So we are gonna ignore the riot thats happening in Baltimore

Apparently, it's called a nickel ride: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/...ride-play-a-role-in-killing-Freddie-Gray.html

Interesting stuff in the article:

[rquoter]Did a 'nickel ride' kill Baltimore's Freddie Gray?

Will Bunch
Posted: Monday, April 27, 2015, 6:55 PM

The Philadelphia cops called it a "nickel ride." The name came from the prevailing price for a ride down a rickety roller coaster in an amusement park -- which should give some of idea of the ancient roots of this particularly cruel form of police torture. For decades, cops abused criminal suspects by throwing them, handcuffed and unsecured, into the open back of a police van, then careening around sharp curves or slamming the brakes on a rough ride to central booking.

To keep with modern times, you'd think they's change the name -- call it a "$79.95 All Day Pass," or an "E-Ticket Ride." Or, here's an even better, crazy idea to bring policing practices into the 21st Century: How about stopping "nickel rides" altogether?

Philadelphia has found that hard to do -- last year paying a recent victim of a rough police van ride $490,000 in a civil suit, despite moves to halt "nickel rides" in 2001. And now, incredibly, we learn that authorities in Baltimore are probing whether Freddie Gray -- the 25-year-old man whose death after a police encounter has sparked massive protests and scattered unrest -- was given a rough ride after his arrest, possibly after officers had already snapped Gray's spine.

Two weeks ago, when Gray was arrested on a Baltimore street, for reasons that remain murky, he was handcuffed and -- as captured on a cellphone video -- dragged and tossed into the back of the van. Inside, it was later reported, he was shackled after officers reported Gray became "irate." However, he was not buckled in for the ride -- a serious breach of regulations.

“We know he was not buckled in the transportation wagon as he should have been. No excuses for that, period,” the Baltimore police commissioner Anthony Batts said. The commissioner also noted that the officers “failed to get him medical attention in a timely manner multiple times.”

Incredibly, this has happened multiple times in Baltimore -- including a "rough ride " ten years ago that injured the spine and killed an arrestee named Dondi Johnson, as well as several multi-million-dollar civil judgments and settlements.

Ditto in Philadelphia. In 2001, the Inquirer documented 20 cases of arrestees who were injured during apparent "nickel rides" that critics said provided cops with a "hands free" methold to dole out street justice -- including three who suffered spinal cord injuries, two of them permanent paralyzed. The then-police commissioner John Timoney pulled many of the vans off the road and installed seat belts to make sure injuries didn't happen, either on purpose or by accident.

But the injuries kept coming. In 2001, a man named James McKenna was arrested outside a Philadelphia bar and put unrestrained in the back of a van, then slammed into the vehicle walls again and again until he finally broke his neck. Police initially claimed that McKenna banged his own head against the bars of his jail cell, but the city settled his claim for $490,000. [ed. sounds familiar]

It doesn't have to be this way. Since the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson last August, much of the conversation about policing in America has focused on two things: 1) whether there's justice is possible in the matter of officers killing unarmed black men and b) whether America's high rate of killings by police is largely reflective of racial prejudice, which would make it quite difficult to solve.

But there are many things we can do, right now, that would reduce the number of deaths in police company. Other cities -- such as Chicago and Los Angeles -- simply switched to using cruisers to transport suspects, instead of vans, eliminating this issue altogether. Likewise, the rise of cellphone videos of suspect deaths has raised another uncomfortable question: Why aren't cops giving more immediate medical attention to these suspects in distress?

Tonight, as I write this, the streets of Baltimore are erupting in anger and in violence. It is a heartbreaking, infuriating thing to watch. But one of the most frustrating things is this: The idea that all of this could have been avoided with a seat belt.[/rquoter]

Given his references to similar incidents of police brutality, it's interesting that he doesn't mention any other indictments. It looks like the PDs have been paying judgments or settlements and never holding their own people accountable, except maybe with a termination. So, on the one hand, maybe this case is a turning point on police brutality where accountability will finally come and maybe cops won't indulge in this practice any longer. On the other hand, that other prosecutions weren't brought may be an indication that convictions are unlikely. On the the third hand, the number of cases that have already happened makes any argument that it was mere negligence (or most laughably that his injuries were self-inflicted) very thin. It also tells me this is not a case of bad apples, but rather a poisoned culture that has been passing on this little trick of the trade (and many others, I'm sure) from officer to officer for years. This was a case of routine police abuse gone awry. How many more nickel rides have they given for which no justice was brought?

 

Without the protests this would've easily been swept under the rug.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of underlying issues in this incident.... in America.

 

Exactly right -- look at the article Juanvaldez just posted on this page. The reason those other cops who have been known to do this for decades were not prosecuted as the cops in the Gray case are going to be is because of the anger and rebelliousness of the people on the streets.

 

I guess you're right... Because without the protesting people like Falcons Talon wouldn't ADMIT too much of this stuff is going around.

 

Now I feel better about all the senseless beatings, theft and property damage.

 

The first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem.

 

The people rioting have not benefited from the political and socioeconomic system currently in place the way you most likely have. Their motivations are different than yours, that does not mean they are senseless.

The COO of the Orioles realized this -- and I have not seen any refutation of that man's statement on this thread, even though it has been quoted three times now.

 

WTH are you talking about. Protesting is one thing. Riots and looting is something else. You really are an idiot

 

Can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs...

If they were just protesting you and many others would have never paid attention... Because folks have always complained about this and you never paid attention. And now you're admitting that "too much of this stuff is going around" when in another thread you were talking like this shyt happens once in a blue moon.

And I thought you had me on ignore anyway

 

I took you off ignore. I said too much stuff going around because of the report that I read. Not because of the looting. Get over yourself.

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Were YOU paying attention?

Did you start threads in D&D or speaking at townhall meetings about Nickel Rides?

You don't do anything and then when tragedies strike, of all the things you could be doing, you jump onto CF and brag about how necessary it is to burn down buildings and loot small businesses.

 

It's reports that have been around but you refused to read them... That's why you took the stance that this shyt happens once every blue moon and put me on ignore. But at least you're now changing your tune and that's all that matters.

How do you know what I do...?
And I never condoned protesting or riots... I even said so in this thread. But nice try though.

 

Now you're just pulling things out of your arse. When have I ever said these things don't happen. I'm not changing ANY tune. Every time something like this goes down, I acknowledge that wrongs need to be righted. It's YOU that claims every LE in the US is corrupt.

You've reminded me why I put you on ignore.

 

There still isn't enough information out there, if this was a "rough ride" or whatever you want to call it, why weren't any of the other people in the back of the paddy wagon injured as well? I mean, I get the need for an indictment if only to appease the mob, but I'm not sure we can jump to any conclusions yet. The testimony of the other prisoner saying that Gray was flopping around in the back trying to hurt himself out of anger for being arrested is pretty hard to ignore unless they come out with more conclusive evidence. If they say he was hurt by hitting his head on a bolt in the back and there is no evidence of a "rough ride", the testimony of the prisoner probably clears the officers of the most serious charges.....if that testimony stands up to scrutiny and isn't directly contradicted by other evidence.

 

Show the post were I claimed "every LEO is corrupt"... Should be easy to find if you're going to pull it out of your azz :grin:

Just the same... The important thing is you're admitting that this goes on too much and hopefully more people like yourself will start to notice that as well.

 

Inference based on your posts. And no, I'm not going to go back through everything and pull them up.

 

So not only did this guy sever his own spine, he crushed his own larynx.

 

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Inference...??? Lol... Inference based on your post is that you hate dark skinned people. So I guess that makes us two peas in a pod.

 

LMAO!!!! That is so wrong its laughable.