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Freddie Gray Was Injured in Police Van, Baltimore Officers’ Lawyer Says

JANFU

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/23/u...an-baltimore-officers-lawyer-says.html?ref=us
A Baltimore man who died after sustaining a spinal injury in police custody was hurt while riding inside a police van, the lawyer representing the officers in the case said Wednesday.

What happened to the man, Freddie Gray, 25, when he was arrested by Baltimore police officers has been a mystery since his death on Sunday, a week after his arrest. In a news conference on Wednesday, the officers’ lawyer, Michael Davey, questioned whether Mr. Gray had been screaming in pain while being dragged to the van and said that the officers had done nothing wrong.
Going to get interesting.
Who caused the injury he died from?
 
It's amazing to me that some white people are still saying that police brutality against black people is "isolated" when a new case of it appears every week. Can you imagine the national outrage if every week a black police officer was found to have used excessive force against a white person.

And we're supposed to give officers the "benefit of the doubt" when people go out of their way to slander their victims.

Please. We have an epidemic of police brutality against the black population in the United States because the devaluation of black lives is endemic in the United States. Freddie Gray is one of the latest victims.
 
It's amazing to me that some white people are still saying that police brutality against black people is "isolated" when a new case of it appears every week. Can you imagine the national outrage if every week a black police officer was found to have used excessive force against a white person.

And we're supposed to give officers the "benefit of the doubt" when people go out of their way to slander their victims.

Please. We have an epidemic of police brutality against the black population in the United States because the devaluation of black lives is endemic in the United States. Freddie Gray is one of the latest victims.

The young, male black population of this country has done most of this damage to itself. Yes, black lives have been devalued and the reason for that devaluation is epidemic black on black violence, epidemic drug use, epidemic property crime and epidemic sexual irresponsibility.
 
It's amazing to me that some white people are still saying that police brutality against black people is "isolated" when a new case of it appears every week. Can you imagine the national outrage if every week a black police officer was found to have used excessive force against a white person.


These instances are just bearing themselves out statistically based on numerical probability. Black people are getting arrested at an alarming rate, and police are still arresting only a small percentage of the perpetrators.
 
The young, male black population of this country has done most of this damage to itself. Yes, black lives have been devalued and the reason for that devaluation is epidemic black on black violence, epidemic drug use, epidemic property crime and epidemic sexual irresponsibility.

It is true that black civilians cause more injuries to black civilians than the police do. However, they are not being paid to do it with my tax dollars.
 
The young, male black population of this country has done most of this damage to itself. Yes, black lives have been devalued and the reason for that devaluation is epidemic black on black violence, epidemic drug use, epidemic property crime and epidemic sexual irresponsibility.
Please. Black lives are devalued because racism and white supremacy have been endemic in this country since its white slave-owning "founding fathers" created it. That racist, victim blaming narrative about "black-on-black violence", et al. may play well with naive idiots and like-minded folks, but I know better so try to think a little more critically before responding to me again.
 
These instances are just bearing themselves out statistically based on numerical probability. Black people are getting arrested at an alarming rate, and police are still arresting only a small percentage of the perpetrators.
Yeah, black people are getting arrested at alarming rate, even for crimes that white people commit more. Isn't that fascinating?
 
It's amazing to me that some white people are still saying that police brutality against black people is "isolated" when a new case of it appears every week. Can you imagine the national outrage if every week a black police officer was found to have used excessive force against a white person.

And we're supposed to give officers the "benefit of the doubt" when people go out of their way to slander their victims.

Please. We have an epidemic of police brutality against the black population in the United States because the devaluation of black lives is endemic in the United States. Freddie Gray is one of the latest victims.

Police kill about three hundred and fifty white people annually. They kill about a hundred and fifty black people, last time I heard statistics. Granted, the proportions of population are skewed toward blacks but when confronted by police, whites are generally more passive.

I'm not excusing police brutality. I'm also not saying how many killings are justified. I am saying that this is nothing new.
 
I'm not excusing police brutality. I'm also not saying how many killings are justified. I am saying that this is nothing new.
By blaming police violence against black people on aggressiveness by black people, you're excusing and justifying the violence. You may not want to believe that you are, but if you weren't, there would have been no need to include that comment. Such a comment about white "passiveness" has literally nothing to do with how frequent this is.
 
The young, male black population of this country has done most of this damage to itself. Yes, black lives have been devalued and the reason for that devaluation is epidemic black on black violence, epidemic drug use, epidemic property crime and epidemic sexual irresponsibility.
I'm curious, how did "black on black violence", et al. cause an officer to shoot Walter Scott while he was running away. How did those things cause an officer to put Eric Garner in a choke-hold from behind when he wasn't being violent? How did those things cause an officer to "mistake" his gun for his Taser and kill Eric Harris? How did those things cause an officer to say "**** your breathe." to Eric Harris when he said he couldn't breathe (the last words he hears on this earth, by the way)?

Explain it to me, Lutherf? How does black anything force white cops to kill these black human being with such recklessness and indifference.
 
It's amazing to me that some white people are still saying that police brutality against black people is "isolated" when a new case of it appears every week. Can you imagine the national outrage if every week a black police officer was found to have used excessive force against a white person.

And we're supposed to give officers the "benefit of the doubt" when people go out of their way to slander their victims.

Please. We have an epidemic of police brutality against the black population in the United States because the devaluation of black lives is endemic in the United States. Freddie Gray is one of the latest victims.

While I agree that these cases get plenty of press, especially lately, it is quite a stretch to say that of the approximately 2 black deaths from police action per week nationwide that over half of them are really crimes much less due to racism. Of the approximately double number of white (non-black?) deaths resulting from police action - how many of those are really crimes and why do we see so little press concerning those deaths?

IMHO, most of these deaths by police action are not crimes and even fewer of them (under 5%?) can be attributed to a racial motive/bias. While any crime committed by police is a very serious matter one must not fall into the trap of assuming that if any of them are (at least partially) due to racism that many others must be as well.
 
I'm curious, how did "black on black violence", et al. cause an officer to shoot Walter Scott while he was running away. How did those things cause an officer to put Eric Garner in a choke-hold from behind when he wasn't being violent? How did those things cause an officer to "mistake" his gun for his Taser and kill Eric Harris? How did those things cause an officer to say "**** your breathe." to Eric Harris when he said he couldn't breathe (the last words he hears on this earth, by the way)?

Explain it to me, Lutherf? How does black anything force white cops to kill these black human being with such recklessness and indifference.

OK, that accounts for 4/150 of the average annual incidents of black "murder" victims of police "crime". Why no examples of white deaths at the hands of police? Other than the inability to play the race card, those 300 average annual non--black deaths by police are likely to include a "crime" or two (or eight?) as well. By turning police crime (resulting in death) into a racial issue you seem to automatically excuse (ignore) 2/3 of the deaths at the hands of police - a very bad move if you wish to honestly address the issue of police "murder".
 
I'm curious, how did "black on black violence", et al. cause an officer to shoot Walter Scott while he was running away. How did those things cause an officer to put Eric Garner in a choke-hold from behind when he wasn't being violent? How did those things cause an officer to "mistake" his gun for his Taser and kill Eric Harris? How did those things cause an officer to say "**** your breathe." to Eric Harris when he said he couldn't breathe (the last words he hears on this earth, by the way)?

Explain it to me, Lutherf? How does black anything force white cops to kill these black human being with such recklessness and indifference.

You're looking for a common link between disparate events (and, apparently, assuming race is that link) but the cause it different in each scenario.

Scott got shot by a lazy cop. I didn't see one single thing that justified that shooting. That being said, I also didn't see anything that indicated race was a motivating factor. from what I saw that cop would have shot anybody that decided to run.

Eric Garner was being aggressive and the cops involved believed that they were losing control of the situation. His death was nothing more than a tragic accident.

The guy that pulled his gun instead of his taser was a damned idiot. Again he could have done that to anybody.

What most of these situations have in common is resistance to police contact rather than compliance. If a cop asks you for ID and you tell him to **** off the results are not going to be due to racial prejudice.



The reason more black kids (Hispanics out here) are stopped has to do with the prevalence of gangs and the fact that most of those gangs are made up of specific racial demographics. I realize that some straight laced 15 year old black kid might well feel the need to present on the "hard" side just to be accepted in school and in the neighborhood. I can understand that a lot of good kids are pressured into behaviors they might otherwise eschew. However, that simply shows how that segment of black youth culture that likes to start **** has influenced the culture as a whole. If your mother was anything like mine she probably told you more than once to be careful about who you associated with because those associations would color people's opinions about you. Well, that's what playing to the least common denominator has done for black kids across the country.
 
IMHO, most of these deaths by police action are not crimes and even fewer of them (under 5%?) can be attributed to a racial motive/bias. While any crime committed by police is a very serious matter one must not fall into the trap of assuming that if any of them are (at least partially) due to racism that many others must be as well.
So your opinion is most deaths at the hands of police are not crimes and yet my opinion that they are is a "trap". How about you don't fall into the trap in thinking that because you trust police officers they are actually trustworthy?
 
Well, if he was in a van, maybe he got up, the car turned a corner and he fell and got injured severely. That would make it nothing more than a tragic accident but then only leaves the question as to why the man was not given help by paramedics that could have saved his life.

Seriously? A restrained person in a police van simply gets up? Was he Houdini or something?
 
You're looking for a common link between disparate events (and, apparently, assuming race is that link) but the cause it different in each scenario.

Scott got shot by a lazy cop. I didn't see one single thing that justified that shooting. That being said, I also didn't see anything that indicated race was a motivating factor. from what I saw that cop would have shot anybody that decided to run.

Eric Garner was being aggressive and the cops involved believed that they were losing control of the situation. His death was nothing more than a tragic accident.

The guy that pulled his gun instead of his taser was a damned idiot. Again he could have done that to anybody.

What most of these situations have in common is resistance to police contact rather than compliance. If a cop asks you for ID and you tell him to **** off the results are not going to be due to racial prejudice.

The reason more black kids (Hispanics out here) are stopped has to do with the prevalence of gangs and the fact that most of those gangs are made up of specific racial demographics. I realize that some straight laced 15 year old black kid might well feel the need to present on the "hard" side just to be accepted in school and in the neighborhood. I can understand that a lot of good kids are pressured into behaviors they might otherwise eschew. However, that simply shows how that segment of black youth culture that likes to start **** has influenced the culture as a whole. If your mother was anything like mine she probably told you more than once to be careful about who you associated with because those associations would color people's opinions about you. Well, that's what playing to the least common denominator has done for black kids across the country.
Everything you just said is garbage. It reminds me of a survey taken of white people in the 1950s or 60s where the majority of respondents said that black people were treated equally to white people. Talk about clueless. If what you said was correct - if it was just about resisting police violence - then white people who "resist" would be treated the same as black people who do so, but they aren't.

You're part of the problem and, at your age, I think it's too late for education. I certainly don't have the patience. If you have grand-kids, maybe they'll be patient enough to teach you something. More likely, your generation will just die out so we can get better as a society.
 
Why no examples of white deaths at the hands of police?
You keep asking this question and it seems to the root of your cluelessness so I'll just respond to this.

Anti-white racism is not endemic in this police system nor in the country as a whole so why the **** would white deaths be relevant to a conversation about racism related police violence. They wouldn't. If you don't get that, you are part of the problem. As far as I can tell, activists are trying to educate folks like you. Hopefully, they'll get to you soon.
 
Takes a hell of a lot of force to sever a spine. Interesting indeed.

Yeah. But it also says there is no other evidence of injury. Does that mean there is no bruising? I am very distrustful of the police but I think it is very possible he fell while unsecured in the back of the van. How would the cops have broken his back without leaving any other marks?

I think there is plenty of reasonable doubt, unless more specific autopsy info comes out.
 
No camera in the van so no abuse was possible? Maybe that's the solution. Police carry compact instantly self erecting tents to pull people into out of the view of cell phones and then there would be no police abuse because if it's not on video it never happened.
 
So your opinion is most deaths at the hands of police are not crimes and yet my opinion that they are is a "trap". How about you don't fall into the trap in thinking that because you trust police officers they are actually trustworthy?

Exactly. You have shown (so far) 4 examples out of 450+ (annually), or less than 1% of, police caused deaths that you suspect (and that I also agree) may well be crimes. That clearly supports the (my?) opinion that most (over 99%? of) police caused deaths are not so likely due to criminal acts by the officer(s) involved.
 
Yeah. But it also says there is no other evidence of injury. Does that mean there is no bruising? I am very distrustful of the police but I think it is very possible he fell while unsecured in the back of the van. How would the cops have broken his back without leaving any other marks?

I think there is plenty of reasonable doubt, unless more specific autopsy info comes out.

It is "very possible he fell while unsecured in the back of the van" and the fall broken his back??? :roll:

And that would cause no bruising, but if the police broke his back it would? You're really grasping for anything there to back up the police.

Actually, his back may have been broken in the take down, and even though he could still move his legs then that does not mean his back was not already broken and the nerves not yet severed.
 
Seriously? A restrained person in a police van simply gets up? Was he Houdini or something?

There is no bizarre reasoning police groupies won't give. Ah, yes, people falling in vans going around corners lethally breaking their back is one of the leading causes of death. This is particular true of police vans because they are especially designed to have many hard steel edges and corners for officers and drunks to fall into. :roll:
 
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