To win convictions, prosecutors must get inside heads of Baltimore officers

http://www.latimes.com/ ^ | May 3, 2015 | Victoria Kim,David Zucchino

[Biggirl]

Prosecutors seeking to convict six Baltimore officers in the death of a young black man severely injured while in police custody will focus not on what the officers did but on what they allegedly failed to do: provide medical attention to 25-year-old Freddie Gray inside a police van on April 12.

[Aria]

My neighbor’s son is a cop in California and he told her the driver of the van, like the captain of an airplane or ship, was responsible for the safety of the passengers and the guy should have been belted in.

[Bob434]

exacltly- They will likely be able to get convicitons of at the least negligent homicide- and even be able to convict all the officers on this- the driver will get heftier charges- but the rest of officers ‘should have’ made sure the perp was belted in properly- at least this will be the arguments of prosecution

[9thLife]

They don't have to get inside anybody's heads, as if that were possible.

They just have to announce that they have gotten into everyone's heads, and that will be enough, with a little theater from some lawyers, to implant the conclusion in the collective mind of the jury.

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

Negligent "homicide"? Not sure how that will work. If the perp is resisting and kicking and all they can do is lay him in, is that homocide? Secondly, can the driving be blamed for it when the perp was bashing his head into a bolt matched to the back of the van? If sudden-stops was the cause, he'd have bashed into the front.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Kabuki theater.

The cops will walk, because Obama wants the riots.

[FreeReign]

My neighbor’s son is a cop in California and he told her the driver of the van, like the captain of an airplane or ship, was responsible for the safety of the passengers and the guy should have been belted in.

I put my five-year-old on the school bus, and told the driver who is the "captain" of the bus, and who is responsible for the safety of the passengers, that my kid should be belted it. The school bus drive responded by telling me that they don't have seat belts.

I'm not disagreeing with what you said in your post, but I'm putting it better into context.

[dp0622]

yeah, i know. it was wrong. Maybe even deserves charges of some sort, but JC how many blacks have killed each other sine then. And YES, it does make a difference!!!
Some of the big mouths should deal with monsters eight hours a day month in and out and see if they dont get flustered an forget something once in a while.
Sick and TIReD of hearing “ooh, they didn’t seatbelt him!!!” well, he didn’t stay home and instead went out to sell narcotics and ruin lives!!!

[MeshugeMikey]

what you said.

ready made trouble=the perfect crisis, and we know how Obie feels about a good crisis!

[Regal]

The reason there was such a large “over charge”, and indictments of the whole bunch, is the hope that someone is going to turn on the others. They can’t get inside their heads, so they have to get into the “conspiracy”.

[MacMattico]

Freddie Gray had been arrested 25x. It is quite common for those being arrested to cry out that they are hurt and expect a hospital trip and then to try and blame the cops. I have family members that see this everyday from the medical end. It's usually the same small group of people and there's usually nothing wrong with them.

I don't have the answer— but could this have been Freddie Gray? He goes limp as they pick him up but seems to put weight on his legs getting into the van. A lot of people being arrested go limp so the officers have to lift all of his weight. Then he thrashes around and does who know what to himself.
Then the officers realize he is unresponsive and do call for help.

And if the injury happened in the van as charged, how are six officers responsible?

[erlayman]

And if there had been an accident or fire of course he wouldn’t have been able to get out handcuffed. That must have seemed like a more probable scenario than a suspect being able to crush his/her own spinal cord.

[justa-hairyape]

These fools demand better protection for criminals than innocent kids. We conservatives knew that all along.

[Conscience of a Conservative]

School buses are actually designed for use without seat belts - that’s why the seats are (a) close together, (b) taller than typical car seats, and (c) heavily padded. They are designed so that, in the event of an accident, the child will hit the padded seats around him/her.

The idea is that this way is safer than seat belts because (a) many school-aged children on a bus would not use the seat belt properly anyway, and (b) in the event of a serious accident (especially involving fire) the time spent cutting kids out of seat belts could lead to further (and more serious) injuries.

[Bob434]

[[Negligent “homicide”? Not sure how that will work.]]

By not making sure the perp was strapped in properly

[[If the perp is resisting and kicking and all they can do is lay him in, is that homocide?]]

The prosecution will argue the death happened en route- and that the police ‘should have’ strapped him in properly before taking off- I’m not agreeing with this- I’m just trying to see how they will likely argue

[[Secondly, can the driving be blamed for it when the perp was bashing his head into a bolt matched to the back of the van?]]

They are going to argue that the driver was reckless- not just stopping quick, but masking sharp turns, causing the perp to be thrown in all directions, not just forward

Of course, the burden of proof is going to be on the prosecution, and it’s going to be very very tough to prove that the perp didn’t slip his restraints trying ot get away-

There are a couple of angles the defense is going to use- and rightfully so- the prosecution has to prove, without having been in the van witnessing what actually happened, how the injuries occurred- it’s going to be very tough for prosecution-

[Conscience of a Conservative]

That is a tough situation for the officers, yes. On the one hand, it is true that many arrestees fake injuries/illnesses to get medical attention. So, it is tempting to dismiss such requests for medical attention as “jailitis” (as it has been reported that one of these officers did). But, on the other hand, if you do brush off the requests for medical attention and end up with a dead prisoner, there will be hell to pay.

[Abby4116]

The seat belt directive had been in effect for 9 days when this happened.

A practical question: Since there is no accepted way of disabling the arrestees mouth, how do the cops avoid being spit on or bitten by the arrestee while buckling him in?

How do you safely belt someone in who goes limp on you at will?

[Oliviaforever]

They don’t need to get into their heads.

All they need to do is over-charge the one that was the least involved and he will rat-out the next guy, and he will rat-out the others.

[Oliviaforever]

They don’t need to get into their heads.

All they need to do is over-charge the one that was the least involved and he will rat-out the next guy, and he will rat-out the others.

[Aria]

I totally agree. We don’t end up dead after a police encounter because we follow the laws and stay out of trouble. This is the breakdown of our civil society when people think it’s ok to shoot cops for trying to prevent and prosecute crimes. I’m sure Obama is so pleased.

I don’t know how the cops can stand dealing with these people - what a tough job!