2015: Freddie Gray
Freddie Gray
Source: Wikipedia
On the morning of April 12, 2015, Freddie Gray was arrested for fleeing from police in the Sandtown-Winchester community of Baltimore and possessing what police called an illegal, switch-blade knife. In the aftermath of these events, legal experts have disagreed with the city’s definition of this type of weapon and the city’s implementation of this law (Fenton, 2016). Nevertheless, Gray was arrested without incident and placed into a police van (Baltimore Sun Timeline, 2016). An asthmatic, Gray requested an inhaler while in the police van for shortness of breath but was denied this medical support. In what is known as a “rough ride,” where unrestrained detainees are tossed around in the back of a police van due to erratic and high-speed driving, Gray was taken to the Western District police station. During this rough ride, his spine was “80 percent severed” (Baltimore Sun Timeline, 2016).
Baltimore police denied charges of brutality, but Police Commissioner Anthony Batts later admitted that “We know he was not buckled in the transportation wagon as he should have been. No excuses from me…we know our police employees failed to get him medical attention in a timely manner multiple times” (Baltimore Sun Timeline, 2016). After arriving at the Western District police station, officers called for emergency medical treatment and an ambulance. Gray was then taken to University of Maryland Shock Trauma where he underwent two surgeries for his spinal injury. After these surgeries, Gray remained in a coma for several days. On April 19, seven days after his questionable arrest, Freddie Gray died as a result of his injuries sustained in the back of the police wagon (Baltimore Sun Timeline, 2016).
While Gray was in the hospital and as more information about his arrest and injury became public, peaceful protests began. Residents of Baltimore gathered without conflict or violence for five days. These protests, what we are calling Baltimore’s Third Race Uprising, were as much a reaction to Freddie Gray’s arrest and injury as they were a reaction to four hundred years of slavery and systemic racism perpetrated against people of color in Baltimore and Maryland.
On April 23, Governor Larry Hogan ordered state troopers to Baltimore City, and two days later, the protests erupted into open conflict (Baltimore Sun Timeline, 2016). Despite calls for de-escalation from Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, government officials, clergy, community activists, and Gray’s family, the violence and destruction of property continued. On April 28, this violence led Governor Hogan to deploy the Maryland National Guard to Baltimore. City officials declared a 10 PM curfew. Some demonstrators protested the curfew, but these protests were mostly peaceful and few arrests were made. By May 2, the city had calmed and local community activists organized a large, peaceful demonstration at city hall.
From April 25 to May 3, police arrested hundreds of Baltimore residents, mostly African Americans, though few of them were convicted of any crime. Some protesters caused major property damage, and the conflict caused numerous injuries, though no deaths. Like other racially-charged protests across America at the time, the 2015 unrest in Baltimore fractured local communities, strained and sometimes split relationships between Black and white communities. Moreover, the unrest damaged the trust between residents and the police charged with protecting them. The ensuing legal battle between city prosecutors and the police officers involved in Freddie Gray’s death further stoked animosity between city and suburban/rural Marylanders and between Blacks and white residents. When the police officers involved in Gray’s arrest and subsequent death were not prosecuted, protesters again vented their displeasure through demonstrations, this time with fewer arrests and less property damage.
Protesters in front of the Baltimore Police Department Western District building at N. Mount St. and Riggs Ave
Source: Wikipedia
The long-term impact of Baltimore’s Third Race Uprising has been mixed. The uprising drew attention to the systemic racism African Americans in Maryland and Baltimore have suffered since the 1600’s. Many people who had not been involved with civic engagement have joined long-time community activists to rebuild relationships, repair property damage, and address drivers of systemic racism. However, the already strained relationship between law enforcement and city residents has gotten worse, with police now solving fewer homicides (Lowery, Rich, & Georges, 2018). Also, many people who watched the Freddie Gray uprisings on cable news, which inflamed the situation by looping footage of smoldering city property for days, developed negative impressions of Baltimore without knowing the history of the slavery and systemic racism that divided it. The impact of these negative impressions and historical ignorance continues to influence public opinion and, unfortunately, even the opinions of elected leaders.