Discussion for article #235745
He was beaten or seriously mishandled (rough and abrupt headlock, neck twisted, something) in a way that caused severe trauma to his neck and spine. If no one will give up the ghost and they insist on a blue wall of silence anyone who was in or around the van should be fired. There is virtually no way that this happened on its own without the intervention of a third party. People are incapable of severing their own spines.
6 Likes
They also said in earlier reports that he had a crushed larynx. Donāt hear about that at all now.
When you watch the video of him being moved to the van, I think it looks like he already has been injured.
5 Likes
Completely agree. The ābouncing around in the back of the vanā excuse is totally not believable. Someone roughed him up, and went too far. Iām not even convinced he wasnāt fatally injured before they put him in the van. He certainly looks like heās in extreme pain.
At a minimum, someone needs to be charged with manslaughter. If they insist with the āback of the vanā excuse, charge the driver.
2 Likes
Iām with you. I believe he was injured prior to the video we have seen.
Iāve mentioned this before, it is tough to break a 25 year old males spine.
1 Like
There was no probable cause to even stop Gray let alone arrest him. Police made a dreadful mistake and Gray paid for it with his life. If we look at history of these riots, we see that with the exception of the assassination of Dr. King, all of the riots have revolved around police brutality.
With Rodney King in LA, there were no riots until an all white jury declared all the police officers not guilty. It was the same in Chicago and other urban areas. Until this country and our criminal justice system punishes officers for beating and killing unarmed African Americans, this will continue to happen. Sustained police brutality equals riots.
4 Likes
āPolice later released surveillance video of the incident:ā and neither the police nor the author of this story could be bothered to winnow 16 videos totaling more than 2 hours down to just the relevant few minutes? Classic way to hide facts, bury them in so much dross that nobody has time to actually search them out. Fail for the police. Fail for TPM.
#2108 is āunavailableā I wonder it was the only relevant video of the 16.
Well ā Iām not saying this is what happened, but MSNBC mentioned Monday night that an arrestee in Baltimore had died in the recent past as a result of injuries sustained when being tumbled around in the back of one of those vans. But itās hardly an innocent action on the part of the police that causes that kind of injury. The interior of those vans is all metal. The arrestee is put in handcuffs and thrown in without being strapped into a seatbelt, and then the driver takes off at a high speed and deliberately makes it as rough a ride as possible, with tight turns that will throw the person around, and with his hands cuffed behind him, he has no way to catch himself and prevent being slammed against hard metal surfaces. If thatās what happened here, I for one would have no trouble voting to convict the driver and anyone else involved in it of first degree murder. Theyāve already admitted that they did not strap him in, as regulations require. I see that as intent to hurt him, and they had to know from the earlier case that it could kill him.
But I also agree that it is entirely possible that he was badly injured before he was put in that van. Perhaps fatally, or perhaps the ride in the van aggravated the initial injuries.
1 Like
I agree. The rough ride simply finished the job.
The police investigation is expected to be completed Friday, Batts said.
Thatās not a lot of time to put together a whitewash that clears officers of all wrongdoing. Then again, Baltimore PD has a lot of practice at this kind of thing.