'First Step' Toward Justice: Six Baltimore Cops Charged in Freddie Gray Case

Friday’s news that six Baltimore police officers will face criminal charges in the death of Freddie Gray elicited cheers from city residents grateful for some modicum of accountability for police brutality, and mixed reactions from those who said the announcement was only a first step toward justice.

The ACLU of Maryland called the development a “historic moment” brought about by “the tireless efforts of families who have lost loved ones to police violence—here in Baltimore, throughout Maryland, and all across America.”

“They persistently have called attention to the double standards of our criminal justice system,” said Susan Goering, executive director of the Maryland ACLU.

However, Goering continued, “We know that today’s announcement is only a first step in a state that has historically prosecuted less than two percent of police-involved deaths, while prosecuting thousands of African-Americans for petty offenses. Our systems of justice have been far more willing to treat officers as innocent until proven guilty than they are the communities who are being policed — communities where people are presumed guilty and stopped, searched, and arrested without cause… We hope this marks the beginning of a nationwide awakening to the many injustices and inequalities that we have allowed to continue for far too long.”

State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, meanwhile, has emerged as a crusader for civil rights.

“I heard your call for ‘no justice, no peace,'” Mosby told the people of Baltimore on Friday. “Your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man.”

Speaking with MSNBC‘s Andrea Mitchell, Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund praised Mosby for her “courage” in bringing charges against the officers.

Friday’s news, Ifill said, shows “what prosecutors can do to really undermine the culture of impunity that has existed for far too long as it relates to police assaults and killings of unarmed African Americans.”

But Ifill noted that many, including herself, are “celebrating something that should have happened as a matter of course.”

“Look at what we’re doing today,” she pointed out. “This is ‘breaking news’—that police officers would be held accountable by a prosecutor for the homicide of an innocent 25-year-old African American man. That’s an indictment of where we are in this country around policing. It’s a wake-up call and it’s a reminder that this is not going to be resolved by one prosecution…this is a nationwide problem.”

According to news reports, all six of the officers were in custody as of Friday afternoon.