White Cops have No Idea How Legs & Spine Broke - 'We Have the Finest Video Equiptment & We Did Not Record any Police Violence.' From [HERE] and [HERE] Freddie Gray, the Black man who died after his lawyer said that 80 percent of his spinal cord was severed at the neck while he was in Balitimore police custody, and that he later lapsed into a coma. Witnesses captured parts of Mr Gray’s encounter with the police on a cellphone video, in which screams can be heard as officers drag him to a transport van.
White police officers said he was arrested "without force or incident" on a "weapon" charge, according to documents obtained Monday.
While the court documents allege that Baltimore Police Department Officer Garrett Miller arrested Gray after finding a switchblade in his pocket, the Gray family attorney called the allegation a "sideshow." Gray was carrying a "pocket knife of legal size," attorney William Murphy told CNN.
The Police Department’s deputy commissioner, Jerry Rodriguez, said the police believed Mr. Gray was involved in a drug dealing activity. But Murphy has said there is no evidence that Mr. Gray committed a crime. Police did not see the knife until after they had subdued him.
Tried to stop him for what [4th Amendment purpose] again? According to a police timeline, four officers on bicycles tried to stop Mr. Gray at about 9 a.m. on April 12. When he ran away, the police said, the officers caught him and restrained him on the ground while awaiting backup. The timeline said Mr. Gray had been conscious and speaking when he was loaded into the van to be taken to the police station. After he arrived at the station, police officers called medics, who took him to a hospital.
But Mr. Murphy has disputed the police account. In a statement, Mr. Murphy said Mr. Gray’s “take-down and arrest without probable cause” had been captured by a police video camera, adding, “We believe the police are keeping the circumstances of Freddie’s death a secret until they develop a version of events that will absolve them of all responsibility.”
Gray was in perfect health until police chased and tackled him in Baltimore over a week ago, his lawyer said. Less than an hour later, he was on his way to a trauma clinic with a spinal injury, where he fell into a coma.
Sorry Ass White 'Cops have Taken the 5th'
On Monday, police may reveal details of what happened to him when they hold an afternoon news conference. Two witnesses hit record on their cell phones during what looked to be the 25-year-old's arrest. Police told CNN affiliate WJZ that they also have surveillance video of him.
But there appears to be a gap of some minutes left to account for. Police, according to their own timeline, spotted Gray, gave chase, caught him, cuffed him and requested a paddy wagon in fewer than 4 minutes. The transport van left with Gray about 11 minutes after that, police said, and another 30 minutes passed before "units request paramedics to the Western District to transport the suspect to an area hospital."
Gray died Sunday, a full week after the encounter.
When cell phones began recording, Gray was already on the ground with three officers kneeling over him. And he let out long, painful screams.
Black Lives Don't Matter to Racist Cops, Prosecutors, Jurors & Judges.
Officers had encountered him a minute earlier, police said. They were working an area where drug deals and other crimes are common, Deputy Police Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez said.
"Officers were working in an area that is known for violent crime and drug sales. Officers went to make an encounter with Mr. Gray when he fled from them," Baltimore Police Department spokesman, Capt. Eric Kowalczyk, said Sunday.
Pressed on why police initially stopped Gray, Kowalczyk said the department hadn't released that information because investigators are still conducting interviews. Wouldn't that information be in the arrest report, which is public information?
The officers called for a prisoner transport van. Cell phone video taken from two separate positions showed officers lifting Gray, whose hands were cuffed, up by his shoulders and dragging him to the back of the van.
He legs dangled behind him listlessly as he wailed in pain. Witnesses are recorded on video yelling at the cops, "his legs are broken, what are you doing?"
Officers put more restraints on Gray inside the van, police said, while surveillance video recorded him conscious and talking. The video has not been released to the public.
That was at 8:54 a.m.
At 9:24 a.m., police called an ambulance to pick Gray up at the Western District police station. Murphy wants to know what happened in those 30 minutes in between.
The ambulance took Gray to the University of Maryland Medical Center's Shock Trauma Center.
"He lapsed into a coma, died, was resuscitated, stayed in a coma and on Monday underwent extensive surgery at Shock Trauma to save his life," Murphy said. "He clung to life for seven days."
Tubes, wires and supports protruded from Gray as he lay in his hospital bed in a photo Murphy passed on to the media.
Police have not released the incident report or said how many officers participated in Gray's arrest. The officers have been placed on administrative duty, they said.
Murphy has accused police not releasing details of Gray's treatment by officers to cover for them.
On the evening of Gray's death, Baltimore's mayor, police commissioner and deputy commissioner promised to get to the bottom of the case.
"I understand the frustration of the community," said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. "I want citizens to know exactly how it happened, and if necessary, I will ensure that we hold the right people accountable."
But no one promised quick answers.
Rawlings-Blake said that she wants to see a thorough inquiry and that the city will release additional details as investigations are completed.
There will be two criminal investigations, said Deputy Commissioner Rodriguez: one to determine if the arresting officers broke the law, and one that pertains to Gray.
Police have not grilled the arresting officers on what happened for legal reasons, Rodriguez said.
"We cannot interview an officer administratively and compel them, if an officer is the subject of the criminal investigation. Every person has the right against self-incrimination, so for us to compel an officer to provide a statement, that could potentially taint the criminal investigation," he said.
Investigators will submit their results to an independent review board, he said. There will also be a separate administrative investigation.
Gray's death Sunday, following a week of hospitalization, has spurred outrage. At a Monday morning protest outside the Baltimore Police Department, demonstrators co-opted slogans from other high-profile police shootings. They chanted -- "Hands up! Don't shoot!" and "I can't breathe!" -- and carried signs saying, "Stop police terror" and "Black lives matter."
Sharon Black, one of the rally's organizers, said police misconduct is routine in Baltimore, and described Gray's death as the "straw that broke the camel's back."
"The police act in an unrestrained and abusive way," she said.