Baltimore PD Email Surfaces Showing Marilyn Mosby Asked Police To Target Exact Location Where Freddie Gray Was Apprehended… Is this why she wanted a gag order or is there more to come?

Baltimore PD Email Surfaces Showing Marilyn Mosby Asked Police To Target Exact Location Where Freddie Gray Was Apprehended…

An email has surfaced as part of a defense motion to recuse Baltimore State Attorney Marilyn Mosby.  The email is from Mosby’s office in the weeks just prior to the arrest of Freddie Gray.

In the March email Mosby is specifically asking the Baltimore police to target the exact intersection where Freddie Gray was apprehended –  and work on eliminating increased drug activity.  (Via Baltimore Sun)

[…]  “It must be understood that Mrs. Mosby was directing these officers to one of the highest crime intersections in Baltimore City and asking them to make arrests, conduct surveillance, and stop crime,” the defense attorneys wrote. “Now, the State is apparently making the unimaginable argument that the police officers are not allowed to use handcuffs to protect their safety and prevent flight in an investigatory detention where the suspect fled in a high crime area and actually had a weapon on him.”  (link)

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The email was sent from Joshua Rosenblatt, division chief of Mosby’s Crime Strategies Unit to Baltimore Police Major Osborne Robinson.

The most damning part of the communication is from Major Osborne Robinson to his police officers informing them of the State Attorney expectation.

[…]  On March 20, Robinson forwarded Rosenblatt’s email to several Western District officers, including Lt. Brian W. Rice. He was one of the three officers who arrested Gray and one of the six later charged in Gray’s arrest and death.

Robinson told Rice and the other officers to begin a “daily narcotics initiative” focused on North Avenue and Mount Street, according to the email, and said he would be collecting “daily measurables” from them on their progress.

“This is effective immediately,” Robinson wrote, noting that the officers should use cameras, informants and other covert policing tactics to get the job done. (read more)

Two specific points:

♦  #1) If Marilyn Mosby’s gag order had been successful, we would never have known about this.  We would never have known about her office instructing the police to target the exact area where she now says they had no reason to target.  Is that part of the reasoning for the attempt at the gag order?

♦  #2)  What this really reveals is that Marilyn Mosby herself was the one who asked the police to aggressively target the area where Freddie Gray had set up his street Rx business.  In essence, the officers she now accuses of being too aggressive, were aggressive specifically because Mosby asked them to be.

As time progresses it sure is becoming more and more obvious why the Baltimore Police department are taking exception to this entire railroading – it’s increasingly understandable why they are now taking a hands off approach to proactive policing.