Also, it’s worth pointing out that the SA used the word “**illegal **” for a reason. (The police officers are being charged with 2nd-degree assault for a reason; they’re also being charged with false imprisonment for a reason (there being no legal or legitimate basis for the takedown/detention in the first place). Should anyone insist on separating out the foot pursuit and declare there was a lawful basis for him to be chased down and taken down … that their behavior was in keeping with proper protocol and procedure until the moment hands were laid on him … they’re free to do that.
In this case, there was a common, understandable but still ill-considered decision to retroactively rationalize a bad call (in this case pursuit and takedown) … as though it would escape notice that the supposed basis for arrest was (a) a lawful knife, and (b) even if unlawful, not discovered until AFTER that pursuit and takedown. (If he hadn’t been injured in the takedown and/or later (in effect) killed (even if death delayed), rather obviously it’d be one more of however many thousand instances a year where even a mediocre lawyer could’ve gotten the charges dismissed.)
In the normal course, a cop wouldn’t need to care whether (s)he’d have to admit to a fuck-up that is not knowing X wasn’t illegal to possess. They always approach situations with the presumption (usually correct) that the person they are rousting has a criminal record. (What I’m trying to figure out is why one of them didn’t have any illegal contraband at hand, or why they didn’t say they believed they saw something that was consistent with X in his hand, etc.)
No, no, no; you don’t get to dodge the subject. Your stated ideology requires you to refrain from pissing and moaning about this decision taken by your betters. Do so, and apologize for failing to do so until now.
Yes, your own personal political worldview is so objectively correct, and so blatantly obviously so, that anyone that disagrees with it must be either lying or insane.
It must be comforting to live in a world so cut and dry.
I have some questions and guesses about the facts and circumstances of the Gray death, but since it is now in the hands of the judicial system, I’m willing to wait and see.
[INDENT]The Baltimore Sun reported this week that the city’s police have a reputation for so-called “rough rides,” when officers allegedly drive police vans recklessly in an attempt to knock around the passengers in the back — who are often shackled but not wearing seat belts. According to the Sun’s Doug Donovan and Mark Puente, the 2005 story of Dondi Johnson Sr., whose family received a $7.4 million settlement from the city, is the city’s most “sensational”: the 43-year-old plumber, who had been arrested for public urination, “was handcuffed and placed in a transport van in good health. He emerged a quadriplegic.” [/INDENT] Emphasis added.
Routinely continuing such practices after such an event is depraved in my opinion.