News of the day

Hung jury in first Baltimore police trial for Freddie Gray's death....queue the hooligans. Time to go Christmas "shopping" for big screen TV's and hair extensions.

Edited by rushfan4 - December 16 2015 at 15:26

rushfan4 wrote: Hung jury in first Baltimore police trial for Freddie Gray's death....queue the hooligans. Time to go Christmas "shopping" for big screen TV's and hair extensions.

^  I don't know if you've seen many televised riots but I've seen two men carrying a sofa down the street.

Equality 7-2521 wrote: I don't understand how a hung trial is declared after only three days of deliberations. It's disgusting and I have no faith in these sham trials to do anything close to justice for Gray and his family.

Exactly. Though of course I don't condone the tv-not-buying and the rioting, the incredible injustice of this case should be an even major immediate concern. Another cop who will have used their license to kill effectively. 

Justice is a lofty ideal.

Equality 7-2521 wrote: The Dark Elf wrote: Equality 7-2521 wrote: I don't understand how a hung trial is declared after only three days of deliberations. It's disgusting and I have no faith in these sham trials to do anything close to justice for Gray and his family. It is called "reasonable doubt". The prosecutors were unable to prove that Porter was guilty, and the whole jury could not agree and was hopelessly deadlocked, obviously. I am unsure how you come up with the idea that it was a "sham" trial. And since there is a gag order on the jury, we won't know how many jurors felt the cop was not guilty or guilty until all the trials are complete.   Personally, I have to tip my cap to the jury, who didn't simply buckle to pressure and convict because of a howling, ignorant mob.   I call them shams because of the unduly high allowance of self-evidently criminal activity wrapped up in the notion of officers acting reasonably and because of a jury's proclivity to unilaterally support and trust the word of a police offer. Further I thought it was clear that I don't understand how a mistrial could be declared without at least a week of deliberations; this is rather unusual.

Edited by The Dark Elf - December 16 2015 at 20:15

Is the relative calm due to the fact that Porter and two other cops were African-americans? My goodness, if the first charged would have been a good country white boy?  

The Dark Elf wrote:   Would it make you feel better if the jurors sat around for five days...seven days...ten days? What's the magic number if jurors are unwilling to agree to a verdict? Does penalizing people with jobs, forcing them to sit around for days while they receive whatever pittance the court pays ($25 per day in Maryland) actually change anyone's minds that have been made up the first, second or third day of deliberation?

I presume it must since this is the typical timeline afforded. Of course there is no magic number, but the non-existence of a firm line between too little and too much time doesn't imply that one cannot ever identify when a length has landed in one of those two zones. By the logic you're trying to throw at me we needn't have any deliberation time, just take a vote immediately after closing arguments have been made and then call it a case.

^  People making general statements like "a murderous police force", insinuating that most cops are bad, is also troubling. 

Big news today in the footie world is the sacking of "The Special One", Jose from Chelski. An absolute certainty, given the depths to which they have fallen this season.

Funnily enough, I have been in London this week with work, and the accountant I was dealing with has family connections with Chelsea. He said that the rot started with the treatment of the nice female doctor who Jose took exception to earlier this season. Basically, the story is that two high profile players were having, ahem, Ugandan discussions with said doctor, and Jose was not happy about it, and created the issue which led to her leaving. Said players were, understandably, not happy, and this all led to him losing the dressing room.

Of such things are major news stories made!.

Ah well. Up the Arsenal.