Rage. Seethe. Boil.

[Content Note: Police brutality; death; racism. Video may autoplay at link.]

Prosecutors have dropped all pending charges on the officers who had yet to be tried in the death of Freddie Gray:
Prosecutors dropped all remaining charges against three Baltimore police officers accused in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray in a downtown courtroom on Wednesday morning, concluding one of the most high-profile criminal cases in Baltimore history.

The startling move was an apparent acknowledgement of the unlikelihood of a conviction following the acquittals of three other officers on similar and more serious charges by Circuit Judge Barry G. Williams, who was expected to preside over the remaining trials as well.

It also means the office of Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby will secure no convictions in the case after more than a year of dogged fighting, against increasingly heavy odds, to hold someone criminally accountable in Gray's death.
This cavernous lack of accountability is utterly enraging, even though it is hardly surprising.

Freddie Gray's family still has the opportunity to pursue a civil case, but that is, for a variety of reasons, not the same as a criminal case. Which is why they are separate in the first place.

There will never, ever, be justice without meaningful accountability. And real justice is not just consequences for the killers of Freddie Gray, but no more people killed in acts of police brutality ever again.

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