OPINION: Baltimore charged six officers in the death of Freddie Gray, and you’re damn right the protests helped

Photo: Fibonacci Blue

Written by Dallas Hyland

This past week, the City of Baltimore brought forth charges ranging from illegal arrest and detainment to homicide against the six officers involved in the arrest, transport, and subsequent death of Freddie Gray.

To say that this was a direct result of the protests and riots that occurred preceding the announcement of the charges might be presumptuous, as the special prosecutor in the case, Marilyn J. Mosby, is reported to have run on a platform of strong police reform.

To say the protests and riots had nothing to do with it is equally a stretch.

So that leaves us with some discussions to be had.

But let’s address at the outset a couple of misnomers being tossed around.

The first is the appeal to empathy for the poor underappreciated police officers of our country. The ones who put their lives on the line each time they go to work and sacrifice relentlessly to serve and protect the citizens of our great land.

To them, we can all collectively say “thank you.” You signed up for a tough, underappreciated job, and in spite of the heavy scrutiny that appropriately accompanies the power you are entrusted with, you carry yourselves in a manner befitting the principles of liberty in this land.

The officers in Baltimore appear to have besmirched your good name and reputation. And in so doing, they have diminished the public’s trust in all of you. We thank you for understanding and applaud you for holding their feet to the same fire you would anyone else in a similar circumstance. If the allegations of false arrest, false imprisonment, assault, and homicide prove true in a court of law, we expect you will mourn the day this travesty happened and bust your ass to earn the trust and respect of the citizens you serve and protect.

The second is the absurdity of those who decried the protesters, even the violent idiots among them, who out of the same mouths supported the vigilante mobs that stood off with the federal government in Bunkerville and Blanding last year.

In the case of deadbeat welfare rancher Cliven Bundy, he was given ample time, almost two decades to come into compliance with the law and pay his grazing fees. He declared he did not recognize the government’s authority inspite of federally adjudicated orders, led a band of pseudo-military seditionists into a standoff where, in the name of public safety, the Feds opted to stand down (much like Baltimore) and come back and serve justice another day.

The results of that are beginning to take root as last week, organizer and proponent of federal government inauthenticity, Phil Lyman, was charged with conspiracy.

So the underlying theme here, however, is the question of civil disobedience and its time, its place, and its effectiveness.

In the case of Bunkerville, one is hard-pressed not to argue that the Feds were sent packing with tails tucked, leaving the rest of us to wonder if that is how it will now be in the future: that mobs of angry, violent, and sometimes armed protesters will dictate the decisions of law makers.

But here is the crux I think. Is the cause just?

In the case of Bundy, he was clearly a law violating citizen who rallied people to come to his aid and protect him from facing a government enforcing current laws on the books as well as adjudicated orders. It was separatism they were advocating ultimately, and it was seditious.

In the case of Freddie Gray, the law violators that day were the police, i.e. the government. He did not rally people to his side; he was dead. It was his egregious death and the fear that yet again, a law enforcement agency would circle the wagons and investigate their own in house leaving the community further embattled in a fear of the absence of justice.

I do not support the looting and the stealing anymore than I support idiot Posse Comitatus posers with rifles trained on federal agents.

But I do support holding law enforcement to the same, if not a higher standard of ethical behavior as the rest of us. You break the law in the name of enforcing it, buck up cup cake, you will answer to the people for it, and you damn well should.

See you out there.

Dallas Hyland is a freelance writer, award-winning photographer, and documentary filmmaker with three films currently under his belt. The opinion editor of The Independent, Hyland’s investigative journalism and opinion columns have ranged in topics from local political and environmental issues, to drug trafficking in Utah, as well as the international front, covering issues such as human trafficking in Colombia. On his rare off-days, he can be found with his family and friends exploring the pristine outdoors. Listen to him live as a regular guest co-host on the Perspectives talk show on Fox News 1450 AM 93.1 FM in southern Utah.