TRANSCRIPT:
STEPHEN JANIS, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, TRNN: The controversy over charges against six officers in relation to the killing of Freddie Gray while in police custody continued today as the organization representing black officers defended one of the six, Sergeant Alicia White, while also accusing the department she served as being racially biased.
LISA ROBINSON, VICE PRESIDENT, VANGUARD FOR JUSTICE: We recognize that their concerns are legitimate concerns. We recognize they are legitimate, because we face those same sorts of issues within the Baltimore Police Department.
JANIS: In fact, Alicia White’s lawyer Ivan Bates said the charges against his client were a culmination of systemic inequalities within the Baltimore Police Department which continues today.
IVAN BATES, WHITE’S ATTORNEY: How on earth can we as a society change if we only have one female who’s Lieutenant Colonel in the police department of Baltimore City? How on earth can we change if we have one African-American female who’s a Major? This is what we need to understand, that it is the policies, practices, and procedures that have placed us in this situation.
JANIS: The press conference was called by the Vanguard for Justice, an organization which represents black officers on the Baltimore Police Department, and appeared to have dual purposes. One, to advocate for White’s innocence.
TONY GARCIA, WHITE’S ATTORNEY: When this trial is completed and all the evidence is laid bare, you’re going to see that perhaps justice wasn’t the only thing the State’s Attorney was attempting to accomplish here.
JANIS: But also to align the charges against her with efforts to address inequalities within the department she served.
KENNETH BUTLER, PRESIDENT, VANGUARD FOR JUSTICE: We look forward to being interviewed and working with the Department of Justice, because we want to uncover and correct some policies and practices that are within this agency.
JANIS: To that end, all agreed White was an exemplary officer, saying she had nothing to do with Freddie Gray’s death.
BARBARA JACKSON, FRANKFORD NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION: And we all know Alicia as a dedicated individual. One of the better police officers we have ever met.
JANIS: Even though she has been charged with manslaughter because prosecutors allege she checked on Gray during his fatal ride in a police van. In fact, her lawyers admitted today that they had not seen the evidence against her.
BATES: We need to see the evidence before any of us can have any of the answers.
JANIS: Missing from the discussion was any mention of the two other African-American officers who have also been charged with manslaughter. Still, even with all the not-so-subtle critiques of the city’s criminal justice system as racially biased, White’s defender stopped short of calling the charges against her racially motivated. Instead, they say what happened to Freddie Gray and even White was an inevitable outcome from a criminal justice system where inequality has been allowed to fester.
BATES: Alicia White is your sister, she’s your cousin, she’s your friend, she’s your neighbor. She is Baltimore City.
JANIS: Reporting from Baltimore, Stephen Janis for The Real News Network.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.