WaPo: I was the prosecutor in the Freddie Gray case. Here's what Minneapolis should know.

[Celerity]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/30/minneapolis-lessons-echoes-baltimore/

Marilyn Mosby is the Baltimore City state’s attorney.

Like any American, I was sickened by footage of a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, forcing the life out of him as he struggled to say the words that have defined a movement: “I can’t breathe.” In 2015, I found myself at the heart of a similar national storm after Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, was killed while in Baltimore City police custody. My office evaluated the evidence and decided to charge the officers responsible. This choice had repercussions that continue to reverberate for Baltimore — and that hold important lessons for Minneapolis.

Gray was killed as the result of a “rough ride”: He was placed in a metal police wagon head first, feet shackled and handcuffed. The officers did not strap him in, and his spine was partially severed in the back of that wagon. Later, his pleas for medical attention were ignored. As I reviewed the evidence, I considered that my office would prosecute any ordinary citizen for such an appalling act, so there was no reason to have a separate standard of justice for police.

I was a young, black, female prosecutor only a few months into the job, and many warned me against such action. There is a higher threshold for officers, I was told. Prosecuting police would damage my political career. Prosecutors partner with police; they don’t charge them. As one of the first to apply the routine standard of justice to police, my team faced long odds. We received death threats and hate mail. People protested outside my home; some posted my address and photos of my children online. None of it deterred our pursuit of justice on behalf of Freddie Gray.

There are differences with the case of George Floyd. For starters, there is clear video of an officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes while he gasps for air and pleads to breathe. Such evidence would have been the “smoking gun" in Gray’s case, which is why I was perplexed to hear Hennepin County, Minn., District Attorney Michael Freeman announce Thursday that he hadn’t yet pressed charges because he didn’t want to repeat the “rush to charge” and "rush to justice” of the Gray case.

snip

[judeling]

1. Thanks but

the Hennepin county prosecutors on the case are some of the same one who were on the Philando Castile case and actually know just how hard it is even with video. One of the reasons for the delay in charges.

[oasis]

2. Important to refresh our memories of the Gray case in the light of recent

police misconduct. It was disgraceful what prosecutor Mosby had to put up with in the pursuit of justice.

Thanks for posting.

[madville]

3. Mosby is the last person I would take advice from

As far as handling a case like this.