Running from cops

Speaker 4:

We need shields down here. We’re getting creamed.

Speaker 2:

The violence started after the death of Freddie Gray, the 25 year old man who made eye contact with a police officer and took off running. A group of cops pursued him, arrested him for carrying a knife and loaded him into a police van. There, he sustained spinal injuries that killed him. Afterwards, unrest broke out in parts of the city. It’s root causes were decades in the making, but lots of people also asked, “Why did Freddie Gray run in the first place?”

Speaker 8:

You seen like a whole army of people just at every store, taking everything.

Speaker 2:

The evening after Freddie Gray’s funeral, at this corner, known as Penn North, police at first, largely hung back as people threw bottles, sacked stores, and burned empty police cars. Then, the fire trucks started arriving.

Mary :

At Penn North that evening, there was this iconic image, an eerie photo that made headlines worldwide. In the middle of a smoky intersection, a young man on a bike wearing a gas mask facing off against a line of riot cops. All kinds of people who were out at the intersection that day protesting or documenting or just watching noticed the guy on the bike raising one fist in the air.

Speaker 14:

When I think of this area, when I think of Penn and North when I think of the riots, I think of him with the gas mask riding around on the bike.

CNN Reporter:

How far is this gonna go?

Mary :

The guy in the red and gray hoodie had poked the hose twice with a pocket knife.

Greg:

You had the Muslim brothers creating a line between the police. You had young kids on bikes, you had women crying, you had young guys cussing out police and throwing bottles, and when you sit back and just look it’s just like, “Wow.” You know? This is my city letting the world know that we understand what’s going on with us and we ain’t standing for it.

Mary :

Greg is from Baltimore. He grew up in a rough part of town with his two sisters, sometimes his dad who was in and out of prison, and rarely his mom who was in and out of prison and addicted to heroin.

Mary :

The kids relied on each other, sometimes went hungry. But Greg was bright, focused, stayed out of trouble. He became a basketball star.

Greg:

At some point you feel defeated, you feel beaten like I can’t get over a hump. I am the first person in my family to go to college, but I don’t have anybody in my family who can relate and understand that, “Now I need you more than ever.”

Greg:

I researched the number of people killed in my city and I find out that I was born in the year that had the most murders in Baltimore, ’93.

Greg:

So, when you find that, the familiarity between yourself and the situation was almost Methodist.

Mary :

That evening in 2015 as water rained down, strangers hugged and high-fived Greg and he did a little happy dance that was caught on camera. Then he hung around the intersection for hours having intense conversations with strangers about how to fix Baltimore. He’d taken a risk and it appeared he’d gotten away with it. Nobody had gotten hurt. Deputy Fire Chief Carl Zimmerman was in charge of the fire ground at Penn and North that day. Afterward he talked to me about what Greg had done.

Carl:

Why would you put a hole in the hose? He had no idea what the results of his actions could be. When you take away that water supply, all you get is fire.

Mary :

On his way home that night, craving a smoke, Greg spotted a looted 7-11 with its glass …

Mary Wiltenburg:

I asked him why he ran.

Greg:

You know what I mean? If you ain’t, just relax and get ready for your peanut butter sandwich.

Male:

Well, eventually the defense will call the defended William Porter to the stand-

Protestor:

The cops are getting off scot-free. The two guys, who beat up Freddie Gray, they could get convicted and not go to jail for as long as he would go for a freaking water hose. Get the hell out of here.

Philip Seldon:

– because Mr. Butler provided an alias name, provided an alias date of birth, an alias address. So, that, coupled with the fact that he actually fled from law enforcement gives the idea that he actually had a consciousness of guilt associated with his conduct.

Lucius Outlaw:

This was a day where there was protests, rioting, and looting because a young, black man was put in handcuffs and put into the back of a van, and then found dead. For me and him, seeing a police officer is a natural instinct, even me, today, law degree, college. Even, today, my natural instinct is to turn and go the other way, because you don’t know what happens.

Al Letson:

Mary Wiltenburg brought us Greg’s story. Later this hour, we’ll hear how it ends. The Justice Department put out a report on their investigation into the Baltimore Police Department, suggesting that young, black me may have good reason to run for their lives, when approached Baltimore cops. When we come back, a story of another man, who ran and lost his life. You’re listening to Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX.

Amy Walters:

Hey, there. Amy Walters here. Every week at Reveal, produces and reporters like myself get together to listen to podcasts over lunch. We call it Listening Club. We’re an investigative reporting show, so we love great story telling and, also, uncover something. So, we put together a playlist of some of the episodes we’ve been paying special attention to, including a few of our own. Check it out! You can be part of our club. Go to radiopublic.com/revealclub.

Al Letson:

From the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX this is Reveal. I’m Al Letson. After the protest following Freddie Gray’s death two years ago, the Justice Department investigated Baltimore’s police department. One of the main problems they found was the sheer number of times police chased African Americans in poor neighborhoods. Almost 20 years ago, the Supreme Court said that merely running from the police in a high crime neighborhood is suspicious behavior, and police have the right to pursue them. Reporter Mary Rose Madden covers the police for WYPR in Baltimore. She stumbled on a case about another man, who like Freddie Gray, ran from the police, but unlike Gray his death got almost no attention when it happened.

Mary R. Madden:

Black male, white T-shirt. That’s the description the police called in. Later they’d report that Jay was holding his arm tightly against his body, which to them signaled he was concealing a gun. Did Jay know they were cops? Accounts differ about whether or not they were in plain clothes or uniform, but it might not have mattered, even if he knew they were cops. It’s not uncommon for black men in Baltimore to take off running, when the police start for them, and Jay’d had some brushes with the law in the past.

Mary R. Madden:

Jay was running through streets and alleys. Finally, he reached this overpass bordered by this chain link fence.

Mary R. Madden:

Precious found the spare key, jumped in the car, and followed police sirens and helicopters to the bridge.

Mary R. Madden:

Jay had fallen from the fence he was clinging to and was hit by a car.

Mary R. Madden:

So, how did Jay end up dead? And what happened in the minutes before he fell into the highway? The radio dispatches that day tell only part of the story. I went to see Jay’s father.

Mary R. Madden:

Mr. Cook and I sat together at the dining room table. He flipped through the manila envelopes he’d carefully kept for ten years.

John Cook III:

As I went up Fulton Avenue, I saw some police activity. I had no idea it was about my son, who had just passed away. And when I got to the house, Precious informed me, and shortly thereafter my wife came up-

Mr. Cook:

Couldn’t even get an incident report because they kept on stalling me with the, “Well, we’re still working on it. We haven’t completed it yet.”

Speaker 2:

The Cooks hired a lawyer who’d been recommended by a relative.

Albiona:

When I think back to what happened to Mr. Cook, sometimes it gets me upset.

Speaker 2:

The years the Cook family had spent trying to get answers on their own had put them dangerously close to the three year mark when the statute of limitations would run out. Albiona had to act quickly, but he didn’t have much to go on. First, he sent out a private investigator. He found two witnesses who said they saw what happened that day at the fence. The Baltimore Police had finally given the Cook family the incident report from August 2007. It said, “Officer Dwayne Green was in the area when he noticed an individual who he suspected was in possession of a hand gun. A light foot pursuit in suit.” With just the two witnesses and the police report, Albiona filed a suit. It claimed that Jays constitutional rights were violated starting when the police first spotted Jay in the alley and chased him.

Albiona:

I mean, this said that the way he appeared, it looked like he might have had a weapon on him. They didn’t say they saw a weapon. That stop in of itself was racially motivated and a violation of his constitutional rights.

Albiona:

If you’re looking at the police department where they have a custom and practice of just stopping and frisking black people, more than 80% of that stop and frisk does not, in fact, result in an arrest. That is discriminatory stop and frisk. It is racial profile, which is part of my client’s case. I’m asking them to produce information that might support that claim.

Speaker 2:

The police said that documents about the departments policies and procedures were privileged, but they said they would provide the files relating to Jay’s death. The judge quickly rule. He said the police, “shouldn’t be put to the expense of assembling the files.” He went further and said the police didn’t have to turn over anything, even the materials related to Jay Cook. The pretrial process wasn’t going well for Albiona. He had to begin the depositions with little evidence, and only one of his witnesses would testify against the police.

Speaker 2:

Shamika Summers lived across the street from the route 40 overpass and said that on the afternoon of August 14, 2007, she was sitting outside on the steps to her house.

Shamika:

I saw cops running behind him. I saw him walk up on the bridge part.

Albiona:

Who was saying Jay was a dumb nigger?

Speaker 8:

Why not?

Speaker 2:

Back to the cop with the red hat that Shamika mentioned. Albiona showed her photos the police had taken.

Albiona:

Did you ever participate in any way, shape, or form regarding an incident at the route 40 overpass on August 14, 2007?

Speaker 2:

Green said he didn’t chase Jay. He wasn’t even at the fence. That same day, Officer Raymond Howard gave a deposition. He’s the officer who wrote and signed the incident report.

Albiona:

Who else did you talk to?

Bradley:

I cut my shirt, my pants getting over the pants. I finally got over the fence, and that’s when I saw him. His face was looking up at me. I was telling him, “Hold on, man. I’m coming. Just hold on.” I reached up to grab him and fell.

Bradley:

I watched him fall. Car ran over him. I started screaming for help.

Bradley:

He did say that, too.

Olu Abiona:

The reports that they gave to my client was totally false.

Mary Rose M. :

But the Judge denied Abiona’s motion, he sighted procedural rules. Abiona had missed the deadline to add new parties to the suit. Abiona had had what he called ample time to learn the real identities of the officers involved before filing. The Judge said the plaintiffs had, “No one but themselves to blame.”

Olu Abiona:

The police department intentionally lied, and lied for years. Maybe if you had told the truth from the beginning, there would not be an issue of a deadline being missed.

Precious:

He didn’t have a gun. He was going to the store to get a money order for the rent.

Gus Sentementes:

Back in 2007 the police, you know were really requiring these officers to do ‘stop and frisks’. You would have to submit at the end of your shift how many stop and frisks you did. But a lot of this was tied to officer incentives. I don’t think a lot of people understand how much of a numbers game policing became in Baltimore.

Mary Rose M. :

Gus says the police union president told him, “That police officers called their work, VCR detail, for Violation of Civil Rights.”

Mary Rose M. :

Their report made national news when it came out in August of 2016.

Mary Rose M. :

The DOJ also identified the Police Department’s serious lack of oversight. In Jay’s case, someone filed an incident report that was inaccurate at best, falsified at worst. I asked Commissioner Davis about this.

Mary Rose M. :

Davis said he has, “No problem holding his police officers accountable.” He said he, “Fired 23 officers in 2016.”

Al Letson:

That was reporter Mary Rose Madden of WYPR in Baltimore.

Julia B Chan:

Hey listeners, Julia B. Chan here, Reveals digital editor. In the segment you just heard, Al mentioned a Supreme Court case from 2000. That decided that merely running from the police in a high crime neighborhood could be considered suspicious behavior. The officer then has the right to chase, stop and frisk. In other words, police are expected to follow their hunches.

Mary W.:

Outside Baltimore’s Federal Courthouse the city was tense, but inside …

Greg Butler:

I’m ready just to take a step back and look at it, like, how we moving, you know? Who sprints from courtroom to courtroom?

Greg Butler:

All I know is, he’s walking around free, and I got an ankle bracelet.

Mary Wiltenburg:

In six months, Greg was going to be a father. For the first time, it hit home that he might not be there to meet is child.

Mary Wiltenburg:

The Liz Oyer, Greg’s public defender, rose and questioned why Greg was even being charged federally.

Mary Wiltenburg:

It was important, she said to take into account what had happened in the city in April 2015, and why it had happened.

Liz Oyer:

Honestly, you could lock up half of the young men in Baltimore City based on the same theories that the government is asserting here.

Greg Butler:

I cried when he came out. It was too much for me. I couldn’t handle it.

Greg Butler:

You’re just overwhelmed, just trying to figure out what is my legacy going to be for him, what am I going to leave him? What am I going to help him grow into? What kind of man do I want him to be? You know.

Greg Butler:

If you watch your parents as drug addicts, and their parents were drug addicts, you know, it’s no reason for me to cower and hide, because I’m a die on these streets regardless. You know, I’m ready to go at any day.

Mary Wiltenburg:

But these days his choices point in another direction.

Greg Butler:

You know, I felt like the US attorney, he was giving it all he had. He was giving it all he had.

Karl Zimmerman:

To turn around and put one of their lives in jeopardy because you feel like you need to be liberated doesn’t really hold a lot of water with us. We’re not real hip to that.

Greg Butler:

Black people have been living this way since the first day we touched soil. We live like somebody’s watching us, from slavery, to Jim Crow, to now. So when you have black people feeling like “Yeah, you watching me but you can’t stop me” it’s no telling what’s going to come out there. Cause my ancestors are speaking through me at this point.

Mary Wiltenburg:

But Greg didn’t fold. He started to apologize, but the judge interrupted him. “Why did you do it?” What Greg said next was a gentler version of something he had said to me a few nights earlier. He’d been wrong to lump firefighters and police together in his mind that day.

Greg Butler:

I threw bottles at the police. I ain’t sorry for that, cause I understand who the enemy was.

Mary Wiltenburg:

When Greg sat down, the judge delivered his sentence. Community service. No further jail time, and a million dollars of restitution for the burned CVS drugstore to be paid a $100 a month. He wasn’t condoning Greg’s conduct, the judge said, but the whole city was a victim of what had happened. People in the community, the firefighters, and the police. He said to Greg “I don’t want to make you another victim.”

Liz Oyer:

It’s also the first time in my career in this office, I’ve been in the office for a little over four years, that I have seen anybody just kind of look at the situation and do what they thought was right regardless of how it might come back on them negatively. It reaffirmed my faith in humanity a little bit because, you know, we don’t see that a lot in my job. Really not ever prior to this.

Mary Wiltenburg:

But this time was different. Behind the scenes, Greg’s situation had come to the attention of the City’s emergency manager, who got to know him and like him. He lobbied colleagues in the fire department until they got behind the idea that sometimes a person needs a second chance. When Greg thinks back now to April 2015, he comes back to the two famous images of him that day. The one of him in a gas mask, stabbing a fire hose, and that other one. He’s on bike, in a haze of smoke, facing a line of cops in riot gear, raising his fist in the air. That picture says something about the kind of man wants to be.

Greg Butler:

From that moment on the bike, it was a power that I hadn’t really had. At that very second, for that two seconds that I had my fist up, I was the leader of that community. In that moment, I saw police in a position that I’ve never seen them in, on the defensive. It was just, freedom took over. Freedom took over, and I wanted to let everybody around me know that they was free too.

Al Letson:

Greg’s story came to us from Mary Wiltenburg. Recently, Greg met with the firefighters whose hose he cut and apologized. Today, he’s doing his community service in the Baltimore Fire Marshal’s office.