"The driver of the police van, officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr., who is black, is accused of second-degree 'depraved heart' murder � the most serious charge of them all..."

"... which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison."

Other counts against the cops include involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault and false imprisonment. The five men and one woman posted bond and all but one reportedly were released.

�We are satisfied with today�s charges,� Gray�s stepfather, Richard Shipley, told a news conference. �These charges are an important step in getting justice for Freddie.�

"Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr., 45... has been on the force since 1999..."

An African American, Goodson drove the van that transported Gray to jail. Goodson, whose bail was set at $350,000, is the only officer in the group facing a murder charge...

Goodson is the grandson of a police officer.... He lives in Catonsville in Baltimore County, where two of his neighbors said Friday that he had minimal interactions with them.

Frances Hubbard, who lives on his street, described the officer as a �family man, always polite, always speaks. I see him eating with the family.�

"Who Is This Objectively Badass Attorney Running The Freddie Gray Investigation?"

Headline at a Huffpo article that's teased on the Huffpro front page with "BALTIMORE BADASS":



If the question is the abuse of government power in the form of the police, the answer is not mindless cheerleading for another form of government power, a prosecutor.

Objectively Badass...

Yeah, let's be objective. Let's be level-headed and demand that all government power � police, prosecutors, the lot � operate within the bounds of the law.

My criticism is of the headline and the front-page teaser. The article doesn't contain the word "badass" or present Marilyn Mosby as anything that warrants the use of the word "badass." She herself is saying appropriate things like "I uphold the law" and "At the end of the day I�m here to do my job. It�s about applying justice fairly and equally to those with and without a badge. Did I treat this case any different in the pursuit of justice? No, I didn�t."

I wonder what pushed Huffpo to use that word "badass." I doubt if the word would have been chosen if Mosby were a white male.

"In Baltimore, they call it a 'rough ride'... a dark tradition of police misconduct in which suspects, seated or lying face down and in handcuffs in the back of a police wagon, are jolted and battered by an intentionally rough and bumpy ride..."

"... that can do as much damage as a police baton without an officer having to administer a blow. The exact cause of the spinal injury that Freddie Gray, 25, sustained while in police custody in Baltimore before his death April 19 has not been made clear. The police have said that he was not strapped into a seatbelt, a violation of department policy. That has led some to wonder whether he was deliberately left unbuckled, reminiscent of a practice that while little known has left a brutal, costly legacy of severe injuries and multimillion-dollar settlements throughout the country."

From a NYT article titled "Freddie Gray�s Injury and the Police �Rough Ride.'"

My son Chris says that the descriptions of what may have happened to Freddie Gray remind him of a disturbing scene in the Quentin Tarantino movie "Death Proof" (originally part of "Grindhouse.") Here's the scene:



"Hey, Pam, remember when I said this car was death proof? Well, that wasn't a lie. This car is 100% death proof. Only to get the benefit of it, honey, you REALLY need to be sitting in my seat."

"Investigators believe Freddie Gray suffered serious head injuries while he was in a police transport van... his legs were shackled and he wasn�t wearing a seat belt..."

"... which authorities say was a violation of policy. They said officers ignored his pleas for medical help."

One wound occurred when Gray struck his head on a bolt that jutted out in the van, the official said, but that was not Gray�s only head injury. And the injuries overall are consistent with what medical examiners often see in car collisions, the official said.

So, you shackle a man, put him in a van with jutting bolts, and then you drive the van in such a way that he slams into things hard enough to cause multiple injuries, and the man dies of those injuries.

That's worse that shooting a man on the street, where there's some argument of needing to stop him. The shackled man enclosed in a vehicle is already completely restrained. There's no harm to say you needed to stop.

I think of torture devices like the iron maiden, where a helpless person is shut inside something that is designed and intended to injure him.



UPDATE: "Freddie Gray death ruled a homicide; six Baltimore police officers charged."