The city police had rules about how someone was to be put in a paddy wagon. The rules were put in because the city had lost a large law suit recently.
The cops that arrested Freddie and put him in the paddy wagon did not go by the policy and Freddie died. The driver of the paddy wagon did not go by the rules and Freddie died.
Now the cops are trying to control the City of Baltimore by not doing their jobs. Fire them.
The new rule, adopted nine days before Gray’s arrest, was sent out in an email that contained five policy changes. Until we hear from the officers, we don’t know if they had even been made aware of it or not. They don’t have computers on their beat. It is entirely possible that they did not know. It is likely that the Police Union is fighting that directive being mandatory because of the danger it puts police in when they are dealing with violent prisoners.
I believe that the reason they put him in the paddy wagon lying down was to minimize his chance of being hurt, because at the time he was arrested he was not being cooperative. Two of his past arrests had involved assault.
Grays toxicology tests showed heroin. He was not a known heroin user, so it is likely that he swallowed the heroin he was selling when spotted earlier by an undercover policeman doing a hand to hand transaction.
Gray’s symptoms, difficulty breathing, convulsions (he was thrashing around in the van), cardiac arrest, unconsciousness, coma, are all symptoms of heroin overdose.
In the aftermath of the riots and the charges being brought against the officers, they are no longer confident in doing their jobs. Any mistake could end their career and worse. Every time they attempt to make an arrest, they are mobbed with a crowd. In that environment, it makes doing their job impossible. The same people that were complaining of police being everywhere are now complaining that there are no police. Maybe they need to see this for a while in order to appreciate the police.
I don’t see this Police Dept. ever getting where it needs to be under this Mayor and Prosecutor. That well is poisoned even worse than de Blasio did for NYPD.