Here’s the report on the Baltimore police department.

You can read it here. From the Baltimore Sun: The police department “routinely” violated civil rights.

No more charges on the murder of Freddie Gray

All remaining charges have been dropped in the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year old African American who died in the hands of police in April 2015. He was picked up healthy. He was removed from the van with a broken neck. What more is there to say about this? That no one is responsible …

Music for thought

And thanks, Cynical, for the link.

Officers in Freddie Gray’s case will be tried separately

A judge has refused to dismiss charges against officers in the death of Freddie Gray [pictured]. In addition, the judge ruled that the six officers will be tried separately. Here’s more on the protests in Baltimore over the hearing. May there be peace and justice in this case — though neither will bring back  Mr. …

Ta-Nehisi Coates is awesome

Last week, Ta-Nehisi Coates (that’s him in the center) came to Hartford to accept the Stowe Prize for Writing for Social Justice. Because I was on the search committee, I got to get right up close to him, his wife Kenyatta (black and white dress), and their 14-year old son (directly to her right), who …

Had Freddie Gray lived, would he be in prison?

Freddie Gray was picked up for no good reason (the State’s Attorney says the knife he was carrying was legal, though one of the officers arrested in his death disagrees). So had he not received that fatal spinal injury while in the custody of the Baltimore police department (and we most likely would never have …

The bottom’s a looong way to the top

Read this piece, originally run last October at Brookings, on a historic study of Baltimore and its opportunities. From author Karl Alexander: White men without college degrees are better-off because they have access to relatively lucrative blue-collar jobs through social ties within their families and their largely segregated neighborhoods. Eighty-nine percent of white high school …

We have so far to go

Most likely, you’ve already seen this, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby making her announcement on Friday that six Baltimore police officers will be charged in the death of Freddie Gray. The 35-year old state’s attorney and daughter and granddaughter of police officers, more than proved herself, as did her staff, each of whom conducted independent research. …

The fruits of segregation

Read this essay by Richard Rothstein at The Economic Policy Institute Blog. It’s awesome and includes things like this: Whenever young black men riot in response to police brutality or murder, as they have done in Baltimore this week, we’re tempted to think we can address the problem by improving police quality—training officers not to …

Once more with feeling: Violence didn’t start with Freddie Gray’s funeral

It started with Freddie Gray’s death while in the custody of the Baltimore police department. A meditation by Rebecca Traister, at The New Republic, which includes this: Violence broke out and erupted not when students threw stones at police, but when Freddie Gray suffered a spinal cord injury while in police custody, and, eventually, died. But somehow …