I just finished reading a summary of the Justice Department’s report on the Baltimore Police Department. Many may recall the death of Freddie Gray, who was taken on a “rough ride” in a BPD transport van. He ended up in a coma for a week and died shortly thereafter. Of the six officers involved (three white and three Black), one was released after a mistrial, two have been acquitted and charges against three were dropped. No one has been found responsible for Freddie Gray’s homicide. Sadly, the fact that the officers were even indicted was seen as a victory for so many Black people. The officer who choked Eric Garner, on camera on Staten Island, was not even indicted. In fact, the district attorney was rewarded by his community with a seat in Congress.
For so many Black people living in this country, we routinely witness police brutality or wake up to yet another hashtag victim who has been killed by the state. That is to say, Black people are still being killed by police officers who have taken a solemn oath to serve and protect all citizens of America. Alas, these oaths have been forgotten by too many “rogue cops” or “bad apples,” who know they will incur little to no repercussions for their actions.
So when reading excerpts of the Department of Justice report on the widespread racism and brutality towards Black citizens by the officers in the BPD, I was sick to my stomach. What men and women in Baltimore incurred, the name-calling, verbal and physical abuse, strip searches, excessive force, racial targeting and in some cases death, are all evident in the report. Sadly, many Baltimore residents have made these very clear complaints for years, but their pleas fell on deaf ears solely because they were poor, Black and lived in particular parts of the city. The report stated, “BPD made roughly 44 percent of its stops in two small, predominantly African-American districts that contain only 11 percent of the city’s population.”
The abuse towards Black Baltimoreans is so rampant by some members of the BPD that they even exhibited this behavior with DOJ representatives present. These police officers were so bold in their abuse of power that they literally told other officers to “just make something up” when seeing Black men congregating in a particular area for which they had no probable cause to approach them. Unfortunately, the stories of abuse toward Black female Baltimore residents are stomach churning. Whether the women were poor, sex workers or just being stopped for a traffic violation, the sexual abuse by members of the BPD is something the DOJ is still trying to truly grasp.
Summaries of this report are worth a read. It is so frustrating and frightening to think that the BPD is not an anomaly. I do hope the DOJ continues to investigate other cities, large and small, to further validate the words and lives of so many poor Black residents who have gone unheard for too long.
Christina Greer, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Fordham University and the author of “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream.” You can find her on Twitter @Dr_CMGreer.