The Tools of Police Corruption

Baltimore police were able to abuse people of color in the most egregious ways simply by the tried and true tool of denial.  But police denial comes in two forms.  The first is the expected denial by the accused.  But it is the denial of other police department employees that provided the fertilizer that permitted police abuse to grow to outrageous proportions.

Recently, a Baltimore prosecutor blamed poor police investigations for the prosecutors’ failure to convict even one police officer in the death of Freddy Gray, despite a coroner’s report that Gray’s death was a homicide.  State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby outlined more shocking malfeasance and resistance in her office’s attempts to investigate Mr Gray’s death.  She said that police interrogations of arrested officers were “light”, with difficult questions going unasked. In addition, police failed to respond to valid subpoenae to produce evidence. None of this behavior is unexpected given the nature of the alleged crimes.  Using a tactic long known to survivors of intimate partner abuse, five of the accused police officers are suing Attorney Mosby alleging defamation. Those claims are unlikely to be successful given the scathing Justice Department review.  But the defamation Plaintiffs knew that already.  The point always was intimidation and presenting themselves as victims.

Defense counsel, for their part, accused the prosecutors of withholding important evidence, resulting in judicial sanctions entered against the prosecutors.  In short, it is not just the policing system that is a mess in Baltimore. 

Justice was denied to Freddy Gray and so many others because police employees, civilian and otherwise, chose to use the cover of denial and silence rather than cooperate with inquiries or  report corruption themselves. But by the time Freddy Gray died, denial was a way of life for employees of the police department. Why prosecutors proceeded with cases so poorly prepared and supported is another question. 

Sometimes it is difficult to discern the differences between incompetence and corruption.