Baltimore Prosecutor Deliberately Heightens Racial Tensions

On May 1, Baltimore prosecutor Marilyn Mosby charged six police officers, including two black male officers and one female black officer, with 28 various charges, including murder and manslaughter over the death of Freddie Gray. Officer Caesar Goodsoon, the black driver of the van Gray rode in, was charged by the 35-year-old state’s attorney for Baltimore City with the most serious offense, “second-degree depraved heart murder,” which means indifference to human life. Baltimore is 64 percent black, and almost half of the Baltimore Police department is black.

The officers are accused of arresting and roughing up Gray, who is black, for no good reason, then neglecting his request for medical care as they took him to the police station. The officers arrested him because they believed he had a switchblade, which is illegal under Maryland law. Mosby declared that he did not have a switchblade, claiming there was no probable cause to arrest him. Mosby said while he was being transported in the back of the police van without a seatbelt on, he suffered a neck and back injury. He died a week later of the injuries. One of the officers charged, Garrett Miller, has said that Gray was arrested “without force or incident.”

Mosby announced the charges a mere 12 days after Gray’s death, only one day after receiving the results of the police internal investigation and almost immediately after receiving the medical examiner’s report. In contrast, a grand jury returned a decision of no indictment against Officer Darren Wilson more than three months later after his death.

More