OPINION:
What was the real cause of Freddie Gray’s spinal cord injury? Every article but one that I have read about Freddie Gray’s death states that Mr. Gray’s spinal cord injury occurred in police custody in the back of a police van. This is repeated so often that it is accepted as true.
But one of the first accounts of this (in the Baltimore Sun) said that Mr. Gray jumped from a second-story window in a previous attempt to elude the police, and hurt his back. He evidently went to a doctor and was advised to stay off his feet for a week or so. This would be consistent with the coroner’s finding of a high-compression injury to the spine. Why has this been ignored?
To be sure, there is cause for rage in Baltimore’s inner city, but to use police officers as scapegoats for the city’s problems is a horrible miscarriage of justice. Truth is what makes for justice and you don’t get it by taking it away from someone else.
Baltimore awarded Mr. Gray’s family in excess of $6 million. What for? On whose authority? What will be awarded to the police officers to make up for their pain and suffering, and their interrupted and possibly ruined lives?
As a Baltimorean and a believer in true justice, this bothers me tremendously. Should the individuals pressing charges against these officers not be held responsible for their decisions?
ELIZABETH WARD NOTTRODT
Baltimore
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