Baltimore policeman Nero found not guilty

Freddie Gray Arresting Officer Edward Nero Found Not Guilty On All Charges

Did Baltimore State's Attorney purge employees based on politics?

"My Open Goodbye Letter to the State's Attorney's Office" (January 14 2015)

Dear friends & colleagues,

I had time to say goodbye to exactly five people on Friday, so if you’ll allow me, I’d like to say goodbye to all of you now. This goodbye is about advocating for those who have been unjustly treated, which is the mandate of our office and the mandate of these circumstances. 

As many of you know, I was fired on Friday. Maybe I was fired because part of my job was to help our office hold ourselves accountable, to identify — on the basis of actual data — strong performance and areas for improvement. I also worry that I was fired because I supported Gregg Bernstein on election day at the same polling station that Councilman Nick Mosby had worked. Mr. Mosby and I shared our differences about the candidates that day, but I did not think this would come back to haunt me.

But I will be okay. I am more saddened and more troubled by the firings of so many others, half of whom were line [fine?] prosecutors. On her first day Ms. Mosby told the office she would focus on violent repeat offenders, as though we were not already doing that. (read the whole thing)

Relieve Tension, Three Times Daily

The month of May is here. We didn't always call it that though:

May corresponded with Anglo-Saxon Ðrimilcemonað, 'month of three milkings'. "So called because in this month the cattle were milked three times a day,' comments Bede, 'such was the fertility of Britain or Germany, from whence the English nation came to Britain.'

Parsing the word Ðrimilcemonað is easy in German: Drei/Milche/Monat => three/milk/month

Speaking of cows and milk, EBL's blog has a great round up of Baltimore-related links, including the legal blogs.

EBL's masthead is an H.L. Mencken quote:

I write in order to attain that feeling of tension relieved and function achieved which a cow enjoys on giving milk. 

H.L. Mencken was of course closely associated with Baltimore and its greatest newspaper, The Baltimore Sun.

[Added] The faces of the accused at EBL.  More than three milkings per diem!

"Nobody will help me"

Baltimore Protesters Tried To Light This Pizza Shop Owner on Fire

"Prisoner in van..."

"said Freddie Gray was ‘trying to injure himself,’ document says"

A prisoner sharing a police transport van with Freddie Gray told investigators that he could hear Gray “banging against the walls” of the vehicle and believed that he “was intentionally trying to injure himself,” according to a police document obtained by The Washington Post.

The prisoner, who is currently in jail, was separated from Gray by a metal partition and could not see him. His statement is contained in an application for a search warrant, which is sealed by the court. The Post was given the document under the condition that the prisoner not be named because the person who provided it feared for the inmate’s safety...

The van driver stopped three times while transporting Gray to a booking center, the first to put him in leg irons. Batts said the officer driving the van described Gray as “irate.” The search warrant application says Gray “continued to be combative in the police wagon.”

The driver made a second stop, five minutes later, and asked an officer to help check on Gray. At that stop, police have said the van driver found Gray on the floor of the van and put him back on the seat, still without restraints. Police said Gray asked for medical help at that point.

'Facts Matter' says college student

One Baltimore mother

 

One bit of good from an otherwise terrible situation.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts even acknowledged the mother’s actions during a press conference early Tuesday morning.

“And if you saw in one scene, you had one a mother who grabbed their child who had a hood on his head and she started smacking him on the head because she was so embarrassed. I wish I had more parents who took charge of their kids tonight,” Batts said.

MSNBC Chris Hayes blames Baltimore fire on faulty construction

KLEM FM

Curtis Mayfield's "Freddie's Dead:"

link in case the video doesn't load

Too soon?