‘No justice, no peace, no racist police’ chants in Baltimore

ARREST TIMELINE

8:39 a.m. April 12: Lt. Brian Rice, on bike patrol with Officers Garrett Miller and Edward Nero, makes eye contact with Gray, who is walking in the West Baltimore neighborhood where he was raised, and another person. Both run and the officers pursue them. After a brief chase, Gray surrenders.

8:42 a.m.: Police wagon requested. Gray is handcuffed and placed on his stomach. He says he can't breathe and requests an inhaler. Officers find a knife on Gray. He flails his legs and screams as they restrain him, then load him into the wagon without a seatbelt.

8:46:02 a.m.: The driver, Officer Caesar Goodson, believes Gray is acting irate.

8:46:12 a.m.: The van makes its first stop. Rice, Nero and Miller remove Gray from the wagon, put flexcuffs on his wrists and shackles on his ankles and complete paperwork. They then put Gray on his stomach, head-first, on the van floor.

8:54 a.m.; The wagon leaves for central booking. At some point after the van pulls away, Gray suffers a neck injury.

Time unknown: The wagon makes a second stop. Goodson goes to the back of the van but doesn't give Gray medical assistance.

8:59 a.m.: Van makes third stop. Goodson asks for an additional unit to check on Gray. Officer William Porter and Goodson check on Gray. Gray asks for help, says he can't breathe and asks twice for a medic. Porter helps Gray onto the van's bench seat.

Time unknown: Van makes fourth stop. Goodson and Porter respond to a request for additional units at another arrest scene and are met by Nero, Miller, Porter and Rice. Gray is unresponsive on the floor. Sgt. Alicia White, who is investigating complaints related to Gray's arrest, speaks to Gray, who doesn't respond. A second prisoner is loaded into the wagon. Gray is no longer breathing.

9:24 a.m.: A medic is called and determines Gray is in cardiac arrest. Gray is taken to a hospital, where he undergoes surgery.

April 19: Gray dies a week after his arrest.

Sources: Baltimore police, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby

TWO VIEWS

“This definitely seems like the first time in recent history that the state has done what the community feels is the right thing. These charges become a representation of culpability, responsibility, that the state can’t just treat citizens like they are not human beings.”

University of Maryland sociologist Rashawn Ray

“The decision to file charges was made not based on considerations of justice, but on considerations of crowd control.”

Alan Dershowitz, well-known criminal lawyer and professor emeritus at Harvard Law School

Chants of “no justice, no peace, no racist police” echoed through the streets of Baltimore during a Saturday march that organizers billed as a “victory rally” a day after a prosecutor charged six officers involved in the arrest of a man who died in police custody.

State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby on Friday charged the six with felonies ranging from assault to murder in the death of Freddie Gray. He died from spinal injuries a week after his April 12 arrest. It provoked riots on the streets of West Baltimore and quickly became a rallying cry against police brutality and social inequality in the city and elsewhere.

The planned march was to be a mass protest of Gray’s treatment by police, but after Mosby’s announcement, the tone had changed to a celebration.

Black Lawyers for Justice was expecting at least 10,000 people to show up downtown. Smaller groups of what looked to be several hundred gathered all around Baltimore and made their way through the streets to join the thousands at the main rally outside City Hall.

They carried homemade signs, calling for peace, as well as printed ones asking for justice. Others wore T-shirts that read, “Black Lives Matter.”

Rashid Wiggins of Upton was selling $10 shirts with the slogan, with “I matter” in red. He said it surprised him that charges were filed quickly and that he hoped Mosby’s action would send a message to other officers to ensure that when someone in police custody asks for medical help, it is provided.

“I just want them to be a little more careful,” he said.

Near a CVS store that was looted and burned earlier in the week, groups of police officers stood on corners and a police helicopter flew overhead. With little to do, some officers twirled wooden batons idly.

Linda Moore, 63, joined the rally carrying a sign that said “The Dream Still Lives,” a reference to the Rev. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” civil rights speech.

With her was Chrystal Miller, 47, who was pushing her 1-year-old son in a stroller. She said she hoped the march would be peaceful, and Moore said she believed it would be because of the charges.

Still, Miller said the story isn’t over.

“It’s going to be a long road,” she said, adding that the officers still need to go to court. “Nothing is going to happen overnight.”

Mosby on Friday said that after reviewing the results of a police investigation, she had concluded Gray’s arrest was illegal and unjustified. She said his neck was broken because he was handcuffed, shackled and placed head-first into a police van, where his pleas for medical attention were repeatedly ignored as he bounced around inside the vehicle.

The officers missed five opportunities to help the injured detainee before he arrived at a police station no longer breathing, Mosby said.

The police had no reason to stop or chase after Gray, she said. They falsely accused him of having an illegal switchblade and failed to strap him down in the van with a seat belt, a direct violation of department policy, she said.