Freddie Gray Case Unravels

There is no doubt that police officers do bad things and get away with them. When these happen it erodes public confidence in the police and the public eventually strikes out at any officer for any act whether it was justified or not.

This seems to be the case with officer William Porter and the other five charged in the death of long time drug dealer and often arrested criminal Freddie Gray. Let me pause here to say that a person’s criminal history does not give the police the right to become judge, jury, and executioner. Every person is presumed innocent no matter how often that person has been in trouble. I get tired of seeing officers and those who support them write that it was good Gray died and that one more scumbag is off the street. While that applies when a criminal dies during the commission of a crime or in a direct confrontation with police there is no evidence Gray fit into that mold (what crime did he actually commit). The reality here is if Gray did something wrong he deserved his day in court but it is also a stark reality that if the judicial system had kept Gray behind bars where he belonged he might still be alive. I am not losing sleep over a dead drug dealer but the backlash of what happened has caused a lot of people restless nights to include six officers.

Porter and five others have been charged with the death of Gray. Each officer faces different charges but they are all charged with some portion of the alleged crime. The problem here is there does not appear to have been a crime committed.

It is possible that one of these officers did something to deliberately harm Gray but there is no proof that such a thing did in fact happen. Officers chased Gray, took him down and into custody. One can question if they had any reason to go after Gray in the first place but there is no evidence they harmed him once they did go after him.

[note]I am aware Gray had a knife (the legality of which is unclear) but it was not found until after they chased and caught him so it was NOT the reason they went after him and claims to the contrary are untrue.[/note]

The prosecution decided to go after Porter first because they believed it was their strongest case and that once he was found guilty he would turn on the others whose cases were not as strong. The prosecution, who rushed to judgement in the first place, had no reason to believe that it would not win a conviction. The thugs in Baltimore have been threatening to riot once again if any verdict other than guilty was returned. The prosecution was counting on fear to get the conviction.

But some brave jurors had other ideas. At least one juror was not convinced that Porter was guilty of the charges and the end result was a mistrial due to a hung jury.

This will have a domino effect. Porter now has to be the one to get convicted in order to have any hope of even trying to get the others.

You see, during his trial the prosecution claimed that Gray’s injuries happened IN THE TRANSPORT VAN. None of the officers who apprehended and arrested Gray were in that van. The prosecution cannot simply change its tune and now claim those officers harmed Gray. In reality, I can’t see how they can go forward with the prosecution of these folks in any event, with or without a Porter conviction. If the prosecution contends that Gray was harmed in the van (which is what they did and is part of the record) how can anyone who was with Gray BEFORE he got in the van be responsible for what happened to him?

The prosecution cannot have it both ways. It cannot simply change its tune and claim Gray was harmed during the arrest. I do not think they should have charged any of the officers but if they were dead set on doing so they should have charged those who had first contact with Gray and claimed he was harmed during the arrest. It would have made more sense to do it this way and then claim Porter ignored Gray’s requests for medical care.

By taking the route she did Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby ensured that in the event of a failure to convict Porter the entire case would unravel.

We are seeing that now.

Baltimore has remained calm so far as people wait to see what comes next. People are aware that Porter can be put on trial again and they are waiting to see if that is the case.

I can’t imagine the political troll Mosby will not retry the case. She wants a conviction, nothing less.

It is up to brave jurors to look at the evidence and take an informed decision. So far that evidence points to not guilty.

And then the riots will begin.

Mosby did this. She convinced the medical examiner to change the ruling on death from accidental to homicide. She has not been forthcoming with evidence and she is playing politics with the lives of six officers who, by all the evidence so far, did not harm Freddie Gray.

Facts do not matter in a mob ruled locality particularly when the desire is revenge not justice.

This is what you get when Democrats run things.

And Baltimore is getting what it deserves.

The real crime is that six officers are getting screwed over in the process.

Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline

Get Ready For Unrest Baltimore

The first officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray is awaiting the verdict from a jury. His trial wrapped up this afternoon and the jury is now deliberating his fate.

If Officer William Porter is found not guilty the city will again become unhinged.

After Gray’s funeral Baltimore became a national news story as rioters vandalized the city and burned buildings and cars. The rampage cost millions of dollars and put many lives at risk. The rioters did not seem to care as they went about destroying things.

Mayor Rawlings-Blake told police officers to give them room to destroy and destroy they did. The National Guard was finally requested and sent in to restore order.

People have been protesting peacefully during the trial but the peace might soon be in jeopardy.

If the jury finds Porter not guilty the city will probably burn again. Or at least the rioters will try. The Mayor has opened the operations center and alerted surrounding law enforcement agencies in case help is needed. I bet though, the antagonists have been working on riot plans for weeks…

If Porter is found guilty there will likely not be riots because those who support him (and I think he is not guilty) will probably not burn the city down. The people who feel entitled and live off the government on the other hand have no problem destroying the property of others if they do not get their way.

Be on the lookout if you are in or near Baltimore. When they announce the verdict is in it would be best to get away from the place as quickly as possible before it is announced.

The last place anyone will want to be is in Baltimore if the words not guilty are uttered.

Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline

The Cost Of The Damage Is Higher Than Their Bail

By now most of the people in the US know what is going on in Baltimore. The people who have been raised to be victims who are entitled to everything are upset because a black man named Freddie Gray died while in police custody. There is an investigation into the death but there are no results yet*.

On Saturday people were peacefully protesting the death when civil unrest and violence took hold of the crowd and the police had to step in. On Monday high school students initiated a purge and that purge ended up in a riot. Cars and buildings were burned and businesses ransacked and looted. The police were attacked by people who threw rocks and bricks at them.

The police did not clamp down on the rioters. They watched as the city burned and it has been reported that this was on orders from the mayor. Eventually the National Guard was activated and a curfew instituted. Things have been much quieter since then but there are rallies scheduled for this weekend so there is no telling how peaceful things will be.

It is also possible that the findings will show the police were not responsible for Gray’s death. If that is announced I suspect the city will light up again.

[note]Protestors say Gray deserved due process and did not get it. These same people have already convicted the police without due process. If the cops are responsible they should be dealt with harshly. Unfortunately, they might never get due process. Public pressure might land them in jail even if they did nothing wrong.[/note]

Over 200 people have been arrested for their participation in the destruction and violence. Their legal system is working to get them processed but the state of emergency and numbers of people is making it difficult for rapid processing so many are being held longer than the 24 hours allowed.

Attorneys for those who have been arrested are complaining that their clients have excessive bail and are unable to get out of jail. Those attorneys were pushing for bail amounts of $25,000 but the judges have been putting those bonds at $100,000 and $500 of it must be cash.

It appears as if many of them can’t come up with bail and might well spend months in jail awaiting trial for their crimes.

I find it hard to have sympathy for people who have high bond amounts when they caused millions of dollars in damage and are costing the city and state millions in resources. If they can’t afford the bail then they can sit in jail until their trial dates. That will at least keep them off the streets and prevent them from causing more mayhem.

Perhaps they should have thought about the consequences of their actions before they broke the law. If they did not want to worry about bail money they should have stayed home instead of committing crimes.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. The police have thousands of images of people breaking the law. They have license plate number and photos of people looting. They will eventually hunt those people down and arrest them. There will be a heck of a lot more people with high bail amounts before this is all over.

I don’t blame the judge or the legal system for imposing high bonds on people who had no regard for property or the lives of the people in their city.

Jail is where they need to be to keep them off the street.

*(Just released) Preliminary Results indicate he broke his neck in the police van during his arrest.

Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline

Black Lies Matter

A man named Freddie Gray died while in the custody of the Baltimore City Police. Gray has a long record mostly for drug distribution and is likely not a good guy so the portrait of a great guy (a lie) is way over the top BUT he should not have died while in custody. Initial reports are that he suffered a spinal injury while in the custody of police and his requests for medical assistance fell on deaf ears.

No matter why he was arrested or what his history was he deserved better treatment and I hope this will all become clear after it is investigated. I say I hope because the police are conducting the investigation and that casts doubt on the integrity of the process. Officers are rarely found in the wrong when investigated by their own departments.

There are a lot of people in Baltimore who are upset about this and a large number of them decided to protest. I have no issue with peaceful protests. The act of protesting PEACEFULLY is part of what makes America great. The problems come when those protests end up interfering with the lives of other people or turn into riots.

It is great to protest but to block traffic and shut down businesses is interfering with the rights of others to move about unhampered and free of harassment.

When the protests turn to riots people get hurt and property gets damaged. The legal peaceful protest turns into an illegal act.

On Saturday night in Baltimore the protest turned into a riot as unlawful people began breaking windows of businesses, looting said businesses, damaging vehicles and attacking the public and the police.

People attending the Orioles game were not allowed to leave the stadium for a while because of the riots (this possibly unlawful detention is a subject that could have its own discussion). Perhaps the 30,000 or so people should have been unleashed on the rioters…

In any event, the Mayor of Baltimore, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, proved she is a lightweight who is unable to lead. On top of that, she and Elijah Cummings lied about the nature of the violence.

The mayor and Representative Cummings both stated that the riots were the result of outside agitators and that most of the people involved were not from Baltimore.

[note]Al Shaprton, an outside agitator if ever there was one, will be going to Baltimore to get involved. You can bet that SRB and Cummings will welcome him and never think to blame any unrest on him.[/note]

First of all, how can they tell just by looking at the people? How did SRB and Cummings determine that these folks causing and participating in the riots were NOT from Baltimore?

The police arrest reports seem to paint another picture. Nearly all of those arrested for rioting were from Baltimore.

I am sure there were outside players who incited people but they are only part the reason for the riots. Those who participated were the major reason and most of them were from the city.

This lie is to paint a picture of a competent leader who has her finger on the pulse of the city and to keep people from drawing the conclusion that this all took place because of liberal rule, liberal policies and the liberal victim mindset.

SRB indicated that she told the police to protect the protestors and give them space. Fair enough. We can’t have them getting hit by cars or being attacked for peacefully protesting. But the dimwit also told police to give the rioters space to break things.

Many businesses were damaged and people were hurt. Property insurance usually has a clause that excludes damage from civil unrest. Will Baltimore write checks to the owners who lost property? Will the city pay for the damage it allowed to happen?

The police have some explaining to do with regard to how Gray ended up dead while under their control but they showed a lot of restraint during the rioting. Perhaps it is because they were following SRB’s orders but they showed restraint under very dangerous circumstances. A lot more people could have ended up hurt or dead if the police had been more aggressive (not that hurting rioters would be a bad thing).

The lack of spine SRB has and the lack of leadership during the outbreak of lawlessness will embolden those who wish to participate in more illegal and dangerous acts. Right now the police are on alert because rival gangs have banned together to stop killing each other and start killing police officers.

This is what happens in liberal run cities where people are lied to each and every day. They are held down by liberals and told they are victims. The people grown up with no desire to achieve and a belief that they are victims who can only be protected by the government.

The race hustlers and liberals like SRB and Cummings push that narrative and their lies have devastating consequences.

Yes, these black lies matter…

Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline