Why were the two bicycle cops charged? Gray’s arrest was filmed. Nobody hurt him then. Gray offered some resistance, and was put in the van unharmed. I assume they returned to patrolling on their bicycles.
Why are they getting dragged into this murder investigation? Whatever happened occurred inside that police van. Miles away.
That’s what ignited this firestorm. Something happened to Gray during that van trip. He was unharmed getting loaded into it. Dying when he came out. Why were the two bicycle cops charged?
photo No brutality here. This was just as he got loaded into the van.
As I understand it, according to the state prosecutor’s office:
Lacking probable cause, the three bicycle cops (Rice, Miller, Nero) arrested a citizen who was committing no crime. They used some degree of force to accomplish this illegal arrest–that is, they assaulted him. They violated their department’s standing procedures in the manner in which he was placed for transport. Rice and Miller repeated this negligence during the stop when Gray was removed from the van, shackled, and reloaded. And they failed to respond to Gray’s need and requests for medical attention.
Each of these illegal acts and failures of duty contributed to Gray’s death.
Ok. I can’t see those charges sticking against the bicycle cops. If there was no cause for arrest the usual remedy is a civil suit. Thats pretty common and citizens often get settlements for unlawful arrest.
The apparent bad cops here are the cops that transported him. Whatever they did during that unscheduled stop that was caught by surveillance cameras. I think they will get found guilty.
The unjustified arrest began the chain of criminal acts, but that wasn’t the bike cops’ only role.
A civil suit can’t remedy anything for Freddie Gray now, and in any case it seems that civil judgments against the BPD have been strikingly ineffective in changing their approach.
