A prominent black conservative is slamming Maryland State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby for charging six police officers with the death of Freddie Gray without bothering to collect all the evidence and he says that haste could trigger more riots if the officers are acquitted and leave law-abiding citizens in some neighborhoods at the mercy of troublemakers.
Last Friday, Mosby announced charges ranging from second-degree murder depraved heart to manslaughter to office misconduct. However, attorney and Project 21 Co-Chairman Horace Cooper says the prosecutor is putting the cart before the horse.
“We’re all concerned about whether or not Freddie Gray died under legal or illegal circumstances,” said Cooper. Our legal system is not supposed to be that a trial is a fact-finding opportunity. A trial is supposed to occur only after a level has been reached to believe that a crime has been committed by the individuals who have been charged.”
“In America, you’re not supposed to have any person have charges brought unless the burden of proof has been met,” he said.
Cooper says Mosby is also going to have to get much more specific than simply accusing all six officers of playing a role on Gray’s death.
“If you are going to charge someone with depraved heart murder and someone else with negligence that’s criminal, you are going to have to say who it was that actually took the actions, when did they take those actions and how did Mr. Freddie Gray die?” said Cooper, who believes Mosby charged the officers under the wrong motivation.
“In this case, there was a very clear decision, it appears, by the state’s attorney to bring what she perceives to be the most serious charges that could be sustained, without necessarily seeing where there’s evidence. If this can happen to those officers, this could happen to any American,” said Cooper.
He also rips Mosby for failing to convene a grand jury before filing formal charges.
“She has bypassed, at least temporarily, the grand jury process, which is a protection to make sure that you actually can support the charges that are brought against any individual,” said Cooper.
One area where Cooper seems to agree with Mosby and other Baltimore leaders is that it is possible for the officers to receive a fair trial in such a charged atmosphere. Opponents of a venue change assert that special arrangements were not needed for Boston Marathon bomber Dzokhar Tsarnaev or Colorado theater shooting suspect James Holmes. Cooper says that is a fair point, but he says any arguments to move the trial will be bolstered by Mosby’s conduct.
“In neither (the Boston nor the Colorado) circumstance did the prosecuting attorneys make statements about the accused that were provocative, that were inflammatory and that it appeared to be that the charges were brought to appease,” said Cooper.
By filing such hefty charges so soon, Cooper says Mosby could be setting the stage for another disaster in Baltimore if the evidence is not there to convict the officers.
“What happens if there is an acquittal? The very crowd that demanded the charges in exchange for no longer burning down buildings, what are they going to do when an acquittal may occur?” asked Cooper.
Beyond the Freddie Gray crisis lies the work of trying to put a divided city back together. Cooper says there are a number of things that must be agreed upon for healing to begin. First, he says there must be a separation of fact from fiction when it comes to how police interact with black neighborhoods.
“There has been a false narrative presented that in America black men are somehow at some elevated risk at crisis levels in encounters. The individual charged with the highest, most serious charge in this death happens to be a black officer,” said Cooper.
Cooper contends that the prosecutor’s approach to this case will make police less likely to engage in minority neighborhoods and that will leave law-abiding people in those communities at great risk.
“We’re going to see, just by necessity, law enforcement remove itself from many of these communities. We saw the rioting and the mayhem. It was because the police were operating under a stand down order. Those individuals are going to feel freer to engage in the rioting and the mayhem but there won’t be cameras watching. It will people in those communities who will suffer as a result,” said Cooper.
As for the long-term approach, Cooper says it’s time for everyone to admit that big government policies have badly failed Baltimore and many other big cities.
“You have elevated levels of spending, the number three highest level of spending per capita on education, billions of dollars being spent over the decade on job training, social welfare transfers of all kinds and they do not work,” said Cooper.
According to Cooper, the hopelessness of many parts of Baltimore is magnified by the rapid decrease in population there. In 1968, Baltimore was one of the ten most populous cities in the U.S. Now, it’s not even in the top twenty.
He says it’s high time to make failed leaders take responsibility.
“[We need to] start addressing how we can encourage family formation, how we can encourage a new commitment to education, encourage job opportunities in these communities. That’s things that are not about government programs but about cultural attitude changes and holding those elected leaders responsible,” said Cooper.
Recent polls suggest that blacks and whites view the events in Baltimore much differently, with whites roundly condemning the riots but a majority of blacks saying the actions were understandable in the pursuit of justice for Freddie Gray. But Cooper says there is a sizable minority of blacks who were disgusted by the violence and are fed up with the status quo in Baltimore and other big cities.
“Twenty-seven percent is a significant bloc of black Americans. That’s the group of people that we ought to start having conversations with, both politically and in the community. If 27 percent of black America switched their political affiliation and their voting practices, it would revolutionize America,” said Cooper.
