Search Results for: Baltimore
August 9, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
The Obama-Lynch Justice Department is about to release a report on policing practices by the Baltimore police department. The Baltimore Sun apparently got a sneak preview. It says DOJ found that Baltimore police officers have routinely violated the constitutional rights of residents by conducting unlawful stops and using excessive force. As noted, the report isn’t out yet, and I don’t want to prejudge it. However, a few observations come to
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August 7, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
We wrote here about the resignation of Lisa Phelps, a 15-year veteran prosecutor who objected to continuing the prosecution of one of the six officers involved in the arrest and/or transport of Freddie Gray. Now a second prosecutor who, along with Phelps was on the team that would have prosecuted that officer and another, has resigned. Sarah David declined to specify her reasons for resigning. However, she did say that
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July 18, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
Circuit Judge Barry Williams has acquitted Brian Rice of all charges related to Freddy Gray’s arrest and death. This is the fourth time, in four attempts, that prosecutors have failed to obtain a conviction in the Freddy Gray case. Judge Williams cleared Rice of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment, and misconduct in office charges this morning. Previously, he had dismissed a second-degree assault charge. Prosecutors dropped a second misconduct charge at
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July 11, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
Jermaine Schofield was gunned down in Baltimore on Sunday, one of three murder victims in the city that day. Today, Schofield’s family held a vigil for him. During the vigil, a gunman fired at attendees. Five were hit. Thankfully, all are expected to survive. These events are not an aberration. Baltimore has descended into chaos since, in the aftermath of Freddy Gray’s death, the city failed to back its police
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April 30, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
The Baltimore Sun reports that in the year since the death of Freddy Gray, 271 sworn members have left Baltimore’s police department. Only 86 have been hired. The department currently has 284 vacant positions in a force of around 2,300. It’s not difficult to understand the mass resignations (about 3 every 4 days). Gray’s death was followed by riots in which police officers were told to stand down in the
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April 27, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
Almost exactly one year after Baltimore broke out in rioting, voters had to decide who the city’s Democratic nominee for mayor will be. Considering the overwhelming advantage Democrats possess in Baltimore, this decision is tantamount to electing a mayor. The big question was whether Democrats would turn their back on the ugly past (which, whether they realize it or not, has been brought to them by Democrats). Things got off
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January 7, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
The Baltimore prosecutors bringing criminal charges against the officers involved in the death of Freddy Gray won an important victory today. The trial judge ruled that Officer William G. Porter, who is awaiting retrial, will have to testify against colleagues who also are charged in the Gray matter. Porter had argued that the Fifth Amendment gives him the right not to testify, inasmuch as he is still in legal jeopardy
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September 11, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the mayor of Baltimore, has announced that she will not seek re-election. The beleaguered mayor had been building a campaign infrastructure and holding fundraisers. Why the about face? Rawlings-Blake explained, “it was a very difficult decision, but I knew I needed to spend time, the remaining 15 months of my term, focused on the city’s future and not my own.” How selfless. Baltimore’s future is parlous, thanks in
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July 9, 2015 — John Hinderaker
Having followed events in Baltimore closely, we are remiss in not having noted the firing of Baltimore’s police chief, Anthony Batts, by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. The firing follows an alarming increase in crime after the riots in Baltimore and district attorney Marilyn Mosby’s indictment of six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray. The New York Times reports: Mr. Batts’s firing comes at a time of increasing tensions between
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June 14, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
The May arrest and crime numbers from Baltimore are in. They show that the police arrested fewer people than in any month for at least three years, despite a surge in homicides and shootings across the city. According to the Baltimore Sun, arrests declined citywide by 43 percent from April to May. They dropped by more than half in the West Baltimore neighborhood where Freddie Gray was arrested. Several neighborhoods
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May 24, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
On Saturday, a Cleveland judge ruled that Officer Michael Brelo was not guilty of voluntary manslaughter and felonious assault in the 2012 deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams following a 22-mile car chase. The judge found that although Brelo did fire many shots at Russell and Williams, so did other officers. Thus, he could not find beyond a reasonable doubt that Brelo’s bullets — and no others — killed
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May 20, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
The death of Freddie Gray drew outrage from Baltimore’s Black community, and rightly so. Gray was alive and well when the police took him into their custody, and ended up dead. The resulting protests (but not the rioting) were a reasonable response. But police mistreatment of suspects is far from the most serious problem of violence that confronts Baltimore’s Black community. The Washington Post reports that during the period from
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May 11, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
Many liberals and some conservatives would like to force a major reduction in the prison population, even though current incarceration rates contributed significantly to sharply reduced crime rates. One objection to the crusade to reduce incarceration is high recidivism. Nearly 70 percent of released prisoners are arrested within three years. To deal with this objection, proponents of reform call for rehabilitation and training programs for prisoners. They sometimes talk as
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May 1, 2015 — John Hinderaker
President Obama told Congress to stand down with respect to Iran, and Baltimore’s mayor reportedly directed police to stand down with regard to the looters. Which inspired the great Michael Ramirez to produce this gem, depicting Iran as a rampaging rioter and President Obama running interference–holding off, I would say, both Congress and Israel. Click to enlarge:
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May 1, 2015 — John Hinderaker
This morning, Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced that she is bringing criminal charges against all six of the Baltimore police officers who were involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray. Ms. Mosby said that her office has been conducting its own investigation since the day after Gray’s death, and both her decision and the timing of her announcement are independent of any other agency. Mosby is charging one of
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April 29, 2015 — Steven Hayward
Does it seem like we’re re-running the 1960s, with rolling riots and liberals talking about “root causes” again? Bill DeBlasio is playing the John Lindsay role in New York quite ably, and Baltimore mayor Rawlings-Blake offered a decent reprise of Hubert Humphrey’s infamous remark that if he’d been born in a ghetto, he might start a riot too. How long until the New York Review of Books runs a diagram
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April 28, 2015 — John Hinderaker
The Baltimore Orioles’ games Monday night and tonight were canceled because of riots near Camden Yards. Now, in one of the strangest announcements ever, the Orioles and Major League Baseball say that tomorrow night’s game will be moved to the afternoon and “closed to the public.” The game will be played without spectators; will it be televised? I don’t know. But it is hard to imagine anything much stranger. Following
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