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<p class="date">Thu Apr 30, 2015 at 08:02 AM PDT</p>
<h2><a id="titleHref"
href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/30/1381400/-A-complete-takedown-of-the-lies-spread-by-the-Baltimore-Police-Washington-Post-on-Freddie-Gray">A
complete takedown of the lies spread by the Baltimore PD and
Washington Post on Freddie Gray</a><span style="white-space:
nowrap"></span></h2>
<p class="author"><span>by</span> <a
href="http://www.dailykos.com/user/Shaun%20King">Shaun King</a><a
class="type-user do-hotlist do-updateContent size-tiny off
altTooltip ajaxON" alt="Follow this author"
href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/30/1381400/-A-complete-takedown-of-the-lies-spread-by-the-Baltimore-Police-Washington-Post-on-Freddie-Gray#?friend_id=1128171&is_stream=1">Follow</a>
<span class="for">for</span> <a
href="http://www.dailykos.com/blog/Shaun%20King">shaunking</a><br>
The story with video links is here:<br>
<b><small><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/30/1381400/-A-complete-takedown-of-the-lies-spread-by-the-Baltimore-Police-Washington-Post-on-Freddie-Gray#">http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/30/1381400/-A-complete-takedown-of-the-lies-spread-by-the-Baltimore-Police-Washington-Post-on-Freddie-Gray#</a></small></small></small></small></b><br>
</p>
<div class="article-body">
<div id="intro">
<div class="dkimg-c"><br>
<div class="dkimg-cap">It was only a two-minute drive between
the police station and where Freddie Gray was arrested. Why,
then, did it take 30 minutes?</div>
</div>
So many egregious and disturbing lies are being told about
Freddie Gray.
<p><a
href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/29/1381155/-As-was-done-w-Mike-Brown-conservatives-feel-the-need-to-lie-about-the-life-death-of-Freddie-Gray">One
conservative reporter</a> is claiming that Gray severed his
spine jumping from a three-story window eluding police and
then running full force into a wall. Except even the Baltimore
police have claimed they <a
href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-map-freddie-gray-arrest-timeline-20150421-htmlstory.html">simply
spotted him on the street</a>.</p>
<p>Other conservatives <a
href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-gray-settlement-20150429-story.html">literally
doctored a lead paint exposure settlement</a> that Gray and
his sister received and claimed that it was for a severe
spinal injury he received in a car accident.</p>
<p>Perhaps no lie being told, though, is more disturbing <a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/prisoner-in-van-said-freddie-gray-was-banging-against-the-walls-during-ride/2015/04/29/56d7da10-eec6-11e4-8666-a1d756d0218e_story.html?tid=sm_tw">than
the one the Baltimore police are leaking to/through the
Washington Post</a>—that Gray <i>injured himself</i> in the
van. It is irresponsible for the <i>Washington Post</i> to
advance this lie, and it's corrupt for the Baltimore police to
be leaking it to advance a false narrative to protect them.</p>
<p>We will investigate and disprove these lies below.</p>
</div>
<p class="divider-doodle"> </p>
<div id="body" class="article-body">
<p>The Baltimore Police Department and the <i>Washington Post</i>
are advancing the lie that after they arrested Gray, he
deliberately crushed his own voice box, fractured three of his
own vertebrae, and severed his own spine. The evidence they
claim to have for this is a prisoner they claim is speaking
anonymously about what he heard when he was put into the
police transport van in a box next to Gray. Jayne Miller, an
investigative reporter for television station WBAL, stated in
an interview this morning that this witness has several years
of prison hanging over his head and that he currently has a
suspended sentence. Is he saying these things because he's
getting a deal for it?</p>
<p><a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/prisoner-in-van-said-freddie-gray-was-banging-against-the-walls-during-ride/2015/04/29/56d7da10-eec6-11e4-8666-a1d756d0218e_story.html?tid=sm_tw">Here's
the bogus claim</a>:<br>
</p>
<blockquote>A prisoner sharing a police transport van with
Freddie Gray told investigators that he could hear Gray
“banging against the walls” of the vehicle and believed that
he “was intentionally trying to injure himself,” according to
a police document obtained by The Washington Post.
<p>The prisoner, who is currently in jail, was separated from
Gray by a metal partition and could not see him. His
statement is contained in an application for a search
warrant, which is sealed by the court. The Post was given
the document under the condition that the prisoner not be
named because the person who provided it feared for the
inmate’s safety.</p>
</blockquote>
Now, because the Baltimore police refuse to release their
reports or make official statements on what happened to Gray, we
will use the facts we have to debunk this lie that Gray
basically committed suicide in the back of the police van.
<p><strong>1. Gray was CLEARLY injured before he was placed in
the back of the police van.<br>
</strong><br>
This video shows Gray in clear pain after he was arrested. He
is screaming and his legs do not appear to be working. The
people filming the video are angry because they see him in
pain as well.<br>
</p>
<strong>2. It took the police nearly 38 minutes to get him to
the police station, but it's only a two-minute drive away.</strong><br>
<p>Here <a
href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-map-freddie-gray-arrest-timeline-20150421-htmlstory.html">is
the official timeline</a> released by the Baltimore Police
Department:<br>
</p>
<blockquote>1. April 12, 8:39 a.m. Mount St and North Ave ‐
Baltimore police begin pursuit of Freddie Gray
<p>2. 8:40-8:46 a.m. 1700 Block of Presbury St ‐ Police pursue
Gray and eventually apprehend him two blocks away at 1700
Presbury</p>
<p>3. 8:46 -8:54 a.m. Mount St and Baker St ‐ Police
re-position Gray at Mount and Baker streets</p>
</blockquote>
Again, you must remember that it only takes two minutes to get
from 1700 Presbury to the West Precinct Station. Already,
they've taken eight minutes from the time Gray was arrested.
<p>It appears that this video was filmed by someone during this
time where police pulled over again.<br>
</p>
<blockquote>4. 8:54-8:59 a.m. Travel from Mount and Baker to
Druid Hill and Dolphin St ‐ Police travel to Druid Hill and
Dolphin when they get a call to return to 1600 North Ave.
<p>As the van travels toward Central Booking, the driver again
stops near the intersection of Druid Hill Avenue and Dolphin
Street and calls for an officer to check on Gray. After the
check, which has not been described, occurs, the van is
requested to return to the 1600 block of W. North Avenue to
pick up another suspect.</p>
</blockquote>
Again, it has now been 13 minutes since Gray was arrested, the
police station is two minutes away, and they still have not
gotten him there yet.
<p>This certainly <a
href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2015/04/freddie_gray_and_the_fear_of_a_rough_ride.html">lends
itself to the theory that the police were doing what's
called a "rough ride"</a>, where they deliberately drive
erratically to injure a passenger.</p>
<blockquote>5. 8:59 – 9:24 a.m. Travel from Druid Hill to
Dolphin St 1600 North Ave ‐ Police pick up a suspect. The van
travels back to W. North Avenue and picks up a second suspect.
Police have declined to identify the second suspect, saying he
is now a witness in the criminal investigation.
<p>6. 9:24 a.m. 1000 block of N. Mount St, Western District
station ‐ Police travel to the Western District station
where they call paramedics.</p>
</blockquote>
(UPDATE) <a
href="https://twitter.com/jonswaine/status/593799473307975680">The
Baltimore Police just admitted</a> on Thursday, after security
camera footage was released from a private business, that the
van made at least two more stops that were not reported or
included in their original timeline.
<p>So Gray arrived at the police station a full 40 minutes after
they arrested him. When they arrived at the station, he was
unconscious and unresponsive.</p>
<p><strong>3. The Baltimore police's leak to the <i>Washington
Post</i> that Gray injured himself in the van and that
another suspect heard him doing it is not supported by the
facts.</strong></p>
<p>a. <a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/prisoner-in-van-said-freddie-gray-was-banging-against-the-walls-during-ride/2015/04/29/56d7da10-eec6-11e4-8666-a1d756d0218e_story.html?tid=sm_tw">On
April 29</a>, the Baltimore police claimed in documents
leaked to the Washington Post that a second suspect who was
arrested heard Freddie Gray deliberately banging up against
the walls of the van, but here is where we've caught them in a
lie:</p>
<p>A full six days earlier, <a
href="https://twitter.com/jemillerwbal/status/591401433725014017">Baltimore
Police Commissioner Anthony Batts claimed that the second
suspect said Gray was quiet in the back of the van</a>.</p>
<p>b. Gray did not have ANY injuries, cuts, scrapes, bumps
conducive with someone forcefully breaking his own vertebrae,
voice box, and severing his own spine.</p>
<p>But as Jayne Miller, the WBAL investigative reporter, <a
href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/nbc-reporter-evidence-does-not-corroborate-claim-gray-tried-to-injure-himself/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews">has
said</a>, none of the evidence presented thus far
corroborates the police explanation of the injuries:<br>
</p>
<blockquote>“The medical evidence does not suggest at all that
he was able to injure himself,” Miller said. “The force of
this injury, akin to have the force involved in a car accident
with all that momentum going, that is much more force than you
would get trying to bang your head against the wall of the
van.”
<p>“You have to have other injuries,” she continued. “You
can’t bang your head against the van, to injure yourself in
a fatal way, without having a bloodier head. There is just
no information that would corroborate that.”</p>
</blockquote>
In the video below, Miller not only explains how Gray's injuries
aren't consistent with him doing this himself, she explains how
police, when they opened the back doors, did not do so as if
they expected a raving madman to be there.
<p>c. Furthermore, Miller states that Gray was actually
completely unresponsive by the time the second suspect was
loaded into the police van, which completely debunks the
notion that Gray was slamming himself up against the wall in
an attempt to injure himself when the other man was in the
van.<br>
</p>
<p><strong>4. While it's sad to even have to say this,
everything about the very idea that Gray deliberately
severed his own spine in the back of the police van is
preposterous.</strong></p>
<p>The truth is that it is disappointing that we even have to
debunk this claim, because the claim itself is outrageous and
shouldn't even have to be acknowledged. At the very most
police are claiming they were arresting Gray for having a
pocket knife. He didn't get in the back of that van and do
this to himself. It's illogical in every sense of the word.</p>
<p>If you have any thoughts or evidence or analysis, please feel
free to chime in in the comments section below.</p>
</div>
</div>
<h4>Originally posted to <a
href="http://www.dailykos.com/blog/Shaun%20King/">shaunking</a>
on Thu Apr 30, 2015 at 08:02 AM PDT.</h4>
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