Baltimore is the latest city to prove to our nation and the world that something is terribly wrong in the United States.
On a recent spring day, Baltimore African American Freddie Gray, 25, notices the police and runs from them. Why did he run?
Perhaps Gray had read about police killings of Walter Scott in South Carolina, Eric Garner in Staten Island, Michael Brown in Ferguson, Trayvon Martin in Florida, Oscar Grant III at Fruitvale Station in Oakland, California, 12-year old Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Dontre Hamilton in Milwaukee, and Miriam Carey in Washington DC. The list is longer. To paraphrase an old Sonny and Cher song, “The Beatings Go On.”
And the death count grows.
When Gray began running, the police began running after him. Why did they run after him? Suspicion? Exercise?
The police brutally apprehend Gray. They call for a vehicle to transport him to police headquarters. For what? Illegal running, perhaps.
Before Gray makes it to HQ, his spine becomes severed and his voice box is crushed. Did he run into a tree? Did Baltimore police kill Gray for running?
The City of Baltimore erupted in nighttime violence with burnings, rioting and looting. Baltimore’s mayor mishandled the situation and eventually the Maryland National Guard moved in to calm down rioters angry over Gray’s death.
Clearly all America should be angered by Gray’s death while in police custody for unknown reason. False arrest? Murder?
Six Baltimore police officers, three of color, are charged in Gray’s death. They say they are all innocent. They were just doing their job, they say. Gray killed himself? That may be the defense on the murder charge. The question remains, why did the police arrest Gray? What criminal act did the police suspect Gray committed?
I suppose the Baltimore police can argue an African American man of Gray’s age committed a crime somewhere in the city and the police saw Gray and suspected he was their man. Then, they can argue, Gray killed himself.
Does such a fate await another young Black man? The sad answer, based on repeated police killings of Blacks, appears to be yes.
The Gray death, public outrage, whether riot or uprising, is alarming in its brutality. Why are police officers, from coast to coast and in the heartland, killing unarmed Blacks for small offenses or unknown offenses?
Poor Eric Garner, of Staten Island, was selling loose cigarettes on a street corner. He had done so for some time. A police officer put a chokehold on Garner and despite his compliant he could not breathe, the police would not relinquish their death hold. Reportedly, the City of New York will pay the Garner family nearly $100 million.
As a man of European ancestry raised during the Civil Rights struggle in the Deep South, I wholeheartedly agree that Black Lives Matter. Police should not kill people for small or unknown offenses or crimes. It is not a crime to be a person of color.
The police brutality that has been captured on social media and acknowledged by the press, public, and courts as unnecessary force and, in some cases, murder is not limited only to Blacks. Police brutality is responsible for deaths of LGBTQ, disabled, elderly, and mentally ill people across the country. And it continues seemingly without any consequences.
In September 2014, Mexican police joined drug thugs in brutally killing 43 students in the city of Iguala. Such actions are commonplace in lawless societies. Has the United States become a lawless society where the police are as corrupt as in Mexico?
Why did Freddie Gray run? Perhaps he saw death, in the form of the Baltimore police, coming for him. Sadly, he was right.
Human Rights Advocate Jim Patterson is a writer, speaker, and lifelong diplomat for dignity for all people. In a remarkable life spanning the civil rights movement to today’s human rights struggles, he stands as a voice for the voiceless. A prolific writer, he documents history’s wrongs and the struggle for dignity to provide a roadmap to a more humane future. Learn more at www.HumanRightsIssues.com
