The former police commissioner in charge when Freddie Gray died from injuries sustained in a Baltimore police van said State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby is “in over her head” and has added more flaws to a broken justice system by prosecuting innocent officers.
“She’s immature, she’s incompetent, she’s vindictive and that’s not how the justice system is supposed to work,” former Baltimore police commissioner Anthony W. Batts said on Wednesday. “The justice system is supposed to be without bias for police officers, for African Americans, for everyone.”
Batts led Baltimore police from the fall of 2012 until Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake fired him in July 2015 amid a surge in city homicides that followed weeks of criticism from the police union over his handling of the city’s riots two months before.
Batts said Mosby never should have filed charges against the six officers involved in Gray’s arrest, and that her decision Wednesday to drop charges against the remaining three officers facing trials was long overdue.
Her actions, Batts said, have further harmed a criminal justice system in need of repairs.
“Don’t create more flaws in that broken system,” he said. “And you don’t do it on the back of innocent people just to prove that point.”