Take to the streets for Freddie Gray, for equity

About a year ago, Freddie Gray’s death was ruled a homicide. Today, per the Baltimore Sun, a third officer’s trial ended without a conviction.

 

Officer Caesar Goodson Jr., 46, who was driving the transport van in which Gray sustained fatal injuries, became the second officer cleared in the case. Circuit Judge Barry Williams found Goodson not guilty on charges that included second-degree murder and three counts of manslaughter.

The acquittal throws the rest of the cases into jeopardy, as the other officers charged face similar but lesser accusations. Legal observers said Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who drew widespread praise and also condemnation after charging the officers in May 2015, must now re-evaluate the remaining cases.

Prosecutors had alleged Goodson deliberately threw the shackled, but unrestrained Gray around the back of the van by giving him a "rough ride." Williams said the state lacked evidence and was asking him to make assumptions.

The verdict drew mixed reaction. Outside the downtown courthouse, dozens gathered including a handful of people who carried signs calling for justice for Gray, and many expressed frustration at the not-guilty verdicts. Meanwhile, there were calls from supporters of the officers for the remaining charges to be dropped.

Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the Baltimore NAACP, called the verdict very disappointing and said it shows flaws in the system. She said many were expecting the Goodson case to be the one in which prosecutors had the best chance of a conviction.

"We have to go back to the drawing board here in Baltimore and Maryland with rules and regulations and laws that affect the police behavior," she said, "because it's clear that they can do action that we feel is not correct, but in the courtroom ... is not a criminal act."

The city police union called on Mosby to "reconsider her malicious prosecution" of the officers and said she was wasting taxpayer money.

 

Last year’s autopsy report found Gray had sustained a "high-energy injury" to his neck and spine.

According to the Baltimore Sun, “the state medical examiner's office concluded that Gray's death could not be ruled an accident, and was instead a homicide, because officers failed to follow safety procedures ‘through acts of omission.’”

The thing is, we know who “did it.” This isn’t like a civilian-on-civilian murder where someone is found dead, we know it’s a homicide, but we can’t find or figure out who did the murdering.

In this case, “who” isn’t the question. It was Goodson and Edward Nero, who have already been acquitted. It was William Porter, whose first trial ended in a mistrial with a hung jury. It was Brian Rice, Alicia White and Garrett Miller, who are still awaiting trial.

One way or another, Freddie Gray was murdered.

One way or another, these were the perpetrators.

Yet each trial ends without conviction because we live in a country that knows no other reality than police violence and systemic racism. We are part of a society in which the lives of people of color — especially black men and women — can be taken by police without repercussion. Without fear of conviction.

Meanwhile, we have large swaths of the population who believe we can and should “fix” education without discussing or acknowledging race. Many don’t even believe anything is wrong with the status quo to begin with.

Our ills as a society are interconnected.

Freddie Gray’s death is going unpunished because the system teaches us to view him as less than human, as violent and aggressive — as one of Hillary’s super-predators.

That same perspective bleeds into the workforce, creating employment and pay disparities. It shows up on baseball diamonds and football fields, where we find strangely few non-white coaches and managers, quarterbacks and pitchers. It lives in our schools, where too many of our teachers suffer from the same spoon-fed biases against black and brown kids, fundamentally changing the trajectories and possibilities for their students of color.

Fighting for equity in education is not its own fight so much as an arena in which to fight for equity, period. It could just as easily be a fight for equity in housing or employment, or a fight against police brutality.

Join the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality today at 6 p.m. at Westlake Park (4th and Pine in Seattle) to be part of the mass resistance. Take to the streets.

We are all in this together.