Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) on Friday reminded Balitmore that the police need the community and the community needs the police in an impassioned speech celebrating the prosecution of six officers in the death of Freddie Gray.
Twenty-five-year old Gray died of injuries sustained while in police custody. On Friday, Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced that she would be bringing charges against the police involved in Gray’s arrest.
Cummings lauded Mosby’s character and said he would have honored any decision she’d made, but rejoiced that he felt Gray had been “seen.”
“Did anybody see this man?” Cummings asked. “Did they see this man who was a mother’s child? Did they see this man who was just trying to get through life? Did they see him as a human being? And I have come here today to thank god that Marilyn Mosby and her team saw him, saw him.”
“The process has started.That’s the main thing, the process has started,” Cummings continued.
Cummings also addressed the sense of desperation that many feel when they believe the system isn’t there to help them.
“When I thought about Freddie, I could not help but think about my own childhood,” Cummings said. “And I looked at him in that casket, and I said to myself, here was a young man just trying to exist, trying to exist. So hopefully now with this, our city can begin to heal, to come together, policemen will look and women will look at their jobs from a different stand-point and realize that they are here to protect and serve and by the way, and that our community must respect them but it’s got to be a mutual respect thing.”
“The police need us as a community and we need them,” Cummings said in closing.
Amen.
He has been an amazing presence through this entire week. Bless you, Rep. Cummings, you did your community proud.
Something’s happenin’ here…
What it is is very clear…
There’s cop with a gun over there
Tellin’ blacks they better beware
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I cannot put into words how much it hurts me to know people–with whom we’ve entrusted our safety–can actually do that to another human being, and another human being who did nothing to provoke any kind of mistreatment.
May Freddie Gray rest in peace. I sincerely hope those responsible are put in prison–in the general population–for the remainder of their natural lives. Please, let their be real justice this time. Thank you.
If it’s just a few bad cops, what are the odds against these six all being together at one time? Where was the one good cop that needed to step in and stop this? Where are the cops that will say no, our union shouldn’t defend these six?