What Madison Can Learn from Baltimore

Undated family handout picture of Freddie Gray,
murdered by Baltimore Police (Baltimore Sun)

"Felony running" arrest of black man in Baltimore ends with near-severed spinal chord and death as noted by attorney Mary Koch, part of legal team representing the Freddie Gray family. I want know why"people think somehow it's not okay for a young man to run ... ." (Lawrence O'Donnell Show)

Baltimore — City officials suspended six police officers Monday as they investigate the death of a 25-year-old man who suffered a severe spinal cord injury while in police custody.

Freddie Gray had been hospitalized since his April 12 arrest and, according to his attorney, was in a coma when he died Sunday. On Monday, the mayor and police commissioner publicly pleaded for calm and promised a full accounting — an effort to keep Baltimore from becoming the latest flash point in disintegrating relations between police and communities across the country. (Hermann and Bui, Washington Post) ...

"It ain’t about being mad," Adrian Muldrow, vice president of the Baltimore City chapter of the NAACP, yelled to fire up the crowd. "It is about asking for

Baltimore? This is Madison, Wisconsin, with
an enlightened police force that Chief Mike
Koval described as "cordial" last week. In the
shot above just a bit more force and this
non-violent young protester could be the
recipient of police-inflicted fractured vertebrae.
Quite sure that would be good for a few
chuckles from Madison's finest.
Photo: Reproduced from video by
Leslie Amsterdam at SSWIDTMS.

justice."

The first thing Madison can learn from Baltimore and the Freddie Gray murder pertains to police: Madison police should do their killing of our citizenry behind closed doors with no on-lookers with cell phones.

Madison police officer Matt Kenny knows this lesson well, which is why—in part—we can expect no charges in Kenny's killing the unarmed Tony Robinson with five shots. (Ferguson, AP, The Grio)

I would reiterate that the greater Madison community cannot with any justice blame Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne when Ozanne clears killer Kenny in the coming weeks.

Ozanne can not fabricate evidence, and the evidence his office has by statute was gathered by the Wisconsin Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation led by an appointee of Republican Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, former district attorney of Waukesha County (R-White People). (Mal Contends)[Schimel was in the news again a couple of weeks ago for voting for an order banning the use of the words "climate change" in the offices of a Wisconsin state agency charged with state land management to the applause of a Scott Walker spokeswoman. (Roston, Bloomberg)]

As for the minority public anywhere, when you see the police: Take cover, run, and get near a trusted adult with a cell phone video. Mark Godsey posts other tips yesterday for innocent people to protect themselves from the police.

Godsey breaks down the non-legal, informal advice into six sections:

I. Have a Lawyer You Can Call

II. Don’t Talk to the Police

III. The Plea Bargain

IV. Be Ready for Trial

V. Shaken Baby/Child Abuse (Abusive Head Trauma)  [This requires special attention and treatment.]

VI. If You Are Wrongfully Convicted

As well, know the police have little to do with justice, though many police like to dispense their version of justice with deadly consequences, corrupt the judicial system, and for minor offenses determine a conviction. If you are harassed, consider yourself lucky. You were not killed.

In Tulsa, policing and killing blacks has become the new sport of wealthy campaign donors. (Love, The Grio)

That's the status of America, on a trajectory that ought to frighten every citizen.

Police lie on their reports, on the stand in the courtroom, and in dealings with the public. And police kill.