THE DEMOCRAT PARTY SHOULD BE RENAMED THE DEMAGOGUE PARTY

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake dawdled while Baltimore burned, let thugs run amok, then apologized for calling them "thugs." She worked harder to protect her image than to protect the law abiding.

I didn’t think it possible for a public official to demonstrate greater unfitness for office. I was wrong.

States Attorney Marilyn Mosby filed criminal charges against six Baltimore police officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray, 25, who suffered a severe spinal injury while being transported in a police van.

Roughly half of those arrested during a week of rioting were released without being charged.

Mr. Gray, who had an extensive criminal record, fled after making eye contact with a bike patrol consisting of Lt. Bryan Rice and Officers Garrett Miller and Edward Nero. He was arrested after officers found a folding knife in his pants pocket.

Possession of a switchblade is a crime under Maryland law, punishable by up to 3 years in prison. Mr. Gray’s folding knife was legal, Ms. Mosby said. It would be if the blade has to be put in place manually. But the police report describes Mr. Gray’s knife as "spring-assisted."

The officers handcuffed Mr. Gray, shackled his legs and loaded him into the van, but did not fasten his seat belt. Lt. Rice is charged with involuntary manslaughter. Officers Miller and Nero are charged with second degree assault.

Officer Caesar Goodson Jr., who drove the van, is charged with second degree murder. Officer William Porter and Sgt. Alicia White, who checked on Mr. Gray after his injury but didn’t get him medical assistance, are charged with involuntary manslaughter.

The charges are excessive, unsupported by evidence, likely will be dismissed, said liberal law professors Alan Dershowitz of Harvard and John Banzhaf of George Washington University.

The evidence indicates negligence, so attorney Billy Murphy, who represents Mr. Gray’s family in a wrongful death suit, may win a megabuck settlement from the city. But nothing indicates the officers intended to harm Freddie Gray.

Customarily, indictments aren’t issued until a grand jury finds the prosecutor has enough evidence to justify them. Because they hear only what the prosecutor wants them to hear, grand juries almost always approve indictments. But sometimes they don’t. By bypassing the grand jury, Ms. Mosby eliminated the risk it would find her evidence insufficient.

"To the people of Baltimore and demonstrators across America, I heard your call for ‘No Justice, No peace,’" Ms. Mosby said when she announced the indictments.

That statement undermines the rule of law, said attorney Jack Marshall, president of ProEthics, Ltd.

"Prosecutors must not ‘hear’ demands that a citizen be prosecuted," he said. They are ethically obligated to do what the evidence dictates.

The indicted cops are being "thrown like red meat" to satisfy an angry mob, said Milwaukee County (Wis) Sheriff David Clarke, a Democrat who is black.

The Gray family attorney was a major contributor to her campaign, so Ms. Mosby should have recused herself, said the Fraternal Order of Police.

Her marriage to Baltimore City Councilman Nick Mosby – who told police to back off so looters "will have space to loot" – is also a conflict of interest, Mr. Marshall said.

Demagogues like the Mosbys want to make what happened in Baltimore all about race. It isn’t. Three of the indicted officers are black. So are the police chief and his deputy. So is the mayor.

If Baltimore becomes the next Detroit, it’ll be because the city’s political leaders – most of whom are black, all of whom are Democrats – kowtowed to the mob.

Leftist politics – not white racism – is killing our cities.

Half a century ago, when black poverty was greater, there was much less violent crime in black communities, noted economist Thomas Sowell, who is black.

 "You cannot take any people, of any color, and exempt them from the requirements of civilization – including work, behavioral standards, personal responsibility, and all the other basic things that the clever intelligentsia disdain – without ruinous consequences to them and to society at large," he said.

If the Democrat Party had a pictogram of integrity – which it doesn’t – it would rename itself the Demagogue Party.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret, and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force during the Reagan Administration.  He is the national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

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