Power Line Blog reports that Baltimore PD resignations have led to a manpower shortage. The article points to the arrest of six Baltimore Officers on a variety of charges in the death of Freddy Gray and the handling of the riots that followed. I would add in the latest incident that I wrote about here:
Surprisingly Maryland does not have a statute governing the use of force and deadly force. There is no beginning place, like Texas’ Title Nine of the Penal Code, one is forced to root around in case law to gain insight. Also, unlike Texas, Maryland imposes no clear and concise obligation upon police to provide first aid to suspects, once they have used force upon a suspect.
So Baltimore Police Officers are at the mercy of a State’s Attorney who has a reading comprehension problem or an over active imagination. Strip away the costume and what remains is a mirror image of the Freddy Gray circumstances. An obviously injured prisoner is left lying in the street for over an hour without medical treatment. The SWAT inner perimeter makes a good argument that medical treatment was effectively and intentionally denied. In this instance the only person being charged is the suspect. I am pointing out an inconsistency and have no desire to see a prosecution of police arise out of this incident.
I suspect, that command tried a half measure that I will call a “render safe approach.” I have nothing to back this up other than the fact that protocol calls for a kill shot. It appears, the police attempted to do this by disabling the arm and hand holding the command switch and by identifying and shooting the command module for the bomb. Might have been nice to back the SWAT guys out of the blast radius before trying this.
The video shows that the suspect had the use of his arm and hand, after being shot. Since the bomb was a hoax and incapable of going off we may never know if the command module was destroyed. The “render safe” is speculation on my part, the other alternative is that one or two SWAT snipers missed their target. Not likely.
The problem with making stuff up as you go along is developing the metrics for success (or failure) and follow on.
Success Failure
Suspect down, no explosion No effect
Suspect compliant Large Explosion
Suspect non responsive Suspect unresponsive to commands
Once command has a standard for success or failure then an appropriate next step can be implemented. In this instance it appears that command either lost the resolve to implement the next step or had not thought things through to a next step. Once their resolve failed the result was further delay. The potential for further injuries argue for the delay. However the actions of the police render everything around the event a murky gray with plenty of room for opportunists to maneuver.
In the year since Freddy Gray 271 Baltimore Police Officers have left the department with more likely to follow. It has always fascinated me that liberals and the deeply flawed criminals that liberals support, demand flawless performance on the part of police. They do this without apology or taking responsibility for the wreckage they leave behind. Baltimore Police officers are left to do a job where the rules are constantly changing and the only consistency is political expediency in pursuit of an agenda that is both anti-police and against the rule of law.