The news comes the same day that the city police union released its 32-page after action review of the city's handling of the riots in April. Many Baltimore police officers reported they lacked the proper equipment, training and leadership to adequately respond to the riots and unrest in the city following the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody.
The union placed the responsibility largely on Police Commissioner Anthony Batts.
However, Gene Ryan, president of the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police, said the results of the review were not "a recommendation for [Batts] to leave."
"This is a recommendation for improvement," Ryan said.
Ryan said that the Baltimore Police Department still remains unprepared for future riots. He also said the riots and unrest were preventable and that the injuries to more than 200 officers could have been avoided or at least minimized, according to WBAL-TV.
"This after action review came about because the police officers, sergeants and lieutenants of the Baltimore Police Department do not want to see Baltimore burn again," Ryan said in a news conference.
Officers were told not to intervene or engage with rioters, not to wear their issued riot helmets, and that all arrests had to be given approval by civilians who worked in the Baltimore Police Department legal section, Ryan said, WBAT-TV reported.
The information contained in the report came from surveys, firsthand accounts, a radio transmission, focus groups and emails.
The bumbling, conflicted response of the Baltimore Police Department to the riots does not indicate they are ready to impose a police state on the people of Baltimore. Their incompetence and poor leadership should make those fearful of such a tyrannical turn of events release (at least a temporary) sigh of relief.
Attorneys for Officers Edward Nero and Garrett Miller filed motions in Baltimore Circuit Court on Friday opposing the stated intention of Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby to try them alongside Officer Caesar Goodson and Sgt. Alicia White.
Goodson, the driver of the police transport van in which Gray was injured, is charged with second-degree depraved heart murder, and White is charged with manslaughter. Nero and Miller, bicycle officers involved in Gray's initial arrest, face lesser charges, including second-degree assault.
In their opposition motions, the officers' attorneys argued that trying Nero and Miller alongside Goodson and White would "severely prejudice" their clients' right to a fair trial because the crimes with which they are charged "are substantially different and less serious than those of the other Defendants."
"Consequently, if the Defendants are joined for trial, there will be a substantial amount of evidence that would be admissible against the other Defendants but would be inadmissible against Defendant Nero," wrote Nero's attorney, Marc L. Zayon.
Catherine Flynn, the attorney for Miller, made the same argument, verbatim, in her own filing on behalf of Miller.
Every time I read about this case, I reflect on the five seasons of "The Wire" - a show more or less focused on the Baltimore Police Department. (Awesome series, btw)
So when I hear that the Mayor fired the PC (which happened in the show twice, as I recall) my mind goes back to the politics shown in The Wire and I wonder just how close to reality it is.
Certainly the PC's orders about how to handle the riot seem ill-advised. Its all well and good to say "you aren't allowed to wear riot gear" so you don't look scary on camera if you are safe in an office somewhere. Its a case of not having to eat your own dog food. If the PC shared a few minutes on the front lines with his troops, you can be sure his orders would have changed instantly - about the gear, if nothing else.
We need to have effective police, and we need to protect them, while at the same time avoiding having a police state.
I appreciate the reports from the front lines, Tom.
I was not familiar with "The Wire" TV show or "The Corner," both written by David Simon. But I read the interview with him linked here on pp with great fascination as he seems to have explained a great deal of what the daily police / inner-city interactions are like in very gritty terms.
One of the elements not discussed are the factors that drives groups of presumably very normal human beings into such distressed ways of living as we find in the inner city. What the heck happened here? Was it the migration to cities to find industrial work, then the sudden de-industrialization as manufacturing was moved to Indonesia? No trees, no fresh running water, little work. Depressed lives hinging on the monthly check for food. Fractured families, ubiquitous drug use, drug territory wars, little physical safety. It really looks like a terrible place to live.
Newly released surveillance camera footage from the Baltimore riots shows chaos erupting at North and Pennsylvania avenues, where a crowd breaches and loots stores, destroys police vehicles and sets fires while police stay on the fringe of the action.
With the exception of a brief incursion by a SWAT team, the video shows that officers don't move in for nearly 90 minutes, after the crowd has largely moved on.
The city surveillance camera footage along with police radio transimssions and emails obtained by The Baltimore Sun under a Public Information Act request show how the looting developed April 27 at the intersection that would become a center of demonstrations in the ensuing days.
The materials also offer a fresh view of a moment that has become a flashpoint for police officers critical of their leaders.
By the way, everyone here would be wise enough NOT to stand around watching this kind of thing in real life if you ever found yourself in the midst of it, right? Very dangerous. Anything can happen.
