I came up from the D.C. suburbs to take part in the Saturday demonstration in support of the Baltimore Police Department. I confess I was afraid to do it but I did it ("Supporters of police rally in front of Baltimore City Hall," May 30).
Why did I do it?
Are those six police officers guilty of all the charges against them? Guilty of some? Innocent of everything? Are they guilty of a momentary professional lapse with tragic consequences? Of a professional judgment that went wrong? Guilty of being human?
I don't know.
What about Freddie Gray? Was he a cooperative prisoner? Or was he making trouble? Was he making it all about race? Resisting? Being belligerent? Being violent?
I don't know.
Freddie Gray should not have died, of course. But what is clear to me — from the rhetoric of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby and from race-baiter and divider extraordinaire Rev. Al Sharpton — is that they are looking not for justice but to satisfy a mob by crucifying these six officers. When a community at large decides in advance that the accused is guilty and demands the "right" verdict and takes matters into their own hands to get it, that is not democracy. It is mob rule. It is a lynching.
Stephen Kosciesza, Silver Spring