On April 12, a 25-year-old African-American named Freddie Gray was arrested in Baltimore. No one knows exactly why he was arrested, other than the report that he ran after making eye contact with the police. Reportedly, Gray had a switchblade. He also had a record.
During the arrest, though, Gray was seriously injured and ultimately, he died from spinal cord injuries.
Amid massive protests in Baltimore, the police have begun the public relations spin. Initially, rumors were making the social media rounds that Gray had a preexisting spinal injury from a car accident. That’s not true at all.
On Wednesday, while official Baltimore police spokespeople are saying that they will not release information and they will instead take the case straight to the prosecutor (who, unless an outside prosecutor is appointed, is someone who works with the police every single day), the police office sprung a leak. They are now attempting to say that Gray injured his own spine – on purpose.
Baltimore police leak doc to @washingtonpost to make it look like #FreddieGray intentionally severed his own spine http://t.co/Zy3C1WNaxb
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) April 30, 2015
According to a police document obtained by the Washington Post, a prisoner shared the transport van with Gray and said that he could hear Gray “banging against the walls” of the van. He also said that he believed that Gray was “intentionally trying to injure himself.
The problem is that Gray and the other prisoner were separated and they couldn’t even see each other.
Gray’s family attorney, who says he hasn’t seen the document, responded:
“We disagree with any implication that Freddie Gray severed his own spinal cord,” Downs said. “We question the accuracy of the police reports we’ve seen thus far, including the police report that says Mr. Gray was arrested without force or incident.”
The police have not officially commented on the document, but there is video of two officers sitting on top of Gray with their knees in his back. Then then dragged his limp body to the van. In other words, the injuries likely occurred before he entered the van.
Here’s a video:
The other prisoner was accused of violating a protective order. It’s not far-fetched to imagine that deals could be made for that prisoner to speak out against Gray.
This is likely to be only among the first of a constant stream of information designed to demonize Gray and to impress upon the public that he deserved to die on that day.
The police have admitted to two things, though, and that is that they took too long in getting Gray to the hospital, and that the officers should have put a seatbelt on Gray.
Image via CNN YouTube video.
