Sigh…Third Baltimore Police Officer Acquitted In Freddie Gray Trial
Another day, another acquittal.
On Monday, a Baltimore judge acquitted the highest-ranking cop tied to Freddie Gray’s death. Lt. Brian Rice was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment in a bench trial before the city’s Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams, The New York Daily News reported.
Rice is the third of four officers that has walked on these charges.
Prosecutors argued in court that the 25-year-old’s death was Rice’s fault because he failed to put Gray in a seat belt, who died from spinal cord injuries he suffered while in custody.
Yet, Williams did not buy their argument. In a statement, he said prosecutors failed to meet their burden beyond a reasonable doubt and instead were asking the court to rely on “presumptions or assumptions” — something it cannot do, the Baltimore Sun noted.
The judge also stressed the court “cannot be swayed by sympathy, prejudice, or public opinion” and that a “mistake” or an “error in judgment” was not enough to prove Rice had committed a crime.
Two more police officers involved in Gray’s death were also charged and their trials will be take place in October.
Stevie Wonder Tells Mostly White London Crowd That “Black Lives Matter”
Iconic crooner Stevie Wonder doesn’t care what company he keeps, he is clear that Black lives matter and doesn’t have an issue saying it.
During a recent performance at the British Summer Time Festival in London, Stevie told the mostly White crowd consisting of 65,000 people, “I encourage you to choose love over hate. It’s just that simple. Choose love over hate, right over wrong, kind over meanness. Hope over no hope at all.”
The “Song In The Key Of Life” singer then said, “Which brings me to another point. Yes, all life does matter, but the reason that I say that black lives matter is because we are the original people of this world. So in essence, everybody here has some black in you.”
Then the usually serene singer surprisingly finished his speech by saying, “And for those of you who don’t agree with me, I love you but I don’t give a —.”
See it for yourself below:
You go, Stevie!
Study: More Young People Are Having Children Before And Without Marriage
Young Americans are more likely to have children without marrying compared to their older counterparts, even when they bring in less income.
A recent study conducted at Johns Hopkins University found that in 2011, 59 percent of births to people ages 25 to 36 were born outside of marriage. But as Bloomberg pointed out, researchers also found that roughly 80 percent of these mothers were lacking a four-year college degree and that young mothers who lived in lower income areas were 15 to 17 percent less likely to be married by the time they had their first child compared to women living in higher income areas.
So why would young people choose to have babies without financial and matrimonial stability?
“For many young adults, having children is one of the most meaningful parts of their lives. They’re not willing to go without it,” Andrew Cherlin, the study’s lead author, told the news outlet.
He added: “They’d prefer to marry, but if they don’t see the prospects for a successful marriage, they will go ahead and have children anyway. If they wait too long, they might not have kids.”
But Cherlin also admitted that unplanned pregnancies and the lack of using contraception may have also affected his results.
“There are many young adults who may not want a child now but may not be doing much to prevent it,” he concluded. When a pregnancy results, “they then have a choice of whether to marry or not. They didn’t have that choice 50 years ago.”
