By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Staff Writer
tmcqueen@afro.com
Mayor Brandon M. Scott (D) and former Senator Jill P. Carter recently reflected on the 10 years that have passed since the death of Freddie Gray. In two separate events, the leaders spoke on the “Baltimore Uprising” that followed Gray’s funeral and how the city has changed.
Gray, 25, was injured while in police custody on April 12, 2015, and died on April 19, 2015, from injuries sustained to his spine and neck. On April 27, 2015, the day of his funeral, major protests broke out. Against the wishes of peaceful protesters, rioters began to burn cars and stores in West Baltimore. The unrest, referred to as the “Baltimore Uprising,” continued for days.
Scott, speaking on April 11 at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, said that what happened in 2015– while sparked by the tragic death of Freddie Gray– was years in the making.
“That wasn’t the fuel. The fuel was already there,” he said. “That was the match.”
Scott highlighted the impact of Baltimore’s history of systemic racism, namely tactics such as redlining and overpolicing on Baltimore’s Black residents.
During the conversation, which was led by NNPA President and CEO Dr. Benjamin Chavis, Scott reflected on how far the city has come in 10 years, now that he’s at the helm.
“Back then, we had ‘breathing while Black’ policing, some people call it zero tolerance policing,” said Scott. “If you were breathing, Black and outside, that meant you were a criminal.”
Scott noted that the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) was arresting, in some years, 100,000 people a year, in a city of around 600,000.
“Now, you can look at Baltimore, you can see that we have not just ‘righted the ship,’ but you can see the progress that we’re making on every front,” said Scott. “We’re in the undertaking of a renaissance.”
Scott touted various investments in the community, Baltimore’s youth and reduced crime rates in the city.
He highlighted legislation that has officially turned BPD over to the city instead of the state.
“BPD wasn’t a local agency. It was a state agency, and the state mandated that the city had to fund BPD,” said Scott. “Any legislative changes had to be made in Annapolis. They are now solely accountable to me as the mayor and legislatively to the Baltimore City Council.”
Leaders reflect at University of Maryland’s Francis King Carey School of Law
In an event hosted by the University of Maryland’s Francis King Carey School of Law and the Campaign for Justice, Safety and Jobs, former Maryland State Sen. Jill P. Carter highlighted how state legislation has contributed to the improvements in Baltimore City since the uprising.
“I truly believe that our legislative efforts set the foundation for the uprising, the organizing, mobilization and awareness that went on,” said Carter.
During the session she highlighted a bill she and other legislators worked on between 2013 and 2015 that was not well-received among state legislators until the uprising.
“The legislation to reform the Law Enforcement Officer Bill of Rights was heard on March 15, 2015, just before Freddie Gray’s death,” said Carter. “The legislature had turned a blind eye to the hundreds of women, mothers, families and concerned citizens telling their tragic stories of their loved ones being harmed and killed. They had to pivot.”
Legislation was eventually passed during the 2021 Maryland General Assembly session, which repealed the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, prohibiting an officer from hindering a citizen from recording the officer’s actions if they’re doing so safely and lawfully, as well as several other measures.
“I think that there is improvement in the Baltimore Police Department today, and that’s not necessarily because of the consent decree,” said Carter. “It’s because of the people not accepting police killing impunity and police using excessive force.”
At the same event, Michael Pinard, faculty director of the Gibson-Banks Center for Race and the Law of Maryland Carey Law, led a conversation with William “Billy” Murphy Jr., former attorney for the Gray family and founding partner of the Murphy, Falcon and Murphy law firm.
Murphy shared that the family wanted to fight “tooth and nail, both privately and publicly, for justice.” Murphy worked with the family to get a $6.4 million settlement.
During negotiations, Murphy said tension built up between his team, who were working on behalf of the family, and Baltimore City personnel. There was disagreement on how to compensate the family for the harm done to Gray.
“Leaders in the community…they started putting pressure on the city to settle this case,” said Murphy. “Finally, the city came to the table, and we worked for .”
The day featured a panel discussion about community and legal action taken in the aftermath of Gray’s death. The panelists were an array of Baltimore community and city leaders, including Michaela Brown, co-founder of Organizing Black; Iman Freeman, co-founder of Baltimore Action Legal Team; Ralikh Hayes, a community organizer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; Ray Kelly, executive director of the Citizens Policing Project; David Rocah, senior staff attorney for ACLU of Maryland; Melvin Russell, former chief of the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) Community Partnership Division, and Sheridan Todd Yeary, senior pastor of Douglas Memorial Community Church.
Yeary shared that when he and other community members spoke with youth at the time who were outraged about Freddie Gray’s police-involved death, they “kept saying, we just want to be heard.”
The panelists shared their experiences helping craft the consent decree that the U.S. Department of Justice and the City of Baltimore agreed to on April 7, 2017, in response to the uproar about police misconduct in Baltimore. Kelly shared the impact of navigating the consent decree under several federal administrations over the years.
“We started our process under the Obama administration, and there was a sense of urgency to get these reforms done,” said Kelly. That sense of urgency disappeared during Donald Trump’s first term as U.S. president, which began in 2017 and ended in 2021. Kelly said “his immediate response to eliminate all these police accountability statutes.”
Kelly pressed that community and city leaders have to ensure that the “spirit” of the consent decree doesn’t get lost in the “rollercoaster of implementation.”
Murphy, when asked for his thoughts on the current presidential administration and how it may impact the future of police accountability, warned of a potential “dictatorship” in America.
“I think there will be a dictatorship,” said Murphy. “I think he will power at an enormous, unprecedented level.”
He called young people and aspiring lawyers to action.
“You have to fight the power,” said Murphy. “You can’t be scared. You can’t be ambivalent about it. Choose sides and be warriors.”