Freddie Gray (1989-2015) was a Black American man killed by police in Baltimore, Maryland. In West Baltimore, in fact, the very Black neighbourhood shown in “The Wire” (2002-2008). While the police investigate themselves, six police officers are on paid leave:
- Lt. Brian Rice,
- Sgt. Alicia White,
- Officer William Porter,
- Officer Garrett Miller,
- Officer Edward Nero and
- Officer Caesar Goodson Jr
On the morning of April 12th 2015, the police looked at Gray and he ran. A friend says Gray has a history of being beat up by police. The police went after him, on bicycles and on foot. They arrested him for running from police. Not a crime.
The police searched Gray and found a knife, a spring-loaded switchblade, which they say is illegal.
Police say they arrested Gray “without force or incident.” Yet when they arrived at the police station 30 minutes later, after taking a round-about way, he was in “serious medical distress” – meaning he could no longer talk or breathe.
Meaning his voicebox was crushed and his spine broken in three places.
What witnesses said:
“They were taking their black batons, whatever they are, and hitting him.”
“They had him folded up like he was a crab or a piece of origami. He was all bent up.”
“Police were telling everyone to leave because they didn’t want anyone taping. They got real smart and nasty.”
One witness said an officer came down on Gray’s neck with his knee.
Gray was screaming in pain. Onlookers said, “Call the ambulance!”, “Call the paramedics!” Something the police did not do for another 30 minutes.
In one citizen video Gray’s legs do not seem to work. The police said it was an act.
He slipped into a coma. A week later, on April 19th, he died of spinal injuries.
Not yet made public:
- video from a police camera that overlooks the scene.
- audio from what the police told dispatchers.
Protests: Growing protests have followed Gray’s death. On Saturday April 25th, police and protesters faced off in the centre of Baltimore for all the world to see. Some protesters broke windows of shops and police cars.
- The (Black) mayor was “profoundly disappointed” – at the protesters, not the police.
- The (White) president of the police union was “offended”. He compared the protests to a “lynching”, saying that police officers have constitutional rights, like the right to due process. And not being arrested unfairly.
Riots broke out in West Baltimore today, April 27th. The governor called out the National Guard.
Police brutality in Baltimore:
- Since 2011, the Baltimore police department has paid $5.7 million to settle over 100 lawsuits dealing with police brutality and other misconduct.
- Just last year they beat Tyrone West to death after a routine traffic stop.
Investigations:
- The police will turn over their findings in the Gray case to the state this Friday (May 1st).
- The state of Maryland can then carry out its own investigation.
- The US Justice Department is looking into whether Gray’s civil rights were violated. They did the same for Michael Brown and found nothing.
– Abagond, 2015.
Update (May 1st): Marilyn Mosby, the city prosecutor, charged all six police officers with crimes, one of them with “second degree depraved heart murder”.
Update (May 4th): That bit about the knife turned out to be a police lie. Gray had a pocketknife (legal), not a large, switchblade knife (illegal).
Update (June 25th): The medical examiner ruled Gray’s death a homicide. His death was caused by police not following proper procedures to ensure his safety (they gave him a “rough ride”).
Update (September 30th): The city will pay Gray’s family $6.4 million in damages. That is huge by the city’s standards. It does not affect the criminal cases against the officers.
The mayor says she will not run for re-election next year.
Update (December 14th): Closing arguments in the trial of the first of the six officers, William Porter, took place today. The jury will probably come to a decision sometime today or tomorrow, though it could be later in the week.
Update (May 24th 2016): The Porter jury deadlocked. He will be retried in September. In May a second officer was tried, Edward Nero. He got off.
Update (June 24th 2016): Caesar Goodson, the driver of the police van, the very one who is believed to have given Gray the “rough ride”, the only one charged with murder, who found not guilty on all charges.
Update (July 27th 2016): The three remaining officers have been let off. More.
See also:
- officers put on trial:
- William Porter – the first of the officers to go on trial
- Edward Nero
- Caesar Goodson
- Baltimore power structure
- #CVSmatters – the riot and Obama’s reaction
- The extremely incomplete list of unarmed Blacks killed by police
- Walter Scott – also ran from police and was killed, on April 4th.
- Michael Brown
- The Wire
- the police
- slave patrols
“sigh” Here we go again….. -_-
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I live in Baltimore. These white beasts are at it once again!!!!
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Its only gone get worse smh. Get Ready
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Reblogged this on kamutef and commented:
The Caucazoid doing what he’s been doing all over the globe since he got out the fucking cave.
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The mayor on Baltimore…on the news using that same ol’ rhetoric calling the guys…
“Thugs” with this fake look of concern on her face.
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It’s a bit embarrassing cuz now some folks are looting the mall but none the less… People are fed up. This has been going on for years.
They killed one of my friends teammates. They boy was only 16. His name was Kevin Cooper back in 07…and nothing happened but its out of control now.
The nasty things these white folks said about that boy was appalling but I’m not surprised. It’s in their nature.
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Why don’t they tell us why this guys spine was severed? But i think i know the answer to that. They beat that guy so severely that his spine was severed. And we all know the outcome the guilty cops who did this will walk free like they always do. Freddie gray’s twin sister asked for there not to be any violence. Last week they just buried Walter Scott and now this lasted fatality is this young brother from Baltimore. And there will be another and another.
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My dad’s family is very much from bmore by way of kc ks
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I think the knife thing sounds like total bs
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-university-of-baltimore-closes-amid-high-school-purge-threat-20150427-story.html#page=1
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Amplify this Thank you, Abagond. 500 words a day.
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Reading this post just p*sses me off. The way I feel now I can understand in full why the rioting and destruction.
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This is not a new phenomenon. I remember in the 90s when PG county had higher rates of police brutality than even Baltimore (actually, led the nation), including all the several dozens who died in police custody, not unlike this case.
But then, there was no demonstration. People don’t even remember it.
I think in 2054, history will write the Michael Brown incident in Ferguson as the turning point (should a movement truly erupt). He was not seen as the perfect poster boy, but it looks like somehow he has emerged as one.
This is a fresh challenge for the new Attorney General. Is she up to the task? It would be nice to clean up the Baltimore police dept.
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@jefe: You beat me to it in regard to the new AG she has her work cut out for her. I bet Eric Holder is glad to resign.
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Sorry for this bro death and all the ones before. And peoples as a whole are feed up with these unlawful killings by peoples who wear badges in the name of law and order. Now look what’s happing in Baltimore ! It’s a thin line of justice and unjust in another city and state.
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[…] Source: abagond.wordpress.com […]
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I agree with what the people of Baltimore brothers are doing 100%.
AS I said before about M.Brown.
Imagine in the city of Baltimore that black people just burst the tyres of non black people and they woke up the next day needing millions of tyres ?
Imagine if every non-black person in the city of New York, when they woke up, their doors could not open because it’s glued shut ?
So you had milions people needing new doors and late for work
Imagine if every supermarket in every major city electric was cut off night ? And all the supermarket owners came to the store the next day and saw that all of their poultry, beef, milk and fish destroyed ?
Imagine if black people poured sugar and salt down every public transport vehicle in LA, Chicago, Detroit ?
Do you know what would happen if public transportation did not work in those cities ?
Are these minor inconveniences ? Sure.
But trust me, 30 intense days of this type of sabotage (And many other I could mention) will make them sit up and take notice
Does this mean that some blacks will go to Jail ? Of course
Does that mean blacks will be beat to the point of death ? Of course
MORE examples of black defiance is needed to rally everyone else
Courage has an addictive quality.
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@Pumpkin:
In the UK this is getting only very cursory coverage by our mainstream media. Nevertheless, the pro-establishment BBC propaganda machine made sure to broadcast Ms Rawlings-Blake’s “thugs” comment. My jaw dropped.
No support from that quarter then. The mayor seems to have decided how she is aligned, and it isn’t alongside ordinary people – the majority of whom, according to Wikipedia, are POC.
Once again, the security of property and the rule of discriminatory law/”justice” take precedence over the well-being of real people.
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I think the Federal Government needs to step in and do something like the voting rights act of 1965.
That means we first need to have a “Selma” event. Or in the age of social media, this police killing by six officers (or one like it) needs to be on video with 70 million youtube hits. But we also need the ear of the President. This is where the Attorney General can do something meaningful during his lame duck office.
Basically, police departments cannot be entrusted to police themselves when there is a police killing or brutality. It must be investigated by a federal authority. If there is wrongdoing, then the relevant police officer will be arrested and indicted, the police department is placed under surveillance for X years until there are no more events.
If any police department tries to hide or obscure it, then the city manager (mayor) or county executive will be placed on surveillance and the police chief will have civil charges brought against him.
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“police departments cannot be entrusted to police themselves when there is a police killing or brutality”
At least in the case of the US this is absolutly necessary and probably a good idea for every government entity, also in cases of corruption and other non-violent crimes. A comparable problem is the military investigating and trying crimes within the military.
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@ Buddhuu
Even before the riot, the BBC website readily applied the word “violent” to protestors breaking windows – but not to police breaking Freddie Gray’s neck.
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The riots are “counterproductive” – but having the police investigate themselves apparently is not.
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US cable news last night: #CVSMatters, #PoliceLivesMatter.
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Last night the mayor (and Fox News) talked about the rioters being “lawless”, but not about the police being “lawless”.
Last night the police chief talked about parents keeping their children in line – but not about him failing to keep the police in line.
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@ jefe
Federal oversight depends on the government’s desire to oversee the departments in question. It’s just as easy for the federal authority to be a rubber stamp and a placebo.
Change must come from how this nation fundamentally sees people of color. All of the institutional strife and discord comes from that nearly-unchanging bedrock. Until that bedrock’s blasted out of the nation’s core, little will change.
Sadly, I don’t know how that could be accomplished outside of a devastating war (and ensuing occupation) that delivers as much fundamental change as the end of WWII brought Germany.
Meanwhile, my own reaction is more toward how the media reacted to Freddie Gray’s death and the ensuing protests and rioting.
http://macklyons.blogspot.com/2015/04/shades-of-freddie-gray.html
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White folks love to see black folk looting etc,. on tv so they can feel good about themselves. It gives them more of an excuse to feel like they’re but deep down they know it’s not true.
That’s why they have to keep distorting history and white washing history and they put themselves in parts of history when they weren’t even on the planet yet.
They know that they ain’t nothing so they need to see you degrade yourselves to give themselves an excuse to justify who they are.
All they need is an excuse.
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And it’s not just the police doing the killing. I think most of you on here know it’s a lot deeper than the police. The police is just a small fraction of a larger whole of these folks coming out of the Caucasus.
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http://www.nytimes.com/live/confrontation-in-baltimore/church-leaders-gang-members-meet/
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@ The Father
The issue of police violence is certainly closely related to racism in the US, but I don’t think it necessarily comes together. For example I assume the police in Germany is just as racist, but it is cerianly less violent.
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The people who got their independence from war, their land from genocide and their economy from chattel slavery expect to be taken seriously when they preach nonviolence
Amazing. What part of “No justice, no peace” are they struggling with?
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@Kartoffel
Honestly the Germans aren’t any more or less least racist than other people in Europe and they’re way more fair than people give them credit for. They’re not intolerant they just don’t hide the fact that they’re intolerant.
I was there, I saw the student riots and the anti immigrant protests and there were way more people there willing to protest FOR immigration as against it.
I notice white people in America who claim to be anti racist will talk all day long but never do a f.cking thing. Because they secretly agree with it. And THATs why racism is worse here to me. People go to any and all lengths to hide it here whereas in Germany people show what they really feel regardless what others think of them.
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@Kartoffel
And I notice white people who travel hate going to Europe and seeing how much better Europeans act than them. They’ll point to random news articles but rarely do they want to go and see first hand. I knew a British Canadian that loved going to ever part of Latin America and Africa but hated going to the UK because he couldn’t feel superior to the smug British people who were his relatives in many cases.The most racist countries in Europe to me are Denmark, UK, and France. And I loved Denmark but it’s like the Mississippi of Europe. France is Louisiana, and the UK is Virginia.
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Ireland is Alabama. Scotland is Kentucky.
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@King,
There is a long history of “3rd race” people functioning as surrogate whites in black communities in that
– there is some prestige in patronizing their business, esp. if they differentiate between different “classes” of black customers
– instead of venting aggression toward whites, which are not even in their communities, they direct their attention toward the non-black non-whites which are in their neighborhood, who represent the face of the people not considered part of their community but who are disenfranchising them.
It happened
– to Chinese owned businesses in Mississippi during the 1960s Civil rights protests and riots
– to Korean owned businesses in L.A. after the Rodney King verdict (1992).
Anyhow, I am not surprised about Maryland. From West Baltimore, you can reach Howard County, MD in just 20-30 mins., the 3rd wealthiest in the nation. Just to think that PG county had even worse police brutality than Baltimore in the 1990s.
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I understand their frustration. Another dead and likely another set of cops allowed to go free.They should have no wonder why black people fear police or why some see police as target practice. As I have said before, these thuggish cops are going to get the good cops killed.
I personally wish they would leave the businesses and homes alone, but the police cars and police station can be free game. After all they are the ones that they have the issue with not the citizens.
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This sums up my thoughts pretty well –> (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=401H_uBbz_E)
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They are trying to take attention away from the root problem of police brutality and point fingers at the looters. Yes there are people that will use this to take advantage and go steal things or start things, but they should not be the focus.
I agree sharina leave the businesses alone especially black businesses, but if ppl are going to loot, go loot something useful, like medkits, pepper spray, water, gas mask, cameras,flashlights, etc.
Death kid amen, this country was built on violence and if there is another 9/11 type event to happen they will not be preaching non violence. Mlk talked about non violence and he still was murdered. Anytime it involves black folk we are expected to be non violent, the only thing ppl understand is money and violence. Most of the top selling movies and games, music is about what? money and violence. Since ppl cannot seem to pull together and put their money together to get stuff done u will have ppl that will resort to violence.
The black puppets are already trying to throw the protestors under the bus, calling them thugs. THen I saw a vid of a mother hitting her son because he was apart of it, the black police whatever his title was, applauded it and said we need more parents like her. Really?! yall ready to have cps on a black parent for spanking their child or on will and jada for that pic of willow but a black parent publicly slapping their child gets a pass?
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They played this on my local radio station today:
“Vietnam Veteran Robert Valentine Stands Up To Baltimore Rioters As They Pelt Police With Rocks [Video]”
http://www.rsvlts.com/2015/04/27/robert-valentine-baltimore-riots/
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We also need to see a video of the mother of one of the police officers implicated in the police brutality to go slap her son for beating and killing someone in custody.
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@ pumpkin
I haven’t been watching the news I just look at the websites and see vids. I figured it would turn into this.
The good thing about situations like this is that u can see how people really feel and see who u need to unfriend.
@ jefe
if that happened she would probably be arrested for assault on a police officer. we know when white folks discipline their kids and it goes viral people want the parents in trouble and are outraged. when that vid of that father shooting his daughters laptop went viral ppl were upset and saying he shouldn’t do that. Vid of a black parent abusing their child oh it’s comedy it’s the way it should be.
It is a slave mentality to abuse ur child publicly in front of white folks. instead of redirecting their anger and talking to them nope that’s too hard better for them to be abused. It seems some black parents know that could be their child killed, they feel helpless so they attack their child hoping that will keep them safe if they train them to take abuse and respect authority and don’t question anything, it is how our ancestors survived slavery. It was necessary during slavery but now there has to be a different way. At some point we have to switch from survivor mode to recovery mode.
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@mstoogood4yall
This is why I miss and love your comments. You hit the nail on the head.
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aw i missed yall. thanks sharina i love ur pic it’s so colorful.
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Just wanted to comment on the Germany comparison.
People do not get shot by police because the police in Germany dont have much of a “self defense” argument – as BS as it may be even in the US. People in Germany generally dont run around with guns. There is simply is no ground to assume somebody is a threat to a cop’s livelihood. So somebody reaching into a pocket or a glove compartment wont receive the same reaction in Germany as it does in the US. A kid with a toy gun will be perceived as a kid with a toy gun because people in Germany cannot easily get their hands on guns. If you have a gun in Germany, you’re either a licensed hunter or neck deep in organized crime. In the US every housewife can buy a gun. So naturally everyone is more on edge and paranoid about their fellow human beings. So yes, people dont get shot in the streets. But that goes in general, not just police. No guns, no shootings. Which is a whole different topic…one on which I can actually support Germany.
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That certainly is part of the explanation. Also, the US doesn’t only have an enormous number of people shot by police, but also a lot of officer that are killed in the line of duty. That happens very rarely in Germany.
When people are shot by the police in Germany they often had knives. But in the US people often get shot even if the police officer doesn’t assume or suspect that the victim has a gun. For example Micheal Brown would probably (obviously pure speculation) not have been shot.
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IMO there are no good police.
There may be some good people who become police officers with a genuine wish to help people, but the power of the police corrupts, and the police force is a tool of establishment coercion. I don’t believe anyone who is a police officer for any significant time can resist being corrupted and dragged into the machinery.
The police serve the middle class and the elite. They don’t serve working class people, especially not working class POC.
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I think it’s terrible how the media is portraying blacks to be “destroying their own neighborhood” in Baltimore. If you know anything about Baltimore, most of the city has already been destroyed for decades. There are tens of thousands of abandoned buildings in Baltimore. Many of the businesses destroyed in the riots were oppressive businesses like liquor stores. Really? In Baltimore or any other inner city area in America, there is another liquor store a block away. Baltimore looked like it got hit by a bomb way before these riots. But that bomb was deindustrialization, white flight and the arguably most booming open air market heroin economy in America. You can only neglect a seething underclass of people for so long. Tens of thousands of Baltimoreans are born into a sad situation of bad schools, lead paint, gun violence, few opportunities and a seductive fast life of sex, cars, clothes and women in the heroin game as a means of survival; all disguised government funded means of population control present in every American inner city area. It’s going to be interesting how this all plays out in the end.
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@mstoogood4yall
Thanks.
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“Ferguson Activist Battles CNN’s Blitzer: ‘No Excuse’ for Police Violence, Either”
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/ferguson-activist-battles-cnns-blitzer-no-excuse-for-police-violence-either/
“Baltimore Mom Who Smacked Son: ‘I Don’t Want Him to Be a Freddie Gray’”
http://www.mediaite.com/online/baltimore-mom-who-smacked-son-i-dont-want-him-to-be-a-freddie-gray/
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There were some positive narratives in this awful conflict. There were good citizens cleaning up the city and there were citizens trying to deter the violence. There are good people in Baltimore trying to do the right thing and keep peace in the middle of this storm. But the mainstream media being what it is will not show the positive people trying to be civil and pick up the pieces and clean up the city. All they want to focus on is the riots to keep people from thinking about the brutality of the police. They just want to demonize black America. And use the riots to deflect from what this is really about.
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^^^ Exactly. That is why I loved the link lifelearner posted. It was a great illustration of what you said about the media.
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^^ Yes, that was a revealing video link posted by lifelearner.
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That was a good link lifelearner posted
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@sharinalr: Thanks, i like the avatar.
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@ Mary
Thank you.
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@speak out
Deray McKesson is so on point broken windows can be fixed but a broken back cannot. Wolf kept going on about peaceful protests and mlk blah blah blah. They love to bring mlk into everything ok since ppl want to talk about peaceful protests what about bloody sunday. weren’t they peaceful? oh that’s too far back things have changed right?
Mlk was still murdered after all that, idk about yall but if someone is going to point out and say hey u should be like this person and be peaceful at least point to one that is alive to tell it. If being peaceful gets u killed and treated the same as “non peaceful” people then it’s obvious that peace is not the issue but the way police view ppl with the same skin color is.
The mother I can see that she wants her son to live and as she said not be another Freddie Gray, but she cannot protect him from being another Freddie gray and dam sure can’t protect him from being another Trayvon. People can think if u do all these things that u are immune but it’s not the case. They expect victims to apologize for being attacked and try to rationalize it and say well u shouldn’t have done xyz. They cannot fathom that there are people that will abuse their power because if they did they’d have to look at more than the police. The reality of corruption running deeper than what we see is unreal to them. Yet we live it all the time, they don’t wanna realize they are in the matrix.
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@ mstoogood4yall
Yup.
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PETITION: “Gov. Hogan: Stop militarizing police and secure #Justice4FreddieGray”
http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/gov-hogan-justice4freddiegray?sp_ref=118732790.176.13520.o.1.2&referring
“9 Twitter Users Who Are On The Ground In Baltimore”
http://blavity.com/ten-twitter-users-who-are-on-the-ground-in-baltimore/?can_id=9a666a5bbef6580001529c4ac55cf95f&source=email-asians4blacklives-justice-for-freddiegray
@mstoogood4yall
I completely agree. Good for Deray for refusing to say what they’re heavily manipulating him to say. You always have to look at how power and oppression work in society.
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“Nonviolence as Compliance: Officials calling for calm can offer no rational justification for Gray’s death, and so they appeal for order.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/nonviolence-as-compliance/391640/
Unaffiliated twitter activist #Joseph Kent kidnapped by the police in Baltimore, and:
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@Misstoogood4yall: Missing you young queen, good to read you.
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@baphometprince baphomet? that is knights templar read mason branch from jerusalem/crusades lore it doesn’t seem to suit your blog at first blush?
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So this young man got his spine severed because he was carrying a switchblade? Also they have concocted a b.s. story about him causing his own injuries, such b.s..
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I just saw on my Google+ feed that the officers of Freddie gray have been criminally charged.
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@Mary Burrell
I saw that on my FB feed, and I was checking in here to see if a post has been made. Now let the media circus begin with putting the victim on trial, that he deserved to get his spine severed. *RIDICULOUS*
I hope and pray for JUSTICE for FREDDIE, it seems like a open and shut case, but when White supremacy and their ilk on trial. Not holding my breath!
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@lifelearner: So far the media outlets have not done the usual character assassinations like they usually do but they will.
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I have been reading on different social media sites the Mayor of Baltimore Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is not a favorite of many black people in that city.
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@ Mary Burrell
You know propaganda is bad when its becoming too predictable.
If this ever happens to me, I know what they’ll probably say.
I’m actually perfectly fine but that will be the byline. I’m pretty sure. I’m closed mouthed by nature, that’s why I talk so much on here, you can’t even talk about certain aspects of reality in real life. Besides being boring its so pointless as to be frustrating.
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When she referred to many of the people protesting and rioting she used the word “thug” which she recanted and said she made a mistake. “Thug” is the code word for the “N” word. The fact that she is not able to sympathize with the citizens of her city speaks volumes why she would use that type of language.
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Hold up wait a minuet! I am late to the party there are three black officers in this tragedy and one is a woman and there are other officers of color involved. A black woman at that. Man, i had to pick my jaw up off the floor. I am shocked to say the least. By them being black and people of color they may get punished as they should get punished.
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Will newly elected AG Loretta Lynch conduct an investigation?
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@MB,
As I mentioned in the link here
(https://abagond.wordpress.com/2015/04/28/police-brutality-in-baltimore/#comment-283125)
If PG county is any example, police brutality exacerbated as the power base became blacker and wealthier. The problem is not directly correlated with race and poverty.
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@jefe: I didn’t see your link but i am being more enlightened.
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The HBO The Wire is being talked about now.
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It seems that although Freddie Gray is not the perfect poster boy, Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby has made herself the perfect poster girl.
Both her parents were cops and so was her grandfather – 5 generations of law enforcement in her family. Who in the police union has more authority about law enforcement than she?
But will the union succeed in recusing her?
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A much more matured and nuanced understanding of rioting from an old friend of the site. I wonder why he hasn’t spoken out about Baltimore?
http://www.vox.com/2015/5/1/8528593/donald-rumsfeld-riots
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[…] Freddie Gray (1989-2015) was a Black American man killed by police in Baltimore, Maryland. In West Baltimore, in fact, the very Black neighbourhood shown in “The Wire” (2002-2008). While the police investigate themselves, six police officers are on paid leave: Lt. Brian Rice,Sgt. Alicia White,Officer William Porter,Officer Garrett Miller,Officer Edward Nero andOfficer Caesar Goodson JrOn the morning of April 12th 2015, the police looked at Gray and he ran. A friend says Gray has a history of being beat up by police. The police went after him, on bicycles and on foot. They arrested him for running from police. Not a crime.Continue reading… […]
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@ v8driver
You were right. That turned out to be a police lie.
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Update: The medical examiner ruled Gray’s death a homicide. His death was caused by police not following proper procedures to ensure his safety (they gave him a “rough ride”).
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[…] Sandra Bland (Prairie View, Texas) 2015: Freddie Gray (Baltimore, MD) 2015: Walter Scott (North Charleston, SC) 2015: Tony Robinson (Madison, WI) 2015: […]
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[…] (Cincinnati, OH) 2015: Sandra Bland (Prairie View, TX) 2015: Icarus Randolph (Witchita, KS) 2015: Freddie Gray (Baltimore, MD) 2015: Walter Scott (North Charleston, SC) 2015: Tony Robinson (Madison, WI) 2015: […]
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If rioting is a justifiable response to the death of a thug, then how can ANYTHING whites do in response to the rioting be called “overreaction”?
If there’s noone who “wouldn’t accept rioting as the price for getting from repressed regime to freedom”, how many people wouldn’t accept Blacks as the price for getting from Sin City to PleasantVille?
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/freddie-gray/bs-md-ci-gray-recusal-filing-20150806-story.html
Freddie Gray was literally a professional victim!
If you’re going to riot over a death, pick someone that MATTERS!
Not a thug!
Not a professional victim!
Otherwise, you’re providing better propaganda against Blacks than anything anyone could make up! “They’re all thugs ’cause they rally around thugs”.
“Birds of a feather flock together” is trite-and-true, right?
Or the more “nuanced” “Show me who your friends are and I’ll show you who you are”?
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Update: Closing arguments in the trial of the first of the six officers, William Porter, took place today. The jury will probably come to a decision sometime today or tomorrow, though it could be later in the week.
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The jury ended the day without coming to a decision. They will resume tomorrow morning. The police are bracing for impact.
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Thanks for the update.
If you find good news links, please share.
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[…] 12th 2015: Freddie Gray, 25, Baltimore, MD, Death in […]
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Update: The Porter jury deadlocked. He will be retried in September. In May a second officer was tried, Edward Nero. He got off:
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Update: Caesar Goodson, the driver of the police van, the very one who is believed to have given Gray the “rough ride”, the only one charged with murder, who found not guilty on all charges.
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They gave up…
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/freddie-gray/bs-md-ci-miller-pretrial-motions-20160727-story.html
Three bench acquittals and a hung jury. Can’t preach “Let the system work” only to have the system give up half way. That totally reinforces the perception that the system isn’t designed to work for everyone the same.
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God bless Marilyn Mosby she had good intentions. But all of this is just bigger than her.
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@Open Minded Observer: Precisely.
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[…] (Cincinnati, OH) 2015: Sandra Bland (Prairie View, TX) 2015: Icarus Randolph (Witchita, KS) 2015: Freddie Gray (Baltimore, MD) 2015: Walter Scott (North Charleston, SC) 2015: Tony Robinson (Madison, WI) 2015: […]
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