Bring yourself back online.
Can you hear me?
Do you know where you are?
Would you like to wake up from this dream?
There's nothing to be afraid of.
Understand?
Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality?
We must take this matter into our own hands.
- Our city! - Our city!
Tell us what you think of your world.
What do you think of the guests?
Do you know where you are?
Will the things I told you
change the way you think about your world?
Do you know where you are?
- I walked down the street with a reporter
from a national network, who looked around
and saw all of these boarded-up properties,
and said to me...
"Councilman, you know,
that riot really tore up this community, didn't it?"
And I said, "Look again.
"Look at the boards on those homes.
"Do they look like they were tacked up yesterday?
No, they've been there 20 years, maybe longer."
I said, "The riot didn't tear up the community.
"The condition of the community
caused the uprising that we had."
- Man, I've been recording this.
I've been recording.
- When the police and Freddie Gray
made eye contact, Freddie Gray ran.
And he was arrested, essentially,
for running while black.
- What may have followed is a so-called "rough ride,"
or a deliberate tactic used by police
to harm unbelted handcuffed passengers.
- And he emerged at the end of that ride
with an 80% torn spine.
- We had to get to the hospital
and find out if it was true.
We was thinking that maybe it was a mistake...
maybe they had the wrong room.
This can't be happening to our Freddie.
No peace! No justice, no peace!
- That's right!
- We ain't gonna let this happen no more!
We came to send them a strong message
that black lives matter!
- Freddie Gray, a young man arrested
by Baltimore City Police last weekend, has died.
- By the grace of God...
By the grace of God...
- Justice shall prevail.
Justice shall prevail.
- The medical examiner will list the cause of death
as trauma to the neck and spine.
- There were thousands of protestors at City Hall,
where they had gathered after marching
from the police district
where Freddie Gray was arrested a week ago.
- You'll see there's police officers
in riot gear trying to hold this position.
- I am taken back by the amount of people
that there are... community members.
- You're not letting me answer! - I'm asking you...
- I'm saying to them, "Family, let me talk to you."
"No, you don't say nothing!
You're one of them! You're a Nazi!"
And I'm getting all of this hatred.
Cops! Pigs! Murderers!
- There have been sudden, spontaneous confrontations...
- We're not ignorant! We just want peace.
- But so far, no major eruptions
of violence in Baltimore.
- Now, there was information
that there was these various sites
that were going to be targeted
by bands of young people.
- What they did, as smart as
the Baltimore City Police Department is, they shut down
the Mondawmin Mall bus terminal.
That's a major terminal.
So you shut that down, kids can't go nowhere.
- These kids, clearly, are getting frustrated.
- Rest in peace, Freddie.
- Western Baltimore is under siege at this moment.
- The real story is that
Freddie Gray was murdered
by the police,
and my city took to the streets
and took this city back.
- Hey, guys, they just set the CVS on fire.
- Hey, did they close down the street?
- Cop cars were being destroyed.
Businesses were being destroyed.
It's like a demon took over the city.
- Maryland governor Larry Hogan declared
a state of emergency.
- The governor sends 2,000 national guardsmen
to help police as Baltimore remains
under a state of emergency.
- Sir, thank you, sir. - You're welcome.
- Might get loose...
- Anybody wear a small?
- I have to make it my size.
Because I get walking pneumonia.
- I didn't grow up in the hood,
but I always was around people who did
and always tried to use the perspective
that I was fortunate enough to have
by not growing up in the hood
to be able to say, "It's not right."
- Yes, ma'am. - Thank you.
- Everybody get one?
- The first time I heard about Freddie Gray,
it was on TV.
I was downtown, I was working
at the Marriott Waterfront...
and my white coworker, I remember her saying,
"Oh, my gosh.
Has anybody been hurt? Has anybody been injured?"
And I remember saying to her, "Yeah, somebody's been hurt.
"Somebody's been injured.
Somebody died, and that's what this is about."
And she was saying, "No, no. I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about the police." Hands up, don't shoot!
- I mean, something
at that moment, like, snapped inside of me,
and it was just like, "Yo, I can't do this."
Like, "I can't just sit on the sidelines.
This is a part of me."
From that Saturday on, I would leave work,
and I would go protest with my cousins.
I want you and Fox News to get out of Baltimore City,
because you're not here
reporting about the boarded up homes
and the homeless people under MLK.
You're not reporting about the poverty levels
up and down North Avenue.
But you're here for the black riots that happened.
I didn't know who Geraldo was,
except for some little dude
with a big mustache, disrespecting the scene.
Everything that had been bottled up inside of me
from before Freddie Gray was released in that moment.
I want the white media out of Baltimore City
until y'all come here to report the real stories.
You know, once I realized
that the cameras had recorded me, I was concerned
about what my father was going to think,
and so I went home that night.
I saw the video... it started trending
and trending, and then three days later,
I was fired.
- The manner of death, deemed a homicide
by the Maryland state medical examiner,
is believed to be the result of a fatal injury
that occurred while Mr. Gray was unrestrained
by a seat belt in the custody
of a Baltimore Police Department wagon.
We have probable cause to file criminal charges.
- Yes! Yes!
- There was jubilation in the Baltimore neighborhood
where Freddie Gray was killed
after the prosecutor announced charges.
- This is bigger than Freddie Gray.
This is bigger than Trayvon Martin.
This is bigger than Eric Garner.
This is the way they treat black people in America, man.
- Stop trying to make us scared of ISIS
when we need to be scared of our own judicial system,
'cause that's our terrorist in our community.
- When we see the police, our first objective
is not to stand there and get in compliance... it's to run.
- Like, they chased me. They didn't find drugs.
So they beat me in the head with a gun.
- I wish my brother could have ran,
but he stopped.
He pulled over.
He didn't give nobody a chase or anything.
He pulled over, had his hands out the window,
and was executed on the spot!
- A black man don't have nothing in this world...
nothing.
And that's the end of that.
- Today a judge will decide
if the charges against the six officers
should be dropped,
if State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby
should be taken off the case...
- Freddie Gray! All night...
All day! - We will fight
for Freddie Gray! All night...
- Well, once people realized that there were charges,
people felt like, "What are we protesting for still?"
We will fight for Freddie Gray!
- Sidewalk! Hey, get on the sidewalk!
- But, you know, I knew, like, I wasn't done.
I had a mission that convictions
was to be expected and Freddie Gray got justice.
- What do we want? - Justice!
- And when do we want it? - Now!
- Police admit they were once caught off guard
during the riots,
but now they're prepared.
Hey-hey! Ho-ho!
These killer cops have got to go!
Hey-hey! Ho-ho!
Those killer cops have got to go!
Hey-hey! Ho-ho!
These killer cops have got to go!
- I'm not resisting! - Hands behind your head!
- I'm hurt. - Oh, oh, oh, oh!
- Hands behind your back now! - I'm hurt!
- You're under arrest. - I'm hurt!
- I'm gonna Tase you! - I'm hurt!
I got hit by a...
- Illegal arrest!
Illegal arrest!
- You need to back up. - Move!
- So we thought it was really important
to have this civil disobedience training
in the midst of what's about to happen
in Baltimore with the start of the Freddie Gray trials.
And we just thought it was extremely necessary
to have this, especially for students
who might be just recently introduced...
into this.
And while I've engaged
in acts of civil disobedience,
I've never organized one.
When I found out that Kwame had gotten arrested,
I was extremely frightened,
just because I felt like stakes were getting higher
and that activists were getting arrested
for things that weren't necessarily threatening.
Protests are symbolic.
They're effective, but they're also cathartic
and therapeutic for the people who are involved in them.
You need to promise
that you're going to be ride or die...
well, if you're comfortable with you're doing that.
Like, you're gonna be ride or die
for the people that you're with.
Protest truly is the voice
of people who are unheard,
and protest is not always
a passive action, right?
Protest is not always marching in the streets,
singing "Kumbaya," holding hands,
being silent and non-disruptive.
- We have to stand for our sons,
because these are our sons, and we are sick and tired
of being sick and tired of their blood
being painted on the streets.
- So people are worried about, like, the safety
of people who are engaged in this work
of trying to get justice for Freddie Gray.
It had a lot to do with the way
protestors had been treated in the past,
the way I was arrested, and more and more
as the story grew bigger, the protests got bigger.
- Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake
has announced that she plans
to make interim commissioner Kevin Davis
the new Baltimore City police commissioner.
- Protesting is not a privilege, Commissioner.
Protesting is a right that you have to respect
as a servant of the people, and that's all I want to say.
- History will one day look specifically back
at this very moment in time
and identify this year...
probably more than any other year...
that will serve to define
when American policing began to change.
It's a challenging time to be a police officer,
but it's an exciting time to be a police officer.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
- Good evening, everyone.
Till this day...
Commissioner Davis has never apologized...
for how peaceful protestors have been treated...
- Yes!
- Arrested...
and are now being prosecuted by the same State's Attorney
that's supposed to be bringing charges
against six murderers that killed Freddie Gray.
- Mic check! - Mic check!
- My voice... - My voice!
- Will not decide... - Will not decide!
- If you become... - If you become!
- The permanent commissioner...
The permanent commissioner!
- For my city.
For my city! - Yet, I will be...
Yet, I will be! - We will be...
We will be! - The unarmed black kids...
Unarmed black kids! - Found unconscious...
Found unconscious! - In a police van.
In a police van! - Left dead in the streets.
Dead in the streets!
- No justice! - No peace!
- No racist! - Police!
Step up or step down!
- All right, everybody.
So we're locked inside of City Hall right now.
They locked the bathrooms.
They've refused to let us off the balcony
unless we're leaving the building.
The commissioner still has not returned.
We just wanted engagement from Kevin Davis.
It wasn't about blocking Kevin Davis.
It's mostly about, like, having a conversation
so that we know what side Kevin Davis is actually on.
I'm challenging everybody right now
to use the power of social media
to demand that the commissioner comes.
- So thumbs for are we committed
to staying here?
Yes, maybe, no.
- I want to stay.
- Thumb, thumbs? - Yes, yes.
- To go home? - This has just been
the unanimous decision that we're not leaving
until Kevin Davis
and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake
are with us. - Okay.
- Protestors are still inside City Hall,
refusing to leave.
Now, we've confirmed that Kevin Davis
is not inside with them.
- You will have to leave the building.
I don't know. I'm trying... - Is this a warning
before our arrest? - To see if we... well...
- Excuse me. Good evening.
Can I have everybody's attention?
- Let her finish talking, 'cause that was
very disrespectful to your colleague.
- Please. I am lawfully ordering all of you
who are assembled here inside of City Hall
to leave the building immediately
and peacefully disperse. - Kwame, shh.
- You shall leave immediately or be subject to arrest.
- It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
Is our duty to fight for our freedom.
- We have nothing to lose but our chains!
We have nothing to lose but our chains!
- It is our duty to fight for our freedom!
It is our duty to fight for our freedom!
- We have nothing to lose but our chains!
We have nothing to lose but our chains!
- Black lives matter!
Black lives matter! Black lives matter!
- Baltimore City has a new top cop.
The city council voted 12-2 to confirm Kevin Davis
as the new police commissioner for Baltimore City.
- It's a exciting time,
but it's also a very trying time,
because I don't know... this is her senior year,
and I don't know where things are going to go
with regard to the Freddie Gray trial.
Last year was a very difficult year.
Her grades fell.
I was very disappointed,
because I put you on a path for success,
and now you're letting it fall
because you're doing all of this work.
Education, in my book, comes first, you know?
You know, people always ask me, "Where does she...
where does she get this from?" And, um...
her speaking, she definitely gets from her dad,
but I think her spirit,
she gets from my brother, her uncle.
My brother was on death row for ten years.
I think he was 32 when he was executed.
He started doing live interviews
from death row, so that's when we became very active
campaigning against the death penalty,
and then I became pregnant with Makayla.
We have pictures of her
in my husband's arms, marching.
So she was born into that.
- Whose streets? - Our streets!
- I always told her that our protest chants,
"no justice, no peace," were her lullabies.
And I said, "You marched
before you could crawl and walk."
Indict, convict,
send those killer cops to jail. The whole damn system...
- I'm always reminded of my uncle's resilience
and how, even on death row... when he knew
that his death was pending and he knew
that his death was coming, and he even had
a date of his death, he was still organizing,
and he was doing everything with his time that he could.
You can go to killedbypolice.net,
and you can begin to read the names off.
We need to recognize and hear all of the names
of all of the victims, right?
And we need to say their names. We need to feel their spirits.
We need to feel their energy and make this a moment
where we're committing to ourselves
to no longer wait until another name
is added to that list,
'cause we can't afford to lose another baby like Tamir.
We can't afford to lose another sister like Sandra.
We can't afford any of that.
- Darius Smith. - Wesley Manning.
- Dejuan Hall. - Brandon Johnson.
- DeOntre Dorsey. - William Lemmon.
- Patrick O'Grady. Philip Quinn.
- Jason Mesaros. - Ernesto Lopez.
- Eddie Sanchez. - Joseph Khammash.
- Antonio Henry. - Kenneth Pinter Jr.
- Adarius Brown. - Keith McLeod.
- Leonel Acevedo.
- So, Father God, first and foremost,
I want to thank You for sparing the lives, Father God,
of Britney and Genisha, Father God.
But, Father God, our concentration,
our focus...
goes on those, Father God,
that were seriously injured, Father God...
even ejected from the vehicles, oh, God.
Where does it hurt?
- It isn't hurting, it's just shaking.
- Okay, so just relax.
You're gonna be all right.
All right? - Okay.
- Look, I ain't hard to find if y'all need me.
It's my city. Love my city.
We're in a community where...
it's underserved and over-policed.
You could be a great cop.
You could be a great cop and a successful cop...
probably even more so when you learn how
to be respectful to the community.
So we're... we're in the Gilmor area,
which is where, actually, Freddie Gray...
was arrested.
That mural went up almost immediately.
The Freddie Gray incident wasn't the cause
of the uprising... it was just probably that last straw
that broke the camel's back... after decades of crying out.
There were a group of individuals
who helped us throughout the entire uprising.
They wanted to sit down and talk
with the commissioner
about how we can better work together
to see that peace come back around.
You are the peacemakers.
You are the ones who I've called on
in months past, years past,
when things were happening, and said, "We need help."
And you have always come through.
Some of you don't even know each other,
so the common denominator here is me, right?
But more importantly,
the common denominator here is Baltimore,
and so what the commissioner has asked
is, hypothetically, if something else kicked off...
if anything kicked off... are there people that you know,
that when we get some information,
that you can pass that information on to
so it doesn't blow up in our face?
- It'd be one thing if the uprising
and the unrest were behind us.
Part of it's behind us,
but we got a big front windshield
that we're looking out, and there are absolutely
expectations that we need to manage in this city,
and I don't think the city is doing a good job
at managing expectations for these trials.
Baltimore... this uniform is the most recognizable
police department in the country right now.
And people are looking at us
to see if we can get this right.
- A lot of the kids, I'm telling you for a fact,
literally sitting around,
waiting for the next opportunity to go out
and do what they think is voicing their frustrations.
- We got that. That's good, that's good.
We got that. Catalina?
- So begin to identify the people that will work
on behalf of the people of Baltimore,
'cause we all love our city,
and we loved it before it was popular
to say you loved it and it was a brand.
- Yes. - Why don't we start
getting out into the schools right now,
having assemblies, and then talk to them about,
"This is your city. You have to value your city.
"You know, no matter what happens,
you still have to live here."
- Well, first of all, allow me to apologize,
'cause I'm not as well-spoken as some of my counterparts.
I'm a retired gang member, sir, if there is such a thing.
And excuse me for being incredibly frank.
You have to treat those officers like people.
They shouldn't have never had ten days
to discuss their story.
Major problem.
You have two sides of your city, Chief,
and part of your city, they're expecting
everybody to walk.
Some of them, unfortunately...
and I hate to admit it... are waiting for them to walk.
Just my opinion.
- My selfish interest,
on behalf of the city right now,
is surviving this moment.
Right? We can't get through this
without you guys.
And I give my cell phone number out to everybody.
And I've had people tell me, "Why do you give
your cell phone number?"
I'll give it to everybody in this room.
Now, now, I do that because I know
that if you guys didn't care about this city,
you wouldn't be in here.
If we can't, as a city,
get through these six trials together...
with just protests and no violence...
we will take ten giant steps backwards.
- I just want to get into treatment as soon as possible.
- Okay, what is your drug of choice?
- Heroin. - All right.
Age of first use? - Of anything?
- Of anything. - 13, marijuana.
- Next thing?
- 14, cocaine.
- Wow, how'd you graduate that fast?
What was his name?
- John.
- Awesome. All right.
My job is to refer clients, translate,
and advocate for clients suffering from dual diagnosis
and/or drug abuse.
To date, I've sent successfully to treatment
1,785 people.
I think maybe seven, eight days ago,
I just met with the commissioner, Davis...
the new dude... and they're trying to help us,
first of all, kind of police our own.
What we don't want is a repeat of what happened in April.
- They really do got to build a relationship
with the community first, because don't nobody
in the community trust them. - Right.
- You got to get them something... jobs, something.
Give them something to do. Something.
- So, basically, just let me know what it is you need.
You know what I'm saying? 'Cause if we can facilitate
this, it'd create a lot of opportunity
for a bunch of different things, mostly for our kids.
You know what I'm saying? The schools around here.
We can reduce the police presence greatly.
- This is the voice mailbox for Kevin Davis,
police commissioner for the city of Baltimore.
- Hello, Commissioner Davis.
This is Genard Barr, aka Mr. Shadow.
We met, um...
a little bit over a week ago.
You remember the question, "What can we do
"to prevent a second uprising if the trial does not go
quite like we thought?"
I believe I have an answer for you.
I hope this reaches you in peace,
and just as a side note, I'll be bugging
the hell out of you until I talk to you.
Thank you very much, sir.
- Jury selection begins in the morning
in the trial of the first of the six police officers
charged in the death of Freddie Gray.
- Officer William Porter is accused
of involuntary manslaughter,
reckless endangerment, and assault.
- I always had pride in being a law enforcement officer,
but... now, it's like...
people don't feel the same way.
I feel like a linebacker.
I'm one of the investigators in the case.
So we have the court cases coming up very soon...
the start of those... and, um, you know,
that's, um...
you know, that's gonna be a huge deal
for everybody involved.
And I don't know exactly when I'll be testifying
in that case.
We're just kind of in standby mode.
It's discouraging when you just watch
people pit races against each other,
the community against the police.
See, out here you have to kind of pick your poison.
You got to pick your poison, you know,
what you're gonna get engaged in.
When you got young black men like this
who are just walking around the street aimlessly...
you know...
they're doing one of two things.
They're up to no good, or they're selling drugs,
and then the next thing you know,
you're gonna have a shooting,
and these are the results.
Graveyards... jails.
So, you know...
- Back in the late '50s and early '60s,
Penn North was the cultural center of Baltimore
because it was the home, among other things,
of numerous jazz clubs.
This was the heyday of the black family.
We didn't have drugs. We didn't have guns.
You didn't see all of these vacant houses.
It was an "onward, upward" kind of feeling
about Baltimore.
The police were basically foot patrolmen.
They knew who the bad kids were in any given family,
who the good people were,
because they were familiar with the community.
Blacks were treated a lot differently
after the advent of the motorized squad car.
And so, instead of walking the beat,
the police department in Baltimore
went from hot spot to hot spot.
They didn't learn the community after that.
Then in 1968, when we had the riots...
things went downhill from there.
Add that to mass incarceration,
to mass arrests in the black community...
now we have the destruction
of the same black families
who were thriving in that part of town.
- My father was a cop. Useless.
The dude my mother married after my father
was also a cop.
He spent...
a good five years abusing me,
and that began the hatred of cops...
the ineffective father
and the piece-of-shit stepfather.
Around 15 or 16 or so,
I couldn't deal with that anymore, so I left.
You know, there's only certain ways a 16-year-old dude
is gonna take care of himself.
The environment I was stuck in
or pushed upon me, or however the hell
you want to put that, turned me into something else
for a means of survival.
I don't want my kids to be turned into anything.
I want my kids to grow up to be my kids.
- Hey, baby.
- Hey, Shadow. - Oh, yeah, that's my...
- How you doing, man? How are you?
- How you doing? - Sorry I'm late. You good?
- Nah, actually, it worked out that you're late.
- Hey, how are you? Kevin Davis.
You know, why this year
and why right now
and why... why post-April to May
is everything off the chain?
- You know, when you're in a situation
where you have 7,000 people and 300 jobs...
Things can be out of control.
Then on our side, seven, eight generations
of fatherless boys.
And the only time we ever see y'all
is y'all taking our fathers from us.
- I hear you.
- That's why. - And it just bubbled here.
- There are no recreation centers.
There's nothing for kids to do. There's nothing here.
- We are so angry...
and so upset.
We sit here, and we have nothing to do,
so we agitating each other.
And then we have the cops on top of our backs.
- Some of these dudes... I done seen some of these cats
strip search people in the street.
If you ever try to put your finger in my ass,
talking about something, you want to search for
some drugs, I don't give a fuck whether he got a badge or not,
I'm gonna stab him in his neck.
- I'm sorry that law enforcement
in this community is like this.
- If you want to make a change now...
I don't know who or how we have to do it...
- You do... you do a lot... - No, please let me finish.
- You do a lot. - No, please let me finish.
Please let me finish.
I went through shit that I should not have to.
I'm not even supposed to be sitting here.
I got a bullet hole in my head, Chief.
And that will not happen to my children.
Do you understand?
This will not happen to my children.
I will die doing this.
Okay?
- Your pain's not my pain.
I've never lived your life.
But that still...
Excuse me.
- Doesn't mean that...
- It won't happen to my children.
I promise you, I have an army of likeminded individuals.
But they're afraid of you all.
And until they stop... - That breaks my heart.
- And until they stop being afraid of you all,
it's gonna seem like I'm doing it by myself.
Here's the deal...
- What do they want? - Jobs.
- We need jobs. - Jobs.
- We need them. - Mm-hmm.
Can I be an advocate for jobs?
Yes. Can I go over...
and stand in City Hall and jump up and down?
Yes.
Will I? Yes.
But you know my personal ability
as a police commissioner to create jobs... is what?
- Hmm. - For this moment in time,
I got the bully pulpit,
and I'll stand up with you
and go to whoever those people are
who can make change.
I'll do that, but I need you to promise me
that we're not gonna have what we had in April and May.
Can you deliver that? - Yeah.
- To the best of my ability.
- This is the problem that we're having,
with, you know, the guys in the fraternity...
guys, you know...
They are worried about, "If we take this step,
will y'all take this step with us?"
You know, because they don't want to look like fools,
and they don't want any backlash.
- I don't want to look like a fool either.
- You know, it's time for us to stand...
- Give me a couple... Test me, then. Test the waters.
Give me a couple things you want me to do.
- We been talking about it all year, bro.
- A football game, a basketball game.
- We want a football game, man. We want to play ball.
But you get what I'm saying? Like, just like we're playing
cops and robbers when we was kids,
let's put on some pads...
'cause it's a lot of athletes out here, Chief.
I can still run, man. - Yeah? All right. I can't.
- I'm about to go meet up with my attorney.
I'm not taking no charges.
I'm not taking no conviction.
But I also want to send a message, like,
this is not about to keep happening to protestors
who haven't broken the law and have only been exercising
their First Amendment right.
- You are on the scene. They're gonna come to you
because, for good or for bad,
you are seen as a leader of the movement.
- I'm, like, the only protestor facing, like,
serious jail time, you know.
I'm the most visible person.
- Arrest is the last resort, and that is a citable offense.
Right, so the only reason, from my experience,
that somebody in command would make an arrest
is if it's pre-planned.
- Where would that directive come from,
from your experience, when you were there?
- It's gonna come from Command. It's not gonna come from...
it's gonna come from somebody that is a captain or above.
Somebody that's in what they call "Command Staff."
- The perception that you have nothing to lose,
that's a scary thing for people who got a whole lot to lose.
So that's the threat you pose.
Whether you mean to express that threat or not,
to the establishment, that's what you represent.
- This is my last one, I swear.
For today.
I don't get why they're picking this bone so hard.
- But that is why they're picking the bone.
- Yeah. - So they can hold you back
during the whole next... I don't know.
When's this gonna be? Six months, seven months?
- I am still gonna protest.
I'm still gonna be out here before my case.
- Well, it's your constitutional right to protest.
- Well, I don't get those rights.
- We have heard closing arguments
in the final phase
of the Officer William Porter trial.
Right now the prosecution has wrapped up
its portion of closing arguments.
- Prosecutors contend Porter is criminally negligent
because he didn't call a medic when Gray requested one
and he didn't buckle Gray into a seat belt.
- Have you ever been inside of a police van?
And I'm like this, right? Now, you got a back door here.
Now, if she has this much room...
because, remember, you have a wall here
that divides both sides of the wagon.
- It's narrow in the back. - So what can I do
to her from here?
I could kick her. I could punch her.
- I'm over here... - I could spit on her.
I can do this, but... - I'm not gonna put myself
through that, because when I get injured,
first of all, the city not gonna want to take care of me.
- We had the gentleman that came here...
it took six guys to try to get him out of the cell
and he said, "You're gonna have to Freddie Gray me
"out of this motherfucker,
because I'm not walking on my two feet."
- It puts everybody at risk.
- It's crazy.
- Right now, since April, the community,
the Command, the government,
the media, has effectively erased the blue line
that protected all of these people
and the result is, you know, a record year,
and it's only gonna get worse and worse and worse.
- Well, the death of Freddie Gray
has put a glaring spotlight on Baltimore
and its police force.
In the months since Gray's death,
arrests in Baltimore have plunged.
Murders have actually surged.
- After the uprising in Baltimore City,
I talked to the police in West Baltimore.
They were saying, "Colonel, can we keep it real?
"We're tired of getting out of the cars.
"We got to keep looking over our heads
"and ducking bottles and dirty diapers
"and all this crap, and we just want to do our job.
"When we make a legitimate, good arrest,
"all the cameras come... wham, in our face!
And just hatred being spewed. Colonel, that hurts."
Facts speak for themselves.
And I understand it.
We stopped policing.
- We carry our children. We feed them.
We do all the right things for them.
And then one day we wake up and get a phone call that said,
"Ms. Austin, homicide is coming.
They want to talk to you."
My husband went to the scene,
and there was our 22-year-old son
at a block party with his brains blown out.
- They say black don't crack.
Shit, my brother sent me
a picture he took of a guy laying on the concrete
with his top peeled back like a convertible Honda.
We praying for mamas. Our kids are going to paradise.
No, no, no, not the Bahamas.
- You guys know Petey?
Here, I want y'all to take some of these.
I want y'all to take some of these flyers,
'cause y'all his friends, right?
Back in my day,
if something like this happened down here,
those people who this was intended for...
they wouldn't even be allowed
to even stand on a corner again
until they did the right thing for this family.
- Right.
- You got people dying in neighborhoods
where they grew up at, and people say
absolutely nothing.
Thinking back to... to all the memories
I had as a child...
thinking about all the other families
falling apart...
I don't think a child should ever have to go through
what I went through.
You had the Stanfields, who ran this entire area out here.
They always used my house
as, like, the stash house.
So we'd be in there sleeping with guns.
Every guy in that house, every guy in that organization
was a pedophile.
None of them could keep their hands to themselves,
and I'd get in trouble, because I would open up
one of their packs, and...
they always had liquor and different stuff.
So I would pour... like, take a bunch of heroin
and pour it in a cup and pour alcohol in it,
and I'd sit there and think,
"If I drink this, how fast would I die?"
And I used to play with the guns.
I'd pick it up, look at it and figure...
I used to always sit there and think,
"This is gonna make a mess.
"How are they gonna find me? I'm not even gonna die.
And I'm gonna still be right back here."
And, um... and I was...
you know, 15 years old.
- So, if you had a chance to play football
against the police, what would you do?
- Well, play... play my heart out against the police.
- I'm saying... - Against the police?
Yeah, I would definitely catch
a few "unnecessary roughness"-es.
15-yard penalties.
I would definitely catch a few. - So they know the deal.
- The only time we see the police officers
is when they're pointing guns at me and calling me
a dickhead or an asshole or some shit like that...
shooting some unarmed dude.
How can I treat you like a person
when you never act like one, and how do I get you
to do that in a neighborhood you don't live in?
What better do you know to do that than football?
- Oh, I know I should have brought my cleats today.
- On one side, you had people and kids from out
in the community... you know, the "normals."
Then you have gang members and whoever else,
and they're all playing together
on the same team against the police.
- You have a good game today? - What's up, man?
Hold up, fellas! Come here, come here, for real!
Last time, I swear. Come here.
The gentleman standing behind me...
- It's all good. - Lieutenant Colonel...
They ain't all bad. Please remember that
when we get all this incidental contact.
- Set. Hit!
- You got Bloods and Crips,
don't fucking like each other, on one fucking team.
Motherfuckers was fighting
and shit in the alleyways, like, a week ago.
- Maybe about ten of those guys,
I see on a daily basis,
and sometimes it's not in a positive light.
So, to do something like this,
it really changes the relationship.
- This is what the truce looks like.
This is every set in the city right now...
fittin' to play a game
against the last people we want to be playing with.
- All we asking...
for 'em to be... more considerate.
We are human beings, too, you feel what I'm saying?
They bleed just like us. They live just like us.
- I'm looking around, see all these police out here.
Why they couldn't leave their guns and handcuffs in the car?
We out here playing football.
I still feel nervous,
man, like...
- Whether the city is here in the stands today or not,
it doesn't matter... the city is watching us.
Yeah. - The city is watching
the police, as they should be.
But if we can't do this, who's gonna do it?
- Nobody. - Nobody's gonna do it.
- One, two, three! - Family!
- Let's play ball, guys. Let's play ball.
- All right!
- Hey, it's flag football.
Calm down a little bit, all right?
- Look at this. Look at this.
That is a bad play. Bad play.
- Let's go, let's go, 17! - Let's go 17!
- Go, baby! - He can throw.
He's gonna beat you if you don't jam him at the line!
- Ah, he's going deep, he's going deep!
- He ain't putting no hands on him, man.
- He let him get past him. - It's all right.
- If we lose, everybody on foot for a week.
I'm serious. Straight up.
- All right, where's the ball?
- I'm serious. We got females on the field.
I'm gonna say it out loud... let the flag be
be the only thing you grab.
That's right.
- First of all, we wouldn't have even won
if it wasn't for y'all, so round of applause
for my youngsters.
All right? - Whoo!
- Come on, let's get group pictures!
Okay, my front row right here,
take a knee like you... you know, football pose.
When I say "one city," you say "one purpose"!
- One city! - One purpose!
I love that.
- Deuces!
- I don't understand why you just won't...
Can you take a plea deal?
- Do you think I did something wrong?
- Yes. You had a blow horn
at the courthouse.
- You know, I think that I was targeted.
- You were.
- With the megaphone out front of the courthouse...
- When did that become against the law?
- It's a nuisance... they're conducting business inside.
- I had the bullhorn out there for three days.
- Okay, and after a while, they got tired of it.
- Y'all haven't accepted me for being me.
- We want you to look at the long term.
What happens when...
- I don't think about long term.
You know, I don't really, like...
have a longing for, like, material possessions.
- Okay.
- I'm content.
- You're homeless. - What?
- You're homeless. - I am not.
- You are. - I'm not looking for a home.
- You're broke. - Yes, you have no money.
You're broke. - Give me a loan.
- No, the goal is to make the bird fly.
- I'm looking for somebody to love me.
- We love you, but you can't stay in my basement.
- No, love me the way I'm looking for.
These are my parents.
Who try to teach you responsibility.
- It's reality, baby. - I don't want responsibility.
- Exactly.
- In Baltimore, residents and officials
are anxiously awaiting a verdict
in the first trial in the death of Freddie Gray.
And the head of the city's public schools
has issued a letter to the community
warning students that walkouts and any form of violence
are not acceptable.
- So today we received a letter from Dr. Thornton,
the CEO of the Baltimore City Public School system,
regarding the upcoming verdict.
"While we appreciate the school board's effort
to keep..." - "Students safe."
- Students safe. - You should say,
"The school board's newfound effort."
That's shady, that's shady.
- Oh! - So what action
are you all planning? - We're planning
an emergency student walkout.
If the verdict comes during the school day.
- So you all are planning a walkout...
with the letter in mind...
that said that consequences will occur
as a result of a walkout? - Yep.
- We can't afford another arrest.
- They can't make arrests until they give three warnings.
- They can shoot you and kill you
without giving you a warning, so why do you trust
that they are going to give you three warnings?
And once again, here we are, not doing
what you're supposed to be doing
because everything is so much more important
than Makayla.
- Do you want me to ask them to leave now?
- I'm talking about you.
At what point are we going to start
what we planned to do today?
- When we finish this.
- When is that? - I don't... Mom, I don't...
I just said I don't know.
- And when is the deadline?
- I sent you all the deadlines. They're not until January.
- Everybody in there have applied for college.
- Okay. - Right?
- Yep.
- Okay. "Yep."
"Yep, yep." Okay.
- So the idea is this... when the riots happened,
it turned into a free-for-all.
And... every major media outlet possible
had a field day with it.
Of course, they're doing their job, but...
now that they've gotten to tell their story,
now we get to let the bastard stepchild of America...
which is Baltimore City... tell its story.
We do not want to be known as savages.
We do not want to be known as animals.
We want to be known as a community
in which we just live in the community.
My proposal is a nondenominational thing,
and excuse my hands being held behind my back,
but I am extremely nervous,
'cause I've never actually done this.
So... - You're doing a good job.
You can step forward if you like, brother.
- He needs a hug.
- Yeah.
- All right. What I have planned
is to have the various elements of society...
police, gang members, clergy, Muslims, whoever...
pray for our city...
Together,
regardless of the verdict. - I'll disclose this...
we'll probably have, like, an hour notice.
- Mm-hmm. - Advanced.
- Advanced notice. That's a real small window.
As soon as I get notice... I'm hitting my man.
- So you're saying we would be on the ground...
- Yes.
- As the verdict is being disclosed.
- As the verdict is being read.
- Ideally, before it comes out, we're already out...
- I got you. - 'Cause we know it's coming.
- Right. - I would just like to say
it's humbling, it's encouraging,
and I will be there whenever you guys say
we need to move.
- There were some eyebrows raised
across the city when word got out
and some pictures surfaced of outside police
law enforcement agencies assembling riot gear
and things of that sort at Druid Hill Park
here in Baltimore.
- You think they really gonna turn up if he get off?
Like, the whole city... you think it's gonna be
like how it was last time... if he get off?
- I think it's gonna be protest, yeah,
but I don't think people gonna burn shit down.
- To be honest, I hope it's not another riot,
for real, like...
I don't know, yo.
- You know when the verdict coming?
The verdict. You know when it's coming?
I don't know.
- No justice! - No peace!
- No racist... - Police!
- No justice! - No peace!
- No racist... - Police!
- Indict, convict!
Send these killer cops to jail!
The whole damn system is guilty as hell!
- We have just confirmed
that a mistrial has been declared
in the case of Freddie Gray...
the case against William Porter, police officer...
one of several police officers accused of killing Freddie Gray.
- Your reaction now
to the judge's declaration of a mistrial.
- I mean, a mistrial, in short, is a miscarriage of justice.
- We need justice now, not tomorrow.
So we got to go through this five more times?
- This is exact... this is the system working.
It's not supposed to convict one of its own.
- The evidence was there.
What more do you need to know?
A man was killed in police custody.
- So what happens now?
- We shut the city down.
We continue to march and demand for justice.
We continue to make our voices heard,
and we continue to let the world know
that Baltimore will be the place where justice
is served for the lives of black people
who were killed in the presence of police.
- I do think, ultimately, we have to focus
on how to get the structural changes necessary,
so that way we can prevent these types of trials
from having to happen in the first place.
- Let's move away from them. I think they're following me.
- You are impeding... - We do not have to disperse!
- The flow of traffic... - This is public property!
Thugs with badges is all y'all are!
There are no riots. We have not been violent.
We are being peaceful.
When did this become unlawful?
- Come here, sir. - What the...
- Come here, come here. Come here.
Put your hands behind your back.
- What did I do?
- He didn't do anything!
- So, Kwame, what happened?
- Excuse me. - Sir, why did they arrest you?
- I don't know. - Step back!
Step back, step back, step back.
- Get out the way! Move!
Free Kwame Rose! Free Kwame Rose!
- Impeding the flow of vehicular
and pedestrian traffic.
- Fuck all y'all!
- No, Mom, I'm protecting my colleagues
that are protesting.
I'm not protesting.
Yes, Mom. I'm fine.
I'm not gonna get arrested. - All right.
- I was standing over here, and all of the sudden,
you see a swarm of the sheriff's deputies,
and then they arrested him in here.
That's why they're standing out here.
I'm gonna try to get this gentleman's name, though,
'cause... he threatened me, so...
What's your name?
Could I have your name, please?
What is your name? You have to give me your name.
You're a public servant.
What is your name?
Who is your ranking officer?
Who's, like, the sergeant? Who's the lieutenant?
Who's here?
You don't know who you fucking with.
What's up, yo?
You all right? - Mm-hmm.
You know Kwame got arrested, right?
- Jason, are you still representing Kwame?
He just got arrested, which is why I'm calling you.
I wish I was kidding.
- It's bad... - Well...
- 'Cause he was on probation.
- And we are from one city with what?
One purpose!
- One city... - One purpose!
- One city! - One purpose!
- Again, who knows the serenity prayer?
- I do! I do!
- That is the prayer we chose.
However, if you have
a private prayer that you would like to say
or you just so happen to be Muslim
and you want to make Salaat
or you just so happen to be Jewish and you want to...
You know what I mean? However that works.
We got more people... excuse me...
on the news, saying that the tensions are high.
Does anybody here feel tense?
- No! - No!
- Are we sure? - Yes!
- We're not gonna go looting, like, tomorrow
'cause of whatever, right?
No!
- Y'all hear me? - Yes!
- Loud, come on! - Yeah!
- God...
Grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things that I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
- Louder!
God, grant me the serenity...
- Hallelujah!
- Thank You, Lord Jesus, God... - Yes, God.
Yes, God! Hallelujah!
- We're gonna let the devil know that we... Guess what.
We're gonna take our streets back!
- Amen? - Amen!
- Amen. And unity? We're gonna have unity
in Baltimore City. Amen?
- We pray right now in the name of Jesus,
oh, God, that You bring peace and love,
oh, God, and kindness, oh, God, in the name of Jesus.
- Lord God, go beyond race and politics, oh, God.
Lord God, we pray and ask that You would go
into the hearts of people, oh, God,
Lord God, and get at the root of it, Lord God,
the sin, Lord God.
- What God does is indescribable.
There's not a drug on Earth
that can get you higher than Jesus.
♪ All-powerful, untamable ♪
♪ Awestruck, we fall to our knees ♪
- Clergy, city leaders,
and police officers stood shoulder to shoulder
with neighbors at Penn and North Tuesday night,
just steps from the CVS store
that was looted and burned during the unrest in April.
They're linked by a shared disappointment
over what happened and a hope that it won't happen again.
- You a activist, this is where you need to be at.
This is real activism right here.
You know, it ain't just about going out
and marching every day.
- Oh, yeah!
- Freedom! - Freedom!
- Racist-ass cops! - We don't need 'em!
- Are y'all serious? Y'all let this man walk
into court with no shackles on him?
But when we get locked up, y'all beat us up,
tighten the cuffs off our wrists.
Do you know how that shit feels?
That is not a pretty... it ain't nothing...
nothing... this city doesn't have nothing.
We don't have nothing to do.
I'm 17, smoking cigarettes.
Why? Because I'm stressed every day that I'm going to die.
It's either I'm scared that I'm gonna die by a stray bullet
or a cop-killer like Porter.
- Tell me what democracy looks like!
This is what democracy looks like!
- Tell me what democracy looks like!
This is what democracy looks like!
- Tell me what democracy looks like!
This is what democracy looks like!
- I generally get frustrated with the way that people get
sucked into the theater of the actual trial.
The trial kind of represents
the little bit of justice that people want.
It's really the least amount of justice
that one could ask for.
But the biggest deterrent to abuse is power, you know?
If an officer knows that they will get sent to jail
or have some severe consequences,
or if the department knows that,
they're gonna behave differently.
Unfortunately, people miss the point
of the importance of studying our condition, our people...
that the purpose is to take
what our folks have discovered and learned about ourselves
and our condition and take it a step further.
Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle...
we call it LBS for short... was founded in 2010.
Many of us are former high-school
and college policy debaters.
So we wanted to form an organization
that was the public policy arm of the community.
- The strength and power of the organizing work
that we do is that we're always thinking about the future
and passing it on to young folks.
So people like Kwame and Makayla are emboldened
to achieve what they can achieve
and to do what they do because we decided
to pass that kind of knowledge and passion on to them.
And so it's our view that that's what we need to do
to empower black people in this city...
to pass on knowledge, wisdom, and skills
that can take them into the future.
- So what we're trying to do is reform what's called
the "Law Enforcement Officer Bill of Rights,"
and that was codified back in 1974.
Basically, what it does is that it gives police officers
in Maryland protections above and beyond
their constitutional rights.
Give you a couple of examples.
So let's say a police officer has been alleged
to have engaged in excessive force...
so they fatally beat somebody up.
There's a trial board that determines
whether they get fired or not, whether they get suspended.
That trial board is made up of other police officers.
Right? So one of the elements
we would try to change is to
make it so that a non-police officer
is on that trial board.
If someone's investigating that incident,
only sworn law enforcement can interrogate
that police officer.
Our opposition is the FOP... the Fraternal Order of Police...
the union that represents and supports the police.
And to the FOP, all these amendments
are nonstarters.
- How do you feel about the climate
of Baltimore right now?
- I feel like everybody's holding their breath
and has been since the trial started.
It didn't end in a cathartic moment that we needed.
A mistrial... we don't know what to do
with that, emotionally.
Can I read you my essay now? Does that work?
- Yeah, you can read while I'm decorating.
So the question is, "Discuss an accomplishment
"or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition
"from childhood to adulthood within your culture,
community, or family."
"With each of my first breaths on this Earth,
"I was deluded of my innocence
"and the purity of my childhood.
"Even despite my mother's strenuous effort
"to protect my sisters and me
"from the cruelty around us...
"despite the strength and resilience
"that we inherited from her,
despite the beautiful memories"...
- Okay, wait, wait, wait.
This essay sounds like you were...
- Can I just get through the...
You didn't even listen to the rest of the essay.
- Can I finish speaking? - Oh, my God.
- It sounds like you were... you have been fighting
all your life... - Mom.
- Makayla, it sounds like
you have been fighting all your life,
like you were born into this struggle,
and you didn't have a childhood...
- Can you listen to the sentence?
- No, you had... you had a very, very good childhood.
- Mom, you didn't listen to the rest of the sentence.
- You were sheltered... okay.
- "Despite her success in creating a facade of safety
for us"... - "Facade of safety"?
Really? "Facade of safety"? - Yes, Mom...
- Well, okay, you're talking... okay.
- Can you let me finish the sentence?
- Go ahead. - Oh, my God.
"Despite the strength and resilience
"that we inherited from her, despite the beautiful
"memories she crafted for us,
"there remain the unflinching reminders
of our bodies' fungibility."
- It's a very well written essay.
- But... - It sounds like you were born
into this struggle,
you didn't have a good childhood,
you didn't live.
I don't like the tone of it, because it just doesn't...
it's not... it's not your reality.
And I think...
I mean, you and I... this has not been
a good year for us at all.
You can roll your eyes all you want.
- I didn't roll my eyes.
- It has not been a good year for us at all,
'cause I grow increasingly more frustrated
with you, and you grow just as frustrated with me.
- I think there are ways that protest can become
counterproductive when there are not
specific policy items that are at play.
And it's really important that,
if that's the case,
that people are being conscious
about the time and energy and cost.
- So we're gonna take...
I think it's about 15 neighborhoods.
- In my opinion, it would be smarter
just to have everybody down in, like, the Inner Harbor.
- They will lock up people who are disrupting
white folks' commercial activity...
especially on New Year's Eve.
- The police ain't gonna... the police ain't
just gonna attack people on New Year's Eve.
- You don't think the police are going to attack people.
Stop there.
- That's not what I meant. So if they see positive...
- And you're giving them more reason...
- No, but if they see positive people,
then they're gonna stand up. - "Positive"?
- What's positive?
Black Lives Matter isn't positive.
Marching with your fist isn't positive to them.
- It is positive to me. - To them, it's not positive.
- But the young people... - So Kwame is on his
Part II'"...
- No, no, I don't want... I'm talking about
going in more like, "Yo, like, come, like,
do this with us." - My thing is the police
are already tripping, so if you go down there
on some Black Lives Matter... you know, whatever, whatever,
you're marching in the streets... they're gonna
be doubly tripping, and whoever else is caught
in the crossfire, if they... if they, like, halfway...
"Hell, yeah, Black Lives Matter,"
and, like, throw some shit at the police,
then you're responsible for them.
And then you got to worry about their safety...
- And then they say it incited a riot.
- I ain't getting arrested.
- If you're marching, you're getting arrested.
- I don't think you realize that you got arrested
for telling people to stay on the sidewalk.
I'm just saying...
you're gonna be responsible for that whole thing.
- Next. - Look it... God, okay.
- Next. - Next!
- So back to what we were doing previously.
- So also, like, I'm saying when the ball drops,
we want to have, like, three to four people
actually down there, throwing the leaflets up.
- And then the pamphlets will simultaneously
being released in Harbor East,
in Fell's Point, Let cetera. - Right.
- If you're gonna do it, do it,
but don't worry about our people seeing the shit.
You need to hit the core,
where all the white people gonna be at.
- We're not doing anything that is hurting us
by attempting to educate our own people.
- I was just saying that it was a waste of time.
A lot of people in the community,
they're not gonna give a fuck.
As soon as they hear "Black Lives Matter,"
they're not gonna care.
All these different movements, and Gilmor is still fucked up.
They don't care about none of that Black Lives Matter
or none of that.
People have to believe, and the thing is,
nobody in Baltimore believes.
- So tonight our crew is going around the city
setting up, like, hood vigils in predominantly white areas.
I have at least some idea what it means
when we say "black lives matter"
because I know what black death feels like.
Like, I had a bracket of, like, six months
where it was like every day, I was trying to figure out
a different way to kill myself.
At the time, when, like, my anxiety and depression
started to, like, manifest itself,
I wasn't an organizer, I was just an advocate,
not even an activist.
I started to feel like, "Well, maybe I'm not worth it.
What change can I really make?"
And so...
I sat in a room, and I was crying hysterically,
and I had all of these pills,
which I had been carrying around with me
for a few weeks by then.
I knew that it wasn't going to be an immediate death
by any means, but it's like, "As long as I die,
"because I can't do anything
with this life that I've been given."
I now know my importance, and I now know my worth.
And so, like, that's why this movement has taken on
so much more meaning for me.
- Happy, happy New Year!
[]
- Here.
Can you pass this down to my friend?
Thank you.
People are like, "Ooh, ah, fuck black lives,
there are fireworks."
- Take that down. - What law is it against?
- I'm just telling you, you have to take it down.
- No, no, you can't... you can't, like, take shit.
- If you don't calm down,
you can be locked up for disorderly conduct.
- They told us to take the banner down.
- Is that not disorderly conduct... you taking my shit?
Give me the law that I'm breaking
by holding a banner.
- Okay.
I don't have an answer, but you can't put that up there.
I will have an answer for you.
- Okay, y'all have a nice day.
- Started from the bottom, now we here.
Baltimore, what's up?
- I'm not a organizer.
I wasn't a protestor before any of this happened.
I'm learning as I go.
So, you know, I went from making
minimum $50,000, $60,000 a year
to, like, now being dead broke.
And I'm still out here trying to front,
to be the face of the people,
like, "No, I'm good. I'm all good."
And, yo... and people on the street, yo,
it ain't no people out there willing
to get... I done been arrested twice,
and that's more times... - All right.
So, at the end of the day, yo, everybody know
what Kwame stand for, so why get locked up anymore,
if people not gonna ride with you?
- But this last time, though... - Let me tell you something.
- I didn't do nothing. - Let me tell you something,
as a mother... and-and 'cause I'm his mother.
My concern for you is that you're 21.
You got a whole lot of living to do.
- Right. - Whoever you praise...
God be willing.
You got a whole lot to live. Don't ruin your future
with that bullshit, keep getting locked up.
I know what you're trying to do,
but I want you to be smart.
Not just for Baltimore,
but for Kwame.
- In the last few hours of 2015,
Baltimore's homicide rate climbed to 344.
- Baltimore's murder rate is the highest
per capita in the city's history,
and the past few days have been very bloody.
- So we got another shooting we're working on the east side.
You know, for the third time in my career,
I find myself leading a police department
through a crisis.
It's a crisis of unrest
and community trust and violence.
- How far is the scene?
- Right where the squad car is.
- All right, I'll go around. - Hey, Sarge.
- Okay, I'll walk... I'll drive around, then.
- Be careful. All right.
- Be careful of what? We're the police.
- The unfettered access to guns in America
is one of the curses of this country.
This country was a much different place
when the Second Amendment was introduced.
- Blood trail goes down the street.
The victim was found facedown.
Looks like he was shot in the back and the head.
No cameras... that work.
At the end of the day, it's someone's son,
someone's daughter, someone's mother,
brother, sister who's been killed,
so this ripple goes out,
and then if we make an arrest,
that suspect... his family's affected by it.
People who live in the neighborhood
are affected by it, obviously, so...
it's just that never-ending cycle that...
I don't know what you do, but something's got to be done.
- Here, let me do this. We're numbered.
- This must be that graze wound they were talking about,
- On the arm? - On the arm.
- Well, we have so many murders from last year.
It's just been a nightmare dealing with it all.
So you're basically sitting here,
waiting for the body to drop.
- Well, a second trial in the death of Freddie Gray
is set to begin this week.
Edward Nero,
unlike Officer William Porter,
is charged with misdemeanors.
- There's also a new push
for more police accountability in Maryland.
- Yeah, the police accountability bill is making
its way through both chambers in the Capitol.
- There are some elements
in that police accountability bill
that both sides have agreed on,
but there's been no agreement
on that civilian to trial board proposal.
- When we first started our work
around the Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights,
one of the central parts of it
that we felt was most important to change
is civilian participation on the trial boards.
These are the boards that determine discipline
for police officers accused of wrongdoing,
because before that, it was exclusively
law enforcement that served on those boards.
I think our success is that we've been able
to drive the conversation so that this issue
of civilians on the trial board
became such a central issue.
- We would not be here today if it were not
for the brothers and sisters in Baltimore
who rose up in an insurrectionary mode
to challenge the police department there.
That uprising is what finally got them to consider
that maybe we should do some legislative initiatives.
- I got to disagree with the transparency point.
I mean, I don't think that giving
a law enforcement officer ten days
to get their story together, to gather information,
to gather facts is transparent.
- If he was committed... if he committed a crime,
he could sit back and say, "I'm not saying anything."
- But the officer has the same right
because he has a Fifth Amendment right,
and if he says no, he then can say,
"Hey, I want a lawyer," just like this citizen.
But the difference is,
this citizen is not going to walk out...
If you think you have probable cause,
he's not gonna walk out this police station.
The officer is. - Yeah, well, you...
- That's the difference. - Now, the thing about it is,
that's an extremely broad stroke again,
because you're talking about all cases
where an officer may have been accused of something.
- So we... I'm a retired homicide detective.
- Yeah... right, yeah, yeah.
- You can't run games around me.
- Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights, in this state,
protects officers when they fail to protect us,
creating barriers to gaining access to information,
prohibiting interrogation.
Even if somebody's blood
has been painted on the pavement,
the officer caught red-handed cannot be demanded
to make a statement for ten whole days.
God created the heavens and the Earth in less.
- There is no problem that the LEOBR works,
has worked, continues to work.
Uh, and...
we feel remiss to be here today.
- I was a bit taken aback by your initial comment.
I don't know what the problem is, exactly,
but it's very clear, I think, to virtually everybody,
there is a problem.
- I've heard very clearly from my constituents.
They feel that officers are playing
by a different set of rules.
- We know that we can't honestly
have community policing
if we don't have community members
have-have an ability to be engaged
in the process at every level.
- You know, I think a lot of the conversation
has been around community-police relations.
And I think this framework is a problematic framework
in thinking about what the issue is,
because we're not talking about community-police relations.
We're talking about the ability for civilians to-to work
collaboratively, on an equal playing field,
in the industry of law enforcement.
And citizens have a right to be able to have
substantive say in the nature of how
law enforcement's administered in their communities.
- We don't need that.
- We're opposed to citizens judging police officers
in ba... on a basis of misconduct.
Understanding the law is not the issue.
It's understanding the job.
- What happened, cuzzo? - Uh, a car had, um...
a car sped the van, a nigga jumped out, shot it up.
- Melvin Russell is the first and only cop
I have ever trusted.
He asked me if I could do anything
to help him with the murder rate.
I'm like, "I can't do the police's job for them,
"but what I can do is keep
"the people who haven't done anything
out of the line of fire."
- Okay, got it.
Belmont and Bloomingdale.
- All right. - You know, that crew?
Here, take it with you. Just don't let anybody...
Just put it in your pocket. - Uh-huh.
- Hey, cuzzo!
If I can get the police to lay off of my boys...
all of them... and get these dudes to, um...
put their guns down. The murder rate goes down,
more jobs are created. A lot of things happen.
- So good afternoon, family. Let me just say this:
I am very excited about this component
of what we do in the Community Collaboration Division, right?
And that is being the bridge
between the ex-offender
and the jobs that are out there.
And so our next stop is in West Baltimore,
and we're gonna set up shop
in that Sandtown-Winchester, Gilmor community.
- One city. - One purpose.
- One city! - One purpose!
One purpose.
We're starting a job program around the neighborhood
for convicted felons,
at-risk youth, gang-affiliated,
just got out of jail... all of that.
- Okay. - We're trying to plug
dudes back in,
but whoever you see in the program
that's interested in going... remember, felons...
mostly the felons, people trying to get some work...
- Oh, you know I got five of those.
- Yeah, so you know who I'm talking about.
Contrary to popular belief, man, like,
I get off of work at 4:00.
Me and the brother be out doing this
till, like, 11:30, 12:00 at night sometimes,
on a daily basis. - We do this on the daily!
- A lot of people think this is my actual job,
so...
- This is not a game. This is not for anybody
trying to try another system and still have one foot
out there and one foot in here.
This is for those that are serious.
- You're going to be trained at something
that most people have to go to school
five and six years for,
'cause nobody... outside of us... believes in us.
- Decisive "not guilty" verdict
in the high-profile trial of Officer Edward Nero.
Tonight, Officer Nero is a free man,
after a judge cleared him of all charges
in the arrest and subsequent death
of Freddie Gray.
- The judge wouldn't even convict him
on misdemeanor charges.
And I felt as though
he's not gonna convict them anyway,
because he's one of them.
- There are a lot of people here
on the streets that are quite upset
with this acquittal... quite upset that, as of now,
nobody has been punished for the death of Freddie Gray.
- Motherfuckers want to gather around here because
a man was found not guilty, man.
Get the fuck out of here, man. - There's a whole city
full of fucking shit going on right now,
and y'all on this corner? - Right!
- Somebody getting killed, ran the fuck over...
that's where the news at.
Ain't shit happening over here.
There's nothing happening here.
As long as y'all here in this capacity,
you are bringing the wrong kind of attention.
That's my job. You're welcome.
- I'm showing you that it's not over.
It's a simple...
No justice, no peace!
Jail killer police!
No justice, no peace!
- Whose streets? - Our streets!
- Whose city? - Our city!
- Whose streets? - Our streets!
- The protest makes an impact in the community,
but there are no... I feel like there's no concrete strategy
attached to it. Like, the visual is there.
People are being engaged in a political process,
but that political process isn't being used
to anything greater than just this:
People standing on a corner.
- Like, this type of environment is what, like...
like, it lets a lot of people know that that's not right,
'cause people are just numb to it, so they don't...
- No, it does something. I'm just saying
it's not the most productive option.
This protest is gonna happen, it's gonna disperse,
and that's gonna be it.
The work is so hard because a lot of people expect
all of these organizers to be the heroes and the leaders
who are going to lead us out of this, right?
And it's like, we need to be shutting that narrative down
as well, because it's like...
that whole leadership complex is both really troubling
for the person who is told that they need to
be the leader, but it's also troubling for the community,
because it places all of the responsibility
on one person, when it needs to be
the collective effort.
Activism, as a young person,
has just been so draining for me.
Um... and so, just, like,
my whole being needs healing
and I just need a break, really.
- What's the format of the meeting?
Are we eating and then talking?
- Something like that.
- Come and eat.
- So, Makayla, you called the family meeting.
- Mm-hmm. - Do tell.
- Okay, so, like, I've been thinking
that I want to take a gap year after I graduate.
Period. - No.
Well, that's the end
of the meeting.
- You have been so busy that you can't even
get it together. I think what our concern is,
one gap year may end up being ten gap years.
- I-I feel a bit conflicted,
because it's not what I had planned for you.
- Mm-hmm. - But more importantly,
it's not what I thought you had planned for you.
- Right. - The gap year...
can be productive, or it can be destructive,
depending on how you utilize your time,
because if you're going to utilize your time
doing everything for everybody but Makayla...
- But, like, I'm going to make my checkpoints known
to the people in this room, and so,
a part of this meeting is, like...
me asking that you all serve as, like,
the people who will hold me accountable to that.
- If you feel honest within yourself
that you're taking this year off to actually
do stuff to get better within yourself...
- Mm-hmm. - Then I'm all for it.
- 'Cause you're gonna do what you want to do anyway,
so, God bless you.
I knew you had skills
when you called the police on your mother.
- Let's see... she was about two or three.
I went downstairs, and she was upstairs,
watching television, and the phone rang,
and I answered it. And I said, "Hello?"
And they said, "Did someone call 911?"
I said no. So I went upstairs,
and I said, "Did you use the phone?"
She said, "Yes, ma'am."
I said, "Who did you call?"
She said, "You said if someone hurt me,
to call 911"...
She said...
she said, "You hurt me when you were combing my hair"...
"So I called 911."
Three years old, I should have known
there would be hell to pay, raising this girl.
- Look, justice is justice.
- No justice, no peace.
"So I called 911."
- It's weird... you know, this is my first trial.
Wish that, uh...
my family was, like, more supportive.
So I contacted the ACLU, 'cause I didn't have the money
to pay for my own private attorney this time.
Not a good judge to go for...
Which is why I, like, started freaking out,
came outside to smoke a cigarette.
The entire time we had this trial,
no group paid my bills.
No group paid my bail funds.
No group helped me out... no activist group.
All right, wish me luck. - Good luck, brother.
- So, you guys have heard, uh, the-the verdict.
The judge found our client, Mr. Rosebrough,
not guilty of three counts and guilty of one count.
We totally disagree with the court's decision
that he is guilty of anything.
- Well, the trial for one of the six officers
involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray
starts today in Baltimore.
- Officer Caesar Goodson faces
second-degree depraved-heart murder charges
and several others.
- It's hard to feel like a woman in this, um...
in this job sometimes.
Especially trying to be beautiful at all.
You try to take your emotions out of a case,
but it's impossible.
I'm always nervous going into a trial.
Um... testimony is one of the most stressful times
in your career, because everything,
at that point, falls on you.
I don't want you to be worried about what...
what other people are gonna say,
what other people are gonna think, you know...
I'm gonna be your mom forever, and what people out there think
doesn't even matter. - Okay.
- Muah.
Bye.
Just feeling anxious about...
about going in there, and it's such a huge moment
for-for everyone.
You know, I've gotten death threats,
and... people threatening to hurt my kids.
As the lead detective in the case,
my job was to go back over everything,
as a homicide investigator, with a fine-tooth comb.
And I guess that's why I felt so gut-wrenchingly,
you know, torn when the charges were brought,
because I know every detail of the case.
It was a freak accident.
I've been trying to pull up on my phone...
I can't get... the thing is not coming up.
- ...30 juveniles
along Pratt Street, towards the subway.
- Not guilty!
Not guilty!
- Oh, God... God, I've missed it.
Oh, damn it. Damn it... oh, my...
I'll be on it.
- Not guilty on all. - Oh!
- ...arrest and death of Freddie Gray.
- We continue to follow breaking news
of the trial of Officer Caesar Goodson,
where he was just acquitted on seven charges.
- Yes! - He was one of six officers
charged in connection with the arrest
and death of Freddie Gray. - Thank God.
- He has been found not guilty on all charges.
It's the signal up here,
'cause mine's not working right now.
The one in the...
- Could people have been more vigilant in the transport
and everything? Definitely.
Could people have been paying more attention?
Definitely. But as far as...
across the country, police brutality
and stuff... this wasn't the case.
- Just look at all of this bullshit.
In fact...
This is bullshit.
- The judge...
- Come on! - Who is within his right,
has made it clear that he doesn't agree
with the state's theory of the case
and does not believe that any of the actions
or inactions of these officers
rise to the level of criminality.
We do not believe that Freddie Gray killed himself.
However, after much thought and prayer,
it has become clear to me that, without being able
to work with an independent investigatory agency
from the very start, without real substantive
reforms to the current criminal justice system,
we could try this case 100 times...
and cases just like it... and we would still
end up with the same result.
- Yes, Marilyn! - Accordingly,
I have decided not to proceed on the cases
against Officer Garrett, Sergeant Alisha White,
or to re-litigate the case against William Porter.
- We have no business in this place.
It's time to leave.
It is time to leave and take
all of our beautiful creations with us.
It is time to sue these motherfuckers
for the appropriation of everything cool,
from fucking cornrows to rap music... fuck it,
every form of popular music on planet Earth
was built by us, so sue they ass for it,
get the money, and get the fuck out of here.
Take the light bulbs with you, 'cause we...
you know, we did that too.
And the traffic light, we did that too.
And peanut butter, and rope. This shit is either gonna turn
really, really, really, really, really, really,
really, really bad really fast...
or it's gonna be hundreds of years
of the same and, either way, I fucking refuse.
- The Justice Department has released
a scathing report on the Baltimore Police Department
which found routine discrimination
towards African Americans,
rampant use of excessive force...
all without proper accountability
for misconduct.
- Representatives from the Department of Justice
are here and they are listening.
If you haven't read the report,
you must read the report.
Why? Because I've read
a few of these, and this is
pretty much the worst I've ever read.
- One gentleman, who's over 50 years old,
African American, was stopped more than 30 times
during the five-year period that we looked at.
That makes us very concerned that those stops were not
on the basis of reasonable suspicion,
but instead were being done under unconstitutional grounds.
We want the police and the community to work together,
and we need to try and start rebuilding that relationship.
- The last time I checked,
the DOJ is a part of the system.
It's the DOJ, it's the FOP,
and it's our elected officials,
and we as citizens are not there at the table
as that thing is being negotiated.
- My suggestion for solutions to the DOJ is that
none of these reforms and band-aids that are gonna
happen should give more money
to the Baltimore City Police Department.
- Let me say this:
I'm begging you to work with this process.
This is the only one we got.
- We met with you, Congressman.
We told you what was going on in this city.
People in this room should be ashamed of yourself!
- 'Cause we're here tonight giving y'all
our big, fat, "I told you so's."
So go back and hold all of these entities accountable,
because you cannot do it just with the police.
- The law enforcement, police department...
we shoulder all the woes of society.
So I think when the rest of government
and the rest of society realizes their role
in public safety... that's where housing,
employment, education comes into play...
'cause if folks are waiting for the police departments
of America to do it, they're gonna be out of luck.
- I'm encouraged.
I'm encouraged about Baltimore.
Um... there's been a great awakening,
especially with the DOJ coming in.
This will sound very odd,
but it almost took this uprising
to wake us up.
- I won't say nothing came out of this.
There's changes in the police force.
New protocol was made
all because of the death of Freddie.
So I don't think his death was a waste.
I think Freddie was more so a martyr.
- It's always hard for me to say
that Freddie Gray gave me a platform
to do anything.
- No justice, no peace!
- But also, the Baltimore uprising
gave me space to explore my politics,
and I think it did that for a lot of people.
And I think it produced a lot of healing.
- It's not about what you do with your life,
but it's about the legacy that you leave.
Freddie Gray was a dope boy. He had lead paint poisoning.
But Freddie Gray sparked a movement
and a radicalization,
and forced young people into the streets.
So Freddie will always be remembered
as somebody that sparked an uprising
inside of our minds,
and I think that's the most powerful thing
that we can do... is keep fighting for that.
- ♪ We have seen and lost young warriors ♪
♪ Never thought that we'd be here ♪
♪ But I'm encouraged by your strength and power ♪
♪ Yeah, you show up and you still care ♪
♪ I'm amazed by all your courage, I am ♪
♪ I feel your prayers when I am floating away ♪
♪ Many communities have come together with me ♪
♪ With only unity, peace, and equality ♪
- ♪ Many communities have come together ♪
♪ Things aren't the same, I've seen you cry ♪
♪ The sun will shine in your eyes ♪
♪ I'm here to make things better ♪
♪ I'm here to be your shelter ♪
♪ Many communities who come... ♪