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Freddie Gray was 25 when he died in April 2015 from a spinal cord injury he sustained

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while in police custody.

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His death sparked outrage among black Americans who felt that Gray's death reflected the

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reality about urban police departments across the country, that they don't serve and protect

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black communities, but rather operate as occupying forces tasked with controlling, harassing,

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and threatening African-American residents.

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Surprisingly, prosecutors brought a case against the six officers implicated in Freddie Gray's

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death.

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Surprisingly, the result was the same as if no case had been brought, with zero convictions,

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with three officers acquitted before prosecutors dropped all charges against the three remaining

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officers before trials even took place.

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On Tuesday, the Justice Department released a report on police activity in Baltimore.

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This report was not about Freddie Gray's death, but covered general police conduct in

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Baltimore.

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The report which spans more than 160 pages details the clear evidence of bias and disproportionate

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discrimination against black people that is pervaded in the city for decades.

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Baltimore is 63 percent black, yet 91 percent of those arrested for minor discretionary offenses

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like trespassing or failure to obey or loitering were African-American.

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Black people also accounted for 95 percent of the 410 people stopped at least 10 times by

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officers between 2010 and 2015.

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Officers would also routinely make illegal stops and perform unconstitutional searches, even

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of those who weren't under arrest.

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They even went as far as to perform strip searches in public.

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These are some of the ugly remnants of a legacy of zero tolerance policing policy that dates

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back to 1999 that officially ended a decade ago after a settlement with the NAACP, yet they

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still influence the city's policing strategy.

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For example, most of the unconstitutional stops occurred in predominantly black neighborhoods,

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the department actually encouraged these illegal stops as a crime suppression technique even

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though no charges were filed in 26 of every 27 pedestrian stops.

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These practices, instituted by then mayor Martin O'Malley, resulted in more than 100,000

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arrests a year filling up jails but having no real impact on curbing crime.

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So why did Baltimore PD continue to follow these policies?

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Well, there are a few reasons. In the report's most damning finding, the BPD routinely taught

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officers to use unnecessarily aggressive tactics.

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Officers frequently employed excessive force and situations that did not call for such violent

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escalations, not only violating Fourth Amendment rights of citizens, but also their right to

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free speech by routinely arresting individuals who merely said something that offended officers.

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Ironically, then the 60 instances of citizen complaints that alleged Baltimore officers

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use of the racial slur nigger were misclassified as a lesser offense.

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Now the training that encouraged these types of police practices fuelled on us versus

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them mentality and officers that wound up alienating the community they were meant to serve.

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The report also described a cultural resistance to accountability within the Baltimore PD that

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let serious cases of misconduct go unpunished.

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So these problems were allowed to fester because the department lacked systems to deter and

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detect improper conduct and did not collect or analyze data to identify frequent abuses

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or abusers.

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Now this is not the end of the story.

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The Justice Department has undertaken similar investigations into police departments in

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Chicago, Cleveland, Albuquerque, and Ferguson as well as other cities where longstanding practices

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of police brutality and discriminatory policing have been alleged.

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High profile cases like Freddie Gray's have led to more investigations across the nation

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fueling the Black Lives Matter movement that emerged in the wake of Trayvon Martin's murder

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in 2013.

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Without movements like these shining a light on widespread police abuses, millions of Americans,

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particularly Black Americans, would continue to live under oppression without any hope for

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institutional change.

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That is why Black Lives Matter matters.

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For many years, civil rights activists who challenged the city over unconstitutional and discriminatory

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police practices were met with backlash and accused of besmirching the reputations of

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the hardworking and honorable men and women of the Baltimore police force.

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And there are hardworking honorable men and women in the Baltimore police force.

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But this isn't just the case of a few bad apples.

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This is institutionalized racism within a police force that's meant to protect the community.

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And because of all of these movements, the rhetoric is now changing and these serious

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issues that affect communities are coming to light.

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Even Maryland State's attorney, Marilyn Mosby, said she expected this report to confirm

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what many in our city already know or have experienced firsthand.

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The Baltimore investigation does confirm what activists have been saying.