While it's not surprising that the lawyers for the six officers accused of killing Freddie Gray
want their trial moved out of Baltimore, some of the rationale they gave is highly problematic.
In essence, the lawyers are claiming that the entire city of Baltimore is incapable of making an ethical judgment about the officers in a trial because they've been exposed to bad information about them. Here's their statement:
"Based on the relative size and characteristics of Baltimore City, the prejudicial information that has penetrated every form of online, printed and broadcast media, and the short time between the alleged crimes and the trial(s), the presumption of prejudice prevents the Officers in this case from receiving fair trials," the attorneys wrote.
Let's flip this statement, though, and consider how police insist that their views of African Americans, fueled by a constant barrage of negative information, never, ever, in the history of the world, has an impact on how they carry out their jobs.
In essence, with this filing, the police are claiming that they are the only people in Baltimore able to perpetually separate the negative information they digest from the life and death judgments they are forced to make on a daily basis. We'd be hard-pressed to find many, if any, officers in Baltimore willing to admit that negative media on African Americans has affected how they go about policing African Americans.
Yet, they want to move one of the most important trials in the history of the city to a far off suburb because they don't feel confident that average men and women are capable of making smart judgments for themselves?
I pass. This trial needs to stay in Baltimore. It can be fair there.