* The main problem the NYT has to contend with is that it was the black DA for Baltimore who charged the black van driver with the worst charges. So it really doesn’t matter how the NYT spins the story, from this point.
As to the charges themselves, it appears that everyone involved in the apprehension, arrest, and transport of Freddie is being held equally culpable. Legalistically, that seems to imply the kind of collective responsibility you would see in a conspiracy case or a felony murder case. But that doesn’t seem to apply here, either. I think this was a case where both barrels of a shotgun of charges were fired, in the hopes that someone will turn on the others, although I think it is more likely that it was done for PR reasons, in response to the mob.
If Freddie suffered the injury that would kill him it was probably during the pursuit and arrest, but those three officers can’t be held culpable for whatever happened to him in the van. At most, then, Freddie suffered a tort up to and including his arrest (which, depending on who you consult, was a legitimate arrest.) The three street officers are not responsible for his death.
As to the three van officers, it’s hard to establish, first, that the nature of the injury was as serious as it turned out to be, whether the delay in getting Freddie to the hospital was consequential in terms of his death, and so on. Apparently, the officer who is being charged most harshly, Goodson, was the only one who could have made a determination to take Freddie directly to the hospital, and therefore, theoretically, is liable for his death.
However, this looks like an accidental death. The City faces a civil suit, which they will settle in the low millions. I still don’t see evidence of a crime, much less the “total eclipse of the heart” or whatever it is that Officer Goodson is being charged with.
* The lying NYT are as always trying to deflect attention from the simple fact that if young black males are responsible for half the murders then the police – of whatever color – are going to be more hyped up when dealing with young black males.
* “The van driver, Officer Caesar Goodson, also black, is an old-timer at 45. Described by colleagues as “passive,” he never moved up the ranks.”
In any other context, this is the sort of racial stereotype at which the NYT would express outrage. It’s virtually describing Goodson as a lazy old Negro who barely performs his job.
