Since March, the Baltimore Sun has been reporting on some of the fallout surrounding the indictment of seven Baltimore police officers who made up the “Gun Trace Taskforce,” all indicted on racketeering charges. The charges include shakedowns, violations of citizens civil rights, illegal stops and property seized. They sound like some real “bad hombres,” if you ask me. One of the results of these indictments has been a full review of the cases pending, connected to this task force and these officers in particular.
Baltimore prosecutors have dropped the charges in nearly 50 cases that rely on testimony from any of the seven police officers indicted and jailed for allegedly robbing citizens, making false arrests and filing fraudulent overtime claims.
The Baltimore Sun reports that the State’s Attorney’s Office is also seeking to drop charges in more than a dozen cases brought by the officers. The office has dropped 39 pending cases involving 180 gun charges and 55 drug charges.
Prosecutors say there are at least 200 cases under review and more dropped charges are expected. After the Freddie Gray murder acquittals, Baltimore law enforcement has had to reckon with the harsh reality that they have tons of rotten apples in their ranks. Whether or not they are willing to actually punish those officers is one thing, but continuing to punish the people who have been terrorized by those bad actors may be becoming a less tenable position for prosecutors.