Grand Jury Indicts All Six Baltimore Police Officers
It appears that the winds of politics are blowing against police officers. On Thursday, a Baltimore grand jury indicted all six police officers connected to the death of Freddie Gray, 22 days after the Maryland State Attorney Marilyn Mosby charged the group with everything from false arrest to second-degree depraved heart murder. This is different than when grand juries took weeks to deliberate whether or not to charge Officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown and New York City police officers in the death of Eric Garner. Furthermore, the Maryland prosecution dropped the charges of false arrest — Gray’s knife appears to have violated the city’s knife code — and charged all the officers with the misdemeanor of reckless endangerment. It’s a charge the Baltimore Sun notes could be a charge easier to prove and that the prosecution could fall back on to ensure some kind of conviction is reached. Meanwhile in Ferguson, the city announced that it will replace the temporary memorial at the site where Brown was shot with a more permanent plaque. In other words, the community decided to side with Brown rather than Wilson, the man who the courts — and Obama’s Justice Department — decided fired his gun in self-defense.