial of Officer Porter (the first of six officers to be tried). She wrote this op-ed in the Sun from back in May. But her similar blog piece throws some extra punches.

    A later piece, also from May:

    I already discussed Mosby’s failure to use the important tools available to her that any competent prosecutor would have taken. I was willing to believe that this reckless failure stemmed from inexperience.

    But her press conference was troubling in how far it strayed from a prosecutor’s duty. She addressed herself to protesters across the country, embraced their cause, called for sociological change, promised justice for the young and for Freddie Gray.

    …

    These words, together with her demeanor, drew praise from newspaper editors, TV reviewers and many in the public. But they were the words of a politician, not a prosecutor. As a prosecutor her performance was awful, violating her ethical duty and generating suspicion that her charges were political.

    …

    Mosby is in the wrong office. Once elected as State’s Attorney, she had to abide by ethical rules that she repeatedly ignores…. Politicians can lead wherever they choose. But unless prosecutors are bulwarks against politics in the criminal justice system, that system fails.

    From June:

    Death by no seat belt or medical delay would ordinarily be a case headed for civil court….

    What to me remains most indicative of Mosby’s mindset is her pursuit of the two arresting officers, who we now know for certain had nothing to do with Gray’s death. On duty after Mosby’s office urged greater crime suppression in that exact location, these officers justifiably pursued someone who fled from them on sight, and with ample legal precedent behind them, took him down and patted for weapons. By turning this into a crime, Mosby has told all police officers that they cannot do their jobs as they have been trained to do them.

    Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and [now former] Police Commissioner Leonard Batts are taking all the heat for the crime spike since Mosby charged the six officers. No one locally wants to point the finger at Mosby. I will. It’s mostly on her.

    I said much the same thing. It’s not just that cops were worried about making a terrible mistake and then being prosecuted. It’s the legitimate fear Baltimore cops have of being criminal charged for doing their job correctly.

    From October:

    The decision of Judge Barry Williams to keep the trials of the six police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore City demonstrates that judges, too, are human.

    …

    Legally speaking, Judge Williams should have moved the trials out of Baltimore…. If the top prosecutor, whose sole job it is to follow the facts and the evidence, was influenced by the unrest, wouldn’t the citizens of Baltimore be similarly influenced?

    …

    By deciding to keep the case in Baltimore, Judge Williams has created a substantial argument for reversal, something that trial judges try – or should try – to avoid for the sake of all parties.

    Judge Williams has proved that he will work hard. A number of lazy Baltimore judges would have moved the case just to get out of the work this case entails. Nevertheless, those lazy judges would have been legally correct.

    December 3:

    In the first year of her administration, with a million issues to confront, Mosby is being paid over $238,000 to watch a trial. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why: she has staked her reputation on this case, and she wants the judge and jurors to know it, to influence them by her presence. Never in my two decades as a Baltimore prosecutor did I see the State’s Attorney watch a trial. They had too much work to do.

    December 10:

    Mosby and her team lack the judgment, priorities and experience needed to run an effective prosecutor’s office anyway. Mosby was a run-of-the-mill prosecutor who became a run-of-the-mill insurance attorney before election to the largest prosecutor’s office in the state.

    Here’s her most recent post:

    Her own probable cause statement did not support her sensational indictments. The autopsy report didn’t either, despite it’s legal conclusion (that was clearly influenced by Mosby.) And now the facts reveal that not only are the charges not provable beyond a reasonable doubt, but the officers are actually innocent.

    …

    In any event, there is no such crime as “homicide by no seat belt.” If one wants to call it negligence — despite other police departments (not to mention other transit vehicles, like buses) not using seat belts — then fine. That’s why the city paid the Gray family over $6 million. But there was no police brutality or a criminal disregard for Gray’s safety.

    When Mosby loses and the officer walk free, then what? Bad leadership has consequences.

  • Longo testifies it’s OK to violate the rules, if you can defend your actions

    I don’t personally remember Timothy Longo, but I do remember his name. Was he in the E&T chain of command in 2000?

    Londo testified in Porter’s trial today. Longo said that the van driver, Goodson:

    was ultimately responsible for Gray’s care, and that Porter had notified a supervisor that Gray needed help. He said Goodson and the supervisor, Sgt. Alicia D. White — not Porter — had the responsibility to take further action.

    “I believe [Porter’s] actions were objectively reasonable under the circumstances he was confronted with.”

    Well said.

    But what is more interesting to me is that Longo said officers can violate general orders, “with the understanding that they could face administrative scrutiny.” Of course that is exactly the way the police world works, but I’ve never heard it expressed exactly that way: go ahead and violate the rules; just be able to defend you actions. Rules aren’t laws.

    Of course the average cop doesn’t trust their boss enough to do the right thing. But it’s still nice to hear such standards articulated by Longo.

    Update: “Reynolds saysgeneral orders are acceptably violated all the time. Officers asked to use common sense and good judgment”

  • “Put yourself in William Porter’s shoes”

    Great column by Tricia Bishop, if you still have free Sun articles in the bank (you could always subscribe).

  • Porter trial: Dec 7.

    The prosecution rested. Judgment of Acquittal did not happen, alas.

    Judge Williams did rule that prosecutors failed to disclose that Freddie Gray had allegedly told a police officer the month before he died that he suffered from back problems. From the Sun:

    Porter’s attorneys asked that Williams dismiss the charges against Porter, grant a mistrial, or strike the testimony of the medical experts who had testified. Williams did not grant those requests but said the defense could use the information.

  • Backdated seatbelt memo?

    The Sun on that BPD seat belt policy:

    Chief Deputy State’s Attorney Michael Schatzow said Porter showed a “callous indifference for life” when he deviated from department policies. Defense attorneys have said other police officers routinely break such policies, but Schatzow said those officers should not be considered “reasonable.”

    What’s interesting is that the “new” policy, says the department, came out on April 3. Yet a source, a person I trust, says that policy didn’t actually come out till after Freddie Gray’s arrest, on April 12. The department backdated the memo. I wouldn’t put that past them. According to reports, the April 3 memo “went out on April 9, just three days before Porter’s encounter with Gray in Sandtown-Winchester.” Wouldn’t that be convenient. But it was never read in roll call. Nobody seems to have seen it until after Freddie Gray died. There should at least be an email trail, that 80 page attachment. When did that arrive in the in-boxes?

    Of course even if there were no 2015 update, the 1999 memo should still be in effect. Or maybe there was another update in policy between 1999 and 2015? I don’t know. How could anybody know? The whole damn system is messed up. I suspect the department didn’t know about the 1999 memo and assumed the 1997 policy was still valid. (Which I can’t find but nobody seems to doubt.)

    So it’s possible that in 2015 somebody in the Baltimore City Police Department backdated a new policy to screw the officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray, unaware that the policy they were updating was actually identical to what the new memo said. (The 2015 memo might say the year of the policy it is updating, right? I’d be curious to see it.)

    Either way, based on 1999 general orders or 2015 policy, all prisoners should be seatbelted. And also no police officer: “while riding gratis on any type of public conveyance, [is] permitted to be seated while other passengers are standing.” One questions at hand (the other is about delayed medical care) is whether violating the seat belt policy can be a crime (because Freddie Grey died) It seems like a reasonable person might have doubts.

  • Fiddlesticks!

    @PeterMoskos wins the “Most Profanity in One Quote” Award. https://t.co/Rt22OJRYjy

    — Jeffrey Butts (@JeffreyButts) December 5, 2015

    I’m humbled and honored to win the Golden Middle Finger award. I’d like to thank all the sailors and pirates who taught me everything I know, gosh darnit.

    In all seriousness, this Guardian piece by Baynard Woods might be the first fair thing The Guardianhas written about police since the Coldbath Fields Riot of 1833:

    “I can imagine for Porter it’s difficult,” said Leon Taylor, an African American who served as a Baltimore City police officer for over a decade. “It’s more difficult when you feel that you’re part of the community and the community is willing to negate all of the positive things that you’ve done and all the greater things you could have accomplished because of this incident.”

    …

    “If he’s convicted then his lawyer is under an ethical duty to present Porter with other alternatives to being sentenced for the crime or crimes for which he was convicted,” Colbert [a professor of law at the University of Maryland] said. “That’s where he’ll be faced with being offered a negotiation that would likely require his testimony against other officers in exchange for leniency in his ultimate sentence.”

    …

    Peter Moskos, a former member of the Baltimore police department who is now an author and professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, acknowledged that there is a blue wall but said it only goes so far.

    “The general rule of thumb is: No, cops will not go out of their way to say bad things about another cop certainly,” he said. “But cops also aren’t willing to go to jail for the misdeeds of another cop. ‘Why am I going to risk my pension and my job for your fuck up’ is the general attitude … To some extent, when the shit hits the fan, all bets are off. You do have to cover your ass first.”

    “It seems like they’ve adopted a divide and conquer strategy to get the desired outcome of the case,” Taylor said of the prosecution, but noted that ultimately it depends on the outcome.

    Moskos was a bit more fatalistic.

    “I mean the problem is, even in the best case scenario for cops, they’re still fucked because Freddie Gray went into the van alive and came out dead,” he said. “That can’t happen.”

    Yeah, I got four bad boys and two f-bombs in there, thank you very much. Just for the record, we chatted for half an hour and there were long stretches without single a curse word.

    As a side note, it always cracks me up when people who don’t know policing talk confidently about the “Blue Wall of Silence”: “There’s a very strong police culture that values and enforces a code of silence,” Colbert says. How the hell would he know?

    Cops testify against cops all the time. Cops are testifying against cops right now. And right now people will insist it never happens. I mean, I bet Colbert knows a few professors, maybe some lawyers, who haven’t always been on the level. What has he said? How many of you would go out of their way to rat out a colleague? Do students tell on other students who cheats? Not in my experience. Hell I know of a married sociologist who slept with a student. Have I said anything? No. And this isn’t out of some academic “wall of silence.” I don’t even like the guy. But what can I do? It’s not a crime. And I can’t prove it. Policing is no different.

    But one thing Colbert said does make perfect sense. Mosby needs to get a conviction against Portor. She needs to. Because if she does, she can leverage the sentence over him. “Reckless endangerment” can get up to five years (though it’s a misdemeanor… how is that possible?). Five years would mean three years with good time. Or, they tell him, you can walk free if you testify enough against Ceasar Goodson to get a felony conviction (Goodson is the only one of the six who might be found guilty of anything real). Such proscutorial games are standard practice, of course. But that doesn’t make it right. Still, if Portor is acquitted of everything, which he will be if he does well on the stand (which is not a given), this whole “charge everybody who was there” is going to come crashing down on Mosby, as it should.

  • Looking forward in Baltimore

    On a slightly more positive note (than the last post), Mark Puente has a good story on Baltimore Commissioner Kevin Davis and the US DOJ report due in 2016. This articleis worth one of your monthly free Sun articles, assuming you don’t subscribe:

    In other cities, such investigations have exposed problems such as brutality and outdated training, leading to federal oversight that can last for years and cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

    …

    Davis said large groups of officers might attend a lecture at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture to learn about African-American history. Local experts will teach the courses for free, not out-of-state consultants.

    “If we do that right, we will achieve cultural sensitivity, Davis said.

    …

    Ordering officers out of cars, Davis said, doesn’t work if they aren’t properly trained.

    …

    Johnson said the agency needs to improve record-keeping and the analysis of what leads to those arrests, adding: “That’s a major problem.”

    Many of the arrests come from hard-charging, aggressive officers looking to clean up the streets, officials have said.

    Baltimore is no different from other cities where police leaders identify “super cops” based on monthly arrests, Davis said. It’s important to examine the outcomes of those arrests with prosecutors and public defenders, he added.

    “If I’m a superstar cop in the Western District making 40 arrests a month, where did [the arrests] end up in court?” Davis said. “Did those arrests make society better, or did you just leave the community pissed off in the wake of your apprehension?”

    …

    Most patrol cars don’t have computers, radar equipment or license-plate readers. Officers must wait to communicate with dispatchers for the information and complete nearly all paperwork by hand.

    “The inside of Baltimore police car looks like mine from 1992,” Davis said, noting that expected federal reforms will be costly — but mandatory.

    That’s all well and good, I suppose. Things can be made better. They need to be made better. Cops shouldn’t hate the city and those who live in it. Too many do. Cops and church-goers should like each other. Maybe it is an essential first step. But meanwhile nothing is being said about the criminal class killing each other.

  • Dying in Baltimore? Blame the Police.

    Dying in Baltimore? Blame the Police.

    I saw a Tweet about something I already knew, and it still shocked me.

    This year 1 in every 2,000 Baltimoreans will be murdered.

    I know this number is true. I’ve done math. But I still needed to double check. And in many ways it’s even worse. Because we know most people in Baltimore aren’t going to get murdered. 86 percent of those killed in Baltimore are black men. Collectively, you can group together all whites, all black women, all hispanics, and all asians. Together they account for just 11 percent of Baltimore homicide victims. (Race is unknown 3 percent of time.)

    Lethal violence doubled after riots.

    I still want an apology from those idiots who went on national radio and TV with me saying police were the main problem and violence wasn’t even up in Baltimore the riots (they used, “uprising”). Bet I’m not going to get one. I don’t know if anybody still claims that, but nobody ever admitted they were wrong.

    I spend my Saturday night playing with Excel and SPSS. I made three charts that all say the same thing in slightly different ways. I’m not certain which one is the best. Here they all are.

    There are about 180,000 black men in Baltimore. To date 273 have been murdered. Yes. This year, one in every 660 black men in Baltimore has been murdered.

    [Update: 304 black men were killed in Baltimore in 2015. One in every 600 black men was murdered in 2015.]

    And it gets worse. There are only about 45,000 18- to 35-year-old black men in Baltimore. By year’s end, more than 200 will have been killed and another 500 will be shot but live. 45,000 divided by 700 is 64. One in 64 black men 18 to 35 will be shot or killed. One in 225 will be murdered. One year. Think of those odds. Officer William Porter, a black guy from Baltimore who survived those odds, he was working to save lives. He was trying to make his city a safer place. Now Portor is on trial for basically doing his job. Who are the only people who see every bloody crime scene? Who do we send in to deal with this literal and figurative bloody mess? Police officers. “Do something!” we order them.

    And the mayor and State’s Attorney? They’re using their precious resources to lock up the same exact cops they told to “do something” about the drug corner Freddie Gray was on when he ran from police. And poor Freddie Gray? The lead-poisoned drug-addicted barely-literate low-level habitual criminal? He’s a victim, too. But he’s not a hero. They’ve name a “Youth Empowerment Centers” after him? If you can’t find a better role model for black youth in Baltimore, you’re not looking hard enough.

    Maybe if we can keep the focus on the police, nobody will ever get around to noticing the who real is to blame. No need to blame Freddie’s mom, the drugs, lead paint, the schools, the city, the neighborhood, the corrupt politicians, the self-serving religious leaders, the violence, the racism, the criminals, the blight, the lack of jobs, or even Freddie himself. Nope. None of them’s on trial. Only the PO-leece.

    Pa-leeze.