A key premise of the most serious charges against The Baltimore 6 is that they did not seat-belt Freddie Gray while he was in the police van.
But did the van have seat belts?
I have to admit I did not think that was any kind of issue…until I read this, from Allison Knezevich\’s article in today\’s Baltimore Sun:
Two Baltimore-area police departments say they\’re reviewing their practices for the transport of prisoners in the wake of Freddie Gray\’s death from an injury that prosecutors say he suffered in the back of a police van.
The reviews by the Howard and Baltimore County police departments come as a survey by The Baltimore Sun found that prisoner transport vans used by county law enforcement agencies generally are not equipped with seat belts.
City officers involved in Gray\’s arrest are accused of violating department policy by not placing him in a seat belt. Gray suffered a fatal spinal injury while unrestrained in the van, according to Baltimore State\’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby.
The Sun\’s survey found that vans used to transport suspects in Anne Arundel, Harford, Howard and Baltimore counties do not have seat belts. The Carroll County sheriff\’s office says one of its two police vans has seat belts.
Wait a minute.
If department policy is to seat-belt detainees in the police van, but the police van does not have seat belts, how is it supposed to be done?
And if the vans do not have seat belts – despite department policy that seat-belting detainees must take place – then who is guilty here?
The key question, obviously, is whether the specific van that carried Freddie Gray had seat belts.
It seems to me that question must be answered. Immediately.
Waiting……….and it better not be a long wait.
