The Cost Of The Damage Is Higher Than Their Bail
by Big Dog on Apr 30, 2015 at 17:28 Law Enforcement, Political
By now most of the people in the US know what is going on in Baltimore. The people who have been raised to be victims who are entitled to everything are upset because a black man named Freddie Gray died while in police custody. There is an investigation into the death but there are no results yet*.
On Saturday people were peacefully protesting the death when civil unrest and violence took hold of the crowd and the police had to step in. On Monday high school students initiated a purge and that purge ended up in a riot. Cars and buildings were burned and businesses ransacked and looted. The police were attacked by people who threw rocks and bricks at them.
The police did not clamp down on the rioters. They watched as the city burned and it has been reported that this was on orders from the mayor. Eventually the National Guard was activated and a curfew instituted. Things have been much quieter since then but there are rallies scheduled for this weekend so there is no telling how peaceful things will be.
It is also possible that the findings will show the police were not responsible for Gray’s death. If that is announced I suspect the city will light up again.
[note]Protestors say Gray deserved due process and did not get it. These same people have already convicted the police without due process. If the cops are responsible they should be dealt with harshly. Unfortunately, they might never get due process. Public pressure might land them in jail even if they did nothing wrong.[/note]
Over 200 people have been arrested for their participation in the destruction and violence. Their legal system is working to get them processed but the state of emergency and numbers of people is making it difficult for rapid processing so many are being held longer than the 24 hours allowed.
Attorneys for those who have been arrested are complaining that their clients have excessive bail and are unable to get out of jail. Those attorneys were pushing for bail amounts of $25,000 but the judges have been putting those bonds at $100,000 and $500 of it must be cash.
It appears as if many of them can’t come up with bail and might well spend months in jail awaiting trial for their crimes.
I find it hard to have sympathy for people who have high bond amounts when they caused millions of dollars in damage and are costing the city and state millions in resources. If they can’t afford the bail then they can sit in jail until their trial dates. That will at least keep them off the streets and prevent them from causing more mayhem.
Perhaps they should have thought about the consequences of their actions before they broke the law. If they did not want to worry about bail money they should have stayed home instead of committing crimes.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. The police have thousands of images of people breaking the law. They have license plate number and photos of people looting. They will eventually hunt those people down and arrest them. There will be a heck of a lot more people with high bail amounts before this is all over.
I don’t blame the judge or the legal system for imposing high bonds on people who had no regard for property or the lives of the people in their city.
Jail is where they need to be to keep them off the street.
*(Just released) Preliminary Results indicate he broke his neck in the police van during his arrest.
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: arrests, bail, baltimore, crimes, freddie gray, police, riots