Just catching up on the posts from last thread - I appreciate that there are members here with family in LE or are LE themselves, who are feeling this all going to make life harder for police in general, affect their confidence in arresting people, and so on (I can't quote the posts, forgive me).
I come from the other end of the stick -- a couple of deeply, deeply corrupt police officers inserted themselves into my family life when I was young and caused an unspeakable amount of damage.
One of these officers, several years before, had beaten a man to death in custody - and it was pretty plain that he did so - was investigated for it and cleared of all wrong-doing. He went on to promotion after promotion.
I don't want to talk about the damage he also went on to inflict, he and his good friend (who was thrown out of the force later over something else...and now works in a top end government job..). Suffice to say, I know what an impact men like this can have on helpless citizens -- people mind you who are NOT criminals, at all -- and how protected they can be, if the particular system they are in values the protection of its own department over the well being of the people they are employed to protect. Which *should* include protecting people from police who are acting in criminal ways, or misusing their position in the community to assert power over people that they simply should not have.
I have seen, first-hand, how corrupt, self-serving men operate, using their badges as a shield from all responsibility. It is terrifying to know about their crimes and also know there's no point saying anything - who are you going to call? The police?
Bringing this back to Freddy Gray... and I simply cannot believe I have seen comments like "I hope he hurt himself"... for goodness sake.... he was, unlike my little family, a criminal. So I get why he doesn't get the sympathy vote from many people. But to me, this is not just Freddy Gray.
It's about men like Brian Rice, and the people who have for years clearly protected his career in the BPD, despite his terrorism of his ex wife and her hubby, and their kids. I know how that works... and I know that fear and helplessness... who you gonna call? Apparently if you call the police, they do nothing, and then lose the paperwork.
Not all police, and not all departments operate like this, obviously. But Baltimore clearly, very clearly, by admission of Baltimore's own authorities, *is* such a department, historically.
And, given that fact (and it is a fact) I think it's just incredible that officers involved would, for example, neglect to report a van stop... or manipulate witness statements to suggest to the media that Gray committed suicide... these are not the actions I would expect from police with nothing to hide.
So while I feel truly, very bad for all the good cops out there, who must be sick of all the hatred police are getting right now, and while I believe many cops are not treated well on the job to begin with and deserve far better (and more pay....) I have a hard time seeing these six officers as "victims".
I see them as what they are --- suspects, in a suspicious death. No different to any other suspects in any other suspicious death. Except that they have a whole lot of cops running their PR campaign, etc.
