Since the August 2014 murder of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, incidents of police terrorism and grassroots opposition to that terrorism—also known as unrest—have been visually/digitally documented more than ever before. Those images have gone viral, spreading across the digital and terrestrial terrain at a pace and distance like none before. Such coverage can serve to provide a deeper understanding of complex issues and characters, as well as more substantive glimpses into everyday peoples’ lives. The Baltimore Sun’s recent query on “the faces of Baltimore’s unrest” in the wake of Freddie Gray’s April 2015 death at the hands of police attempts to illustrate this point.
Gray died on April 19, 2015, after being arrested by police. The police account of the encounter states that Gray ran from officers after making eye contact with them seven days earlier on April 12; Gray was pursued and found to have a small knife on his person. Police admit that Gray did not resist arrest, but the story of how his injuries occurred prior to his police van ride to a precinct have yet to be adequately explained: Gray appears limp and shouts out in pain as he is carried to the van according to video shot by bystanders. He would later die from severe injuries to his spinal cord, including three fractured vertebrae.
The Sun sought to update readers on what has happened to various individuals that caught the nation’s eye thanks to visual/digital documentation, as well as the parts they played unrelated to that phenomenon. Anthony Batts, for example, former police commissioner of Baltimore, was fired from his position by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake in July after an investigation found that Batt’s plan to contain the unrest was to allow it to happen. According to the Sun, Batts has purchased a home in a gated community overlooking a golf course in Florida under a fictitious name. Mayor Rawlings-Blake, who also took a lot of criticism for her leadership during the unrest, made the decision to not seek re-election for her office in the upcoming 2016 election.
Some of those captured visually during the unrest were charged with various crimes; some of have had their charges dismissed while others face pending trials. Many who were considered everyday heroes before the unrest have continued to work for a better Baltimore, regardless of the presence of cameras and digital recorders.
The most infamous of those connected with the unrest would be the six police officers ultimately charged in the death of Freddie Gray: Lt. Brian Rice, Sgt. Alicia White, and Officers William Porter, Caesar Goodson, Edward Nero, and Garrett Miller. The first of the criminal trials of those officers, that of William Porter, ended in a hung jury in December of 2015. The trial of Edward Nero is scheduled to happen in May of this year.