You might think that one of the actions that got those Baltimore police officers in the Freddie Gray debacle into trouble with prosecutors — not seeking or rendering first aid when it was clear he needed it — is an isolated example of police misconduct in that city.
Think again:
When Baltimore State’s Attorney Maryliyn Mosby charged six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, she said they had ignored Gray’s pleas for medical care during his arrest and a 45-minute transport van ride.
Records obtained by The Baltimore Sun show that city police often disregard or are oblivious to injuries and illnesses among people they apprehend — in fact, such cases occur by the thousands.
From June 2012 through April 2015, correctional officers at the Baltimore City Detention Center have refused to admit nearly 2,600 detainees who were in police custody, according to state records obtained through a Maryland Public Information Act request.
In those records, intake officers in Central Booking noted a wide variety of injuries, including fractured bones, facial trauma and hypertension. Of the detainees denied entry, 123 had visible head injuries, the third most common medical problem cited by jail officials, records show.
The jail records redacted the names of detainees, but a Sun investigation found similar problems among Baltimore residents and others who have made allegations of police brutality.
Salahudeen Abdul-Aziz, who was awarded $170,000 by a jury in 2011, testified that he was arrested and transported to the Western District after being beaten by police and left with a broken nose, facial fracture and other injuries. Hours later, he went to Central Booking and then to Bon Secours Hospital, according to court records.
Abdul-Aziz said last week that jailers at Central Booking “wouldn’t let me in the door as soon as they saw my face. … I thought I was gonna die that day. Freddie Gray wasn’t so lucky.”
Some critics say the data from the state-run jail show that city officers don’t care about the condition of detainees.
“It goes to demonstrate the callous indifference the officers show when they are involved with the public,” said attorney A. Dwight Pettit, who has sued dozens of city officers in the past 40 years. “Why would they render medical care when they rendered many of the injuries on the people?”
Criminologists and law enforcement experts say Gray’s death shows that police lack adequate training to detect injuries. Many suspects fake injuries in an effort to avoid a jail cell, they add.
That begs one question in particular: if the intake people at the corrections facility can tell real injuries from fake ones, why can’t police officers do the same?
The generous answer is those officers need more training to spot injuries. The less generous interpretation is that Baltimore police officers do that which they are charged with doing to Freddie Gray: inflict the injuries themselves — including what looks to be very common head injuries — and then try to ignore them when they take prisoners to jail.
Via: Freddie Gray among many suspects who do not get medical care from Baltimore police (Baltimore Sun)