Racist revenge, the new "justice":
The announcement today by Maryland state’s attorney for Baltimore, Marilyn J. Mosby of numerous charges brought against the six officers purportedly involved in the death of Freddie Gray is rich in political theater and shockingly lacking in evidence of criminal malfeasance.
A solid foundation for this having been a partisan political, rather than reasoned legal, decision is laid out succinctly by the counsel for the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police…
Gray family lawyer William Murphy is reported by the Baltimore Sun newspaper to have contributed $5,000 to Prosecutor Mosby’s political campaign [and served on her transition committee....].
Prosecutor Mosby’s husband, a city council member, has been prominently present at the riots, and commenting on them in a manner suggesting that the acts of violence are understandable:….
Prosecutor Mosby promptly refused the call for an independent prosecutor, stating, "The people of Baltimore City elected me and there is no accountability with a special prosecutor."
Which suggests she realizes the lightning-rod whirlwind she's letting herself in for, but thinks she's going to reap glory instead.
In addition, the New York Times recounting of the charges specific by Mrs. Mosby seems both inconsistent and contradictory, as well as largely lacking in specifying actual criminal conduct.
I warned earlier today that this indictment avalanche announcement reeked of over-charging against cops not seen since the 1992 Rodney King episode in Los Angeles, whether as directly attempted retribution for Freddie Gray's death (which the rhetoric of her announcement - "“To the people of Baltimore and demonstrators across America, I heard your call for ‘No Justice, No peace.' Your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man.” - strongly suggests) or as bait, once an even semi-sane jury laughs most or all of the charges out of court, for riots and violence and a mass uprising orders of magnitude more intense than the outbreaks this week. That Mrs. Mosby has multiple hilarious conflicts of interest, that she's going to be doing her level best to make this a kangaroo court, an exercise in Cardassian justice, a railroading that would put Burlington Northern to shame, is so obligatory that it almost doesn't merit mentioning.
And that, of course, is why she balked at recusal and appointing an independent prosecutor. If she did that, an objective replacement might whittle down significantly the number of charges to bring the cases more in line with the evidence, or even drop some cases altogether. It would no longer, in other words, be a political star chamber show trial, or a high profile mass lynching, but merely a normal functioning of the criminal justice system highly unlikely to feed the Black Klan mob's bloodlust. And, having already promised them all six police heads on spikes for them to place soccer with, Mrs. Mosby can't risk anything like that happening, now can she?
The only thing the surprises me about this story? Three of the six cops charged are black. Which, I guess, means that any African-American who goes into law enforcement might just as well join the Tea Party because they're "officially" forfeiting their "racial authenticity" anyway.
If any of you had any plans to travel to Baltimore in the near future, I strongly recommend you cancel them. That is not a place anybody needs to be for the foreseeable future.
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