It’s a clean sweep. The first four members of Baltimore’s Finest who were charged in the death of Freddie Gray were acquitted or freed following a mistrial.
Now the rest of the house of cards fabricated by glory-seeking State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby has collapsed. New York’s Daily News notes somewhat glumly:
Prosecutors have decided to drop charges against all of the Baltimore police officers who were accused in the death of Freddie Gray, a man who suffered a fatal spinal injury while in custody.
The decision ends the more than year-long effort to bring criminal charges against six officers in the high-profile case, in which prosecutors argued that the cops willfully disregarded Gray’s safety by not fastening him in a seat belt while he was in the back of the van and failed to get the distressed man medical attention.
Charges against the six officers ranged from misconduct in office to second-degree depraved-heart murder.
Mosby is herself quoted as conceding a “dismal likelihood of conviction” against the three remaining officers, adding, “As a mother, the decision [sic] not to proceed on these trials is agonizing.” It’s an interesting reaction. Maybe at some point she’ll favor the public with an opinion based on jurisprudence rather than emotion.
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By Mosby’s own admission, the entire circus was concocted to placate the city’s black community, which took to the streets in a state of blind rage following the initial reports of Gray’s death. The ensuing riots and looting persisted for three days before the police and state-level authorities could get the situation under control. Once the smoke had cleared, a number of black-owned businesses lay in shambles or burned to the ground.
But the law was never meant to be a balm or pacifier. It was never designed to quell the passions of out-of-control citizens. From the outset, the case was doomed to failure.
