Truth and Reconciliation is a forum for the people of Baltimore to discuss the challenges of law enforcement reform, alternative paths to improving communal safety, and how to hold power accountable.Through personal tales of triumph and tragedy, Truth and Reconciliation seeks new perspectives on how…
In our latest episode, we explore the obstacles to helping victims of a corrupt police unit regain their freedom.And what happened, when Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, tried to change the law to help make that happen.
A recent New York Times article raised the idea that crime has continued to rise because police ----Took a Knee---- after the death of Freddie Gray in 2015. We read from a series of charging documents that show the flip-side of that argument, how arbitrary and often inexplicable arrests sowed chaos in the community and turned people's live upside down.
In part two of our series on rumors of serial killer preying upon women in Northwest Baltimore, we explore what happened when a rash of strangulations of women in 2008 unearthed cases form the past, and a suspect.
The first in a two part series, we examine the controversy surrounding the fear that a serial killer was preying upon women in Northwest Baltimore.
As we continue to explore how the media narrative informed policing in Baltimore in the past, we tell the story of the arrest of Baltimore Examiner editor Frank Keegan in 2007.Keegan was arrested shortly after a dispute with his neighbors over smoking. But the timing of the arrest, just after the Examiner published the salaries and overtime pay for the entire Baltimore Police Department, points to an ulterior motive.
The 2006 video of police striking Glenn Curry while he was handcuffed was one of the first examples of how capturing arrests on camera would eventually change the conversation about law enforcement in Baltimore. However for the man that made the tape there were steep consequences, fallout that continues to have repercussions today.
In this installment of our Hidden Victims series, we examine an aspect of the criminal justice system that is often overlooked: how police treat suspicious deaths involving women of color.To understand how some cases remain stuck in a nebulous category called ----undetermined,---- we speak to the family of Tyra McClarly. McClary was found buried under a pile of mulch with her ankles wrapped in a plastic bag in 2006, but her case remains in investigative limbo.
In the second part of our Hidden Victims series, we explore how the tragedy of a police custody death affects the loved ones left behind and their relationships. To do so we speak to Marcus and Nicole Pettiford. In 2012 Marcus' father Anthony Anderson died at the hands of police after an officer violently threw him to the ground.But the officers were not charged, and it is how that decision affected their marriage that reveals much about the consequences of police violence which remains hidden from view and often goes untold.
In the first of our Hidden Victims series looking at how the criminal justice system impacts women of color, we hear the story of Greta Carter and the death of her son, Kevin Cooper. Cooper was shot and killed by a Baltimore police officer after a routine call to his Southwest Baltimore home in August of 2006. Carter tells the traumatic story of her son's death, and her emotional encounter years later with the officer who killed him.
During the height of zero tolerance the voices of dissent among the political establishment were few and far between. We talk to two people who fought back, Former State Delegate Jill P. Carter and Public Defender Todd Oppenhiem about what they experienced and how it affected their lives.
The effects of the The Gun Trace Task Force, a group of now nine police officers, accused of robbery, drug, and racketeering are just being assessed. To a get a sense of the fall-out over one of the worst scandals in BPD history, we talk to Ivan Potts, who was arrested by GTTF. We also talk to Corey Winfield, a violence mediator from Safe Streets on how he thinks the scandal will impact the streets.
In the final episode of our four part series on the impact of the indictment of six officers in the death of Freddie Gray, we look at the myriad of reforms efforts which happened after Mosby's decision to charge, and the changes which have occurred to the process of policing in Baltimore as a result.
In the third part of our series examining the often-overlooked consequences of State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s decision to indict six officers in the death of Freddie Gray, Jan Bledsoe, one the lead prosecutors speaks publicly for the first time. In her account of the investigation and the subsequent trials, she reveals the threats made to her and members of her family, and key evidence that was destroyed that may have changed the entire outcome of the prosecution.
In the second episode of our four part series examining the far reaching and often overlooked implications of Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby's decision to charge six officers for the death of Freddie Gray, we recount the trial and the aftermath of last major prosecution of a Baltimore police officer for manslaughter.
In the first episode of our four part series looking at the continuing consequences of the indictment of six officers in the death of Freddie Gray, we go back in time to explore just how difficult it was to prosecute police in the past. To do so, we examine the last major prosecution for a death at the hands of police prior to the Gray case, the shooing of Edward Lamont Hunt.
Efforts in Maryland state capital to reform policing have fallen short for three consecutive years. In episode we talk to Adam Jackson CEO of the activist group Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle about the formidable power the state's various police unions, and how they exert far-reaching influence over the state's legislative process.
Morgan State graduate Evan Howard tells his story of how he was arrested and held in Central Booking for 56 hours without committing a crime during the height of Baltimore's zero tolerance era, and with the repercussions for him that linger years later.