Ben Jealous
How can we effectively combat police brutality if we cannot know the details of that brutality?
Last month, amid the fallout from Freddie Gray’s killing, a news story appeared that may not have garnered much attention, but that had significant implications for how activists can challenge police violence in the city of Baltimore. The news concerned the manner in which victims of police abuse can share their stories.
Since 2011, the city of Baltimore has paid out more than six million dollars to city residents who claimed they were abused by police. These settlements are often used as a way to prevent the case from going to trial – essentially, they are payoffs that the city makes in order to make the allegation of police misconduct vanish. The victims ranged from a 15-year-old boy riding a dirt bike to an 87-year-old woman who claimed that an officer threw her against a wall.
The bigger problem is that these payoffs have a devious legal twist. Any victim of police misconduct who chooses to take a settlement – to accept money instead of going to trial – is instantly banned from discussing the details of that case in public or with the news media. If they do break their silence, they risk losing their settlement reward.
The news last month was that Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has decided to keep this “gag order” in place (the city calls it a “non-disparagement clause”, but disparagement means spreading lies or mischaracterizations – this is a gag order to stop people from spreading the truth). This is a cynical and dangerous decision by a mayor who should be doing all she can at this moment to promote transparency and police reform.
The gag order is so dangerous because it allows the city to cover up the scope and breadth of police brutality. I have spoken with grassroots leaders in this city, from Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle Baltimore to the NAACP to the local clergy, and I have heard countless stories of police disrespecting Black lives and poor lives; beating and maiming individuals who had initially called on the police for help; failing to distinguish between suspects and those they are supposed to protect and serve. The stories are harrowing, but thanks to the gag order many of them cannot be told above a whisper.
If the story cannot be told, then justice cannot be served. When victims are not allowed to speak, a detailed set of circumstances and motivations gets boiled down to a name and a dollar amount on a piece of paper. In the court of public opinion – where the justice seekers are neighbors, activists, journalists – crucial evidence becomes inadmissible. This undermines the power of the people, their elected representatives and the press to hold accountable the only public employees who have permission to use lethal force.
Baltimore is alone among its peers in the mid-Atlantic when it comes to this gag order rule: both Philadelphia and Washington, DC allow victims of police abuse to speak to the public and the news media. The city is standing out from the crowd on repression when it should be leading the charge for reform.
Ben Jealous is former President & CEO of the NAACP. He is a Partner at and runs the Baltimore office of Kapor Capital, a social impact venture capital firm. He also founded the Southern Elections Foundation, which is working in Baltimore on police accountability issues.