Taunya Lovell Banks
Long before I settled in this city, I loved Nina Simone’s 1978 song Baltimore. I would belt out its catchy hook: “Oh, Baltimore ain’t it hard just to live,” never giving much thought to the people about whom Simone was singing. But now I keep thinking about my fellow Baltimoreans, especially those who are less fortunate than I.
It has been a week since the nighttime curfew was lifted and almost two weeks since the civil disturbance on April 27th. The calm gave me time to reflect on the actions of the six police officers involved in Freddie Gray’s arrest. My earlier post was a personal reflection about what is happening to the city I have come to love. As with my first post, I rely more on local Baltimore press accounts than national media accounts.
Police brutality knows no race. Unlike other well-publicized police incidents involving black men, three of the police officers in Freddie’s encounter were black and three were white reflecting Baltimore’s racially diverse police force. As black Baltimoreans in Upton, Penn North and Sandtown-Winchester repeatedly told television crews immediately after April 27th, abusive policing tactics are used equally by white and non-white Baltimore police. The racial element becomes a factor when police use these tactics in communities that are over-policed – primarily poor black neighborhoods. Freddie Gray’s death is a good example of the problem.
The Basis for Freddie’s Arrest
Possession of an unlawful weapon is the only crime with which Freddie Gray was charged. Thus, if the knife is not spring operated the arrest is unlawful. If the knife is spring operated, the arrest is still questionable (given that Freddie Gray was chased and handcuffed prior to the officers’ discovering the knife), but the knife itself would be unlawful to carry. We have yet to see the knife.
As a result Baltimore’s State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby charged three officers with False Imprisonment, a common law offense. Most false imprisonment claims against police officers are brought as civil actions by those challenging the lawfulness of their arrest. Baltimore has had more than its fair share of these cases and resulting lawsuits. The City, to its economic detriment, has long been accused of being indifferent to false arrests and imprisonments.
Why did I ignore these abuses and why, only after Mr. Gray’s well-publicized death, am I outraged? Did I think my relatively low-crime neighborhood benefitted from these abuses? How could someone like me, who has fought for civil rights, not spoken up before now? Unfortunately, I am not alone and perhaps our collective silence contributed to Freddie’s death.
Transporting Freddie to the Police Station for Processing
The most troubling aspect of Freddie Gray’s encounter with the Baltimore police occurs from the moment they placed him in the back of the police wagon until 45 minutes later, when they arrived at the Western Police District, with Freddie in cardiac arrest.
We have all seen the cellphone video of officers dragging Mr. Gray, who was screaming, to the police wagon. At this point, Freddie told the arresting officers that he could not breathe and that he needed an inhaler. No inhaler was provided, nor was there any attempt to provide medical assistance. He was then placed in the back of the police wagon.
If you are familiar with the timetable, please excuse the repetition. I still have trouble grappling with the conduct of my city’s police force. Perhaps I repeat these facts as penance for my past silence.
Everyone agrees that Freddie Gray was not secured in the wagon by seatbelts, in violation of Baltimore Police Department policy. At this point police still have offered no explanation for why it took almost 45 minutes and four intermediate stops for the police to transport Freddie from the 1700 block of Presbury Street to the police station two miles away. This is not a high traffic area.
The route was anything but direct; and only the fourth stop involved picking up another prisoner. At Baker Street, the first stop, also captured on video, Freddie was treated like an animal. He was placed in flex cuffs and leg shackles and according to the State’s Attorney’s charging document: “plac[ed] on his stomach, head first onto the floor of the wagon.” According to the State’s Attorney it was after this stop that Freddie “suffered a severe and critical neck injury as a result of being handcuffed, shackled by his feet and unrestrained inside the BPD wagon.” The second stop was around Mosher Street and Fremont Avenue where the police checked on Freddie but made no attempt to render medical aid or place him in a seat belt. The third stop at Druid Hill Avenue and Dolphin Street occurred after the officers called in to dispatch to say that they needed to stop to check on the condition of a prisoner. Officers admit that Freddie again asked for medical attention because he was having difficulty breathing. No medical attention was provided. Instead, officers helped him off the floor of the wagon onto the bench, where again he was not secured by a seatbelt. Baltimore police have a history of failing to provide medical care to people they detain.
Police indifference explains what happened at the fourth stop. The police wagon stopped at North and Pennsylvania Avenues to pick up another prisoner. When police opened the door to the wagon they found Freddie unresponsive on the floor. According to the charging documents a female police officer at the scene (who had been investigating two civilian complaints regarding Freddie’s arrest) “spoke to the back of Mr. Gray’s head. When he did not respond she did nothing further despite being advised that he needed a medic. She made no effort to look [into], determine or assess his condition.” Thus neither the race nor gender of police modifies abusive policing. The problem is systemic.
By the time the police wagon finally arrived at the Western District Police Station Freddie was not breathing. The neglect continued at the Station. The second prisoner was taken out of the wagon and secured in the police station before anyone attended to Freddie Gray. When medics were finally called they found Freddie in “cardiac arrest … critically and severely injured.” They transported him to Maryland Shock Trauma, where he underwent two spinal surgeries and lay comatose until he died seven days later, with a severed spine and a broken voice box. The Baltimore Sun has a very good timeline of the events with video.
Today, on a whim, I decided to drive the route the police took to the Western District Station. The 1700 block of Presbury Street is 1.4 miles from my house. The Western District Station is 2.9 miles from Presbury, a 7-10 minute ride depending on traffic. It is not a rough ride. I drove through uneven neighborhoods, some streets with boarded up houses and others with neatly tended working class homes. Some residents are homeowners and others are renters. The streets were largely empty. I saw a few stoop sitters and some children playing in the streets.
I realized that the third stop the police made at Dolphin and Druid Hill occurred about five blocks from my house – so near and yet so far away – another world. Throughout my drive I kept thinking about a severely injured and unsecured Freddie Gray being transported in the police wagon. I kept asking what happened during that ride. We will probably never know. Whatever happened, one thing seems clear Freddie did not deserve to be treated that way.
I end this post with the link to a “chilling” cover of Simone’s Baltimore by Jazmine Sullivan. The lyrics are every bit as relevant today as they were when Nina Simone first sang them forty years ago. The next time I hear or sing the song it will have a more personal meaning.
Tomorrow: The Aftermath – the charges brought by Baltimore’s State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby against the six police officers.
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