Maryland governor sends state troopers as protests mount over police murder of Freddie Gray
By
Barry Grey
25 April 2015
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced Thursday he would dispatch
32 state troopers to Baltimore in advance of what is expected to be a
large protest Saturday against the police killing of 25-year-old Freddie
Gray. Protests have been held daily since Gray died on April 19, seven
days after his spinal cord was nearly severed while he was in police
custody.
Gray, who was unarmed, was arrested for the “crime” of
making eye contact with a Baltimore cop and, according to the police,
running away. A bystander video showed a group of police officers
loading Gray, who was obviously injured and screaming in pain, into a
small steel cage in the back of a police van.
Eyewitnesses said
that, prior to the events captured in the video, the police contorted
Gray’s body, forcing his heels onto his back. One bystander said the
young man was “folded up like he was… a piece of origami.”
