Baltimore (CNN)—Officer William Porter acted reasonably in not seat belting Freddie Gray in a police wagon and in waiting to call for medical assistance until he could see that Gray was injured, a former Baltimore Police Department commander testified Thursday.
Timothy Longo, who is now the police chief in Charlottesville, Virginia, said general orders — such as the one issued days before Gray’s death stating that prisoners should be secured in the back of police vans — are merely “guiding principles” and “are clearly administrative in purpose.” Such orders contain caveats providing for an officer’s discretion, even if they say they don’t, he said.
“Police officers make discretionary decisions every day,” he said. “I don’t think a policy would remove that discretionary judgment.”
Porter, 26, the first of six officers to face trial in Gray’s April death, has said that Gray was kicking the inside of the police van en route to the station, and he had tried to kick out the window of a patrol car during an arrest a few weeks earlier.
So, according to Longo, when Porter checked on Gray during a stop and helped him onto a bench, there was no real obligation to secure Gray because he had been combative.
“He had reason to believe that at some point in time there was some resistance,” Longo said. “I believe his actions were objectively reasonable under the circumstances he was presented with at the time.”
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https://twitter.com/MastaOfMp3s/status/675074013568376832/photo/1
https://twitter.com/TheRoot/status/675376180544016385
https://twitter.com/lizzzbrown/status/675372648134811657
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/675368775449899008
Good article by Lizz Brown. Yeah, I believe that cop defenders have an easy time here playing the “what would you have done” card until Ms. Brown correctly points out that they have the training to deal with these situations and we don’t.
This goes back to what I was saying earlier about assigning blame. How many actions or how much inaction from the officers involved account for Freddie Gray’s death? The defense will make the most of this in addition to blaming Freddie Gray for his own death.
This is quite obviously how people like Freddie Gray, people who live in Baltimore in the kind of neighborhood he lived in, are treated by the cops. Then on one of those days when the cops go too far, certainly not the first time, they maim a young man, mutilate his body, and someone got it on video, at least the start of it. Then the young man dies. This is no aberration, but the cops are used to getting away with sort of thing. So here we are.
The cops got caught this time. That’s all this is.
Yeah, I’ve been thinking for a couple of days that the defense strategy must be something like this: Freddie Gray did not die because of the actions or inaction of any one officer. But the sum of the officers’ actions and lack of action led to an unfortunate accident. Therefore, no one officer is to blame and cannot be held responsible for Freddie Gray’s death because no one officer intentionally killed him.
I believe that’s what they’re trying to prove to get these guys off, all of them. And, of course, if Porter gets off we can assume they all will. The glaring fact that they had no reason to arrest Freddie Gray to begin with is something they hope the jury won’t dwell on.
And they are also hoping the jury won’t dwell on the actual brutality, the violent manner in which they arrest (some) people.
And, of course, they also want the jury to believe that Freddie Gray contributed to his own death, that the sum of the officers actions plus their inaction plus Freddie Gray’s actions led to the unfortunate “accident.”
“Therefore, no one officer is to blame and cannot be held responsible for Freddie Gray’s death because no one officer intentionally killed him.”
A better way to phrase this, at least from the perspective of a defense strategy, is that no one officer did anything to Freddie Gray or failed to provide him medical assistance knowing that such action or such failure to act would cause Freddie’s death.
But this isn’t George Zimmerman’s jury either.
Now character witnesses get to share their PET names for William Porter to try and humanize this depraved BASTARD.
Will, Little Bill, William. SMH
https://twitter.com/byjoelanderson/status/675345757587795968
https://twitter.com/byjoelanderson/status/675345579468300288
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And what was that? Asking if a person needs a medic and then ignoring them?
Actions were OBJECTIVELY REASONABLE?!
Severing Freddie’s spine and denying him medical care is reasonable.
WE as a people are sooo fucked, if these bastards get away with this insane KILLING of Freddie.
https://twitter.com/lizzzbrown/status/675333137296179201