BALTIMORE POLICE TRIALS - Freddie Grey
The dust has settled on the insurrection in Baltimore which has become a national disgrace as far as law and order is concerned. I heard a political pundit use it in an interview recently as a place to avoid. So be it.
The question bandied about has been with all the public riots is can the cops get a fair trial since the city's inhabitants seem likely to have supported the late lamented drug pusher? The city's mayor, the chief prosecutor and I believe the state senator (whose wife is the prosecutor) from that very district where the death occurred, have all but hung the police with public statements recorded by the media.
The riots, and the mayor's instructions to the police NOT to handle it was judged by all law enforcement across the nation as a failure of management. Legal arguments by various Federal Judges across the land argued heavily for venue changes. To no avail. The trials begin today, with, I am told local juries.
How they can obtain fair and impartial juries in that city is impossible for me to ascertain. Common sense tells me that a modern day Wyatt Earp will be required to stand guard at the jail house door, pistols in hand to keep the screaming mobs, ropes in hand, away. At present, absent of change in venue, I see no immediate cure for Baltimore's predicament.
For their other conundrum, tourism, I have read, heard, watched no coverage of what I would assume to be a disastrous pounding on the tourism industry in the Inner Harbour. As a former professional in the travel industry, trying to fend off that ship sinking will be a headache for the next decade, I would assume.
No sane person with vacation dollars would willingly choose to visit Baltimore with the pictures of those riots in his head, thank you very much.
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The question bandied about has been with all the public riots is can the cops get a fair trial since the city's inhabitants seem likely to have supported the late lamented drug pusher? The city's mayor, the chief prosecutor and I believe the state senator (whose wife is the prosecutor) from that very district where the death occurred, have all but hung the police with public statements recorded by the media.
The riots, and the mayor's instructions to the police NOT to handle it was judged by all law enforcement across the nation as a failure of management. Legal arguments by various Federal Judges across the land argued heavily for venue changes. To no avail. The trials begin today, with, I am told local juries.
How they can obtain fair and impartial juries in that city is impossible for me to ascertain. Common sense tells me that a modern day Wyatt Earp will be required to stand guard at the jail house door, pistols in hand to keep the screaming mobs, ropes in hand, away. At present, absent of change in venue, I see no immediate cure for Baltimore's predicament.
For their other conundrum, tourism, I have read, heard, watched no coverage of what I would assume to be a disastrous pounding on the tourism industry in the Inner Harbour. As a former professional in the travel industry, trying to fend off that ship sinking will be a headache for the next decade, I would assume.
No sane person with vacation dollars would willingly choose to visit Baltimore with the pictures of those riots in his head, thank you very much.
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