Marilyn Mosby is the fearless Baltimore chief prosecutor
who took on the six police officers who
essentially killed Freddy Gray, a young man who
was arrested and given such a “rough ride” that
he suffered fatal neck injuries. Mosby’s bold
attempt to hold so-called “law enforcement”
accountable attracted the ire of the Baltimore
police department, then-Governor Larry Hogan,
the status-quo “law and order” establishment,
and others. How dare she, this young Black
woman, the youngest ever to earn election as
chief prosecutor, take on the police? Now, she
has been convicted on a flimsy charge and may
face as many as 40 years in jail.
Usually, prosecutors look the other way toward police
violence, which is why so few officers are
indicted, much less convicted, for violations
of both the law and human decency. In
Baltimore, the officers broke laws that
required passengers in police transport to be
secured by seat belts as they were moved from
their arrest site to a police station. Mosby
took the unprecedented step of indicting six
police officers involved in the death of
Freddy Gray. Two were acquitted, one had a
hung jury, and three others had their charges
dismissed. The federal government declined to
prosecute the officers, which means they got
away with murder; the City of Baltimore paid
Gray’s family $6.4 million when they
threatened to sue.
All of this happened in 2015, five years before the murder
of George Floyd. Officers were convicted in
that case, and the ringleader of the mob,
Derek Chauvin, will spend two decades in jail
after he infamously put his knee to Floyd’s
neck for more than nine minutes. Arguably, had
Marilyn Mosby not had the courage to indict
officers in the death of Freddy Gray, there
would have been no precedent in indicting
Chauvin and his gang of thugs for killing
George Floyd. Mosby, in other words, is a
trailblazer.
She is now being punished for her boldness. Convicted of,
essentially, lying on a mortgage application
and using her 401k savings to fund an
investment, she could face as many as 40 years
in jail. Many Black women, including political
pundit Angela Rye and Dick Gregory Society
leader E. Faye Williams, have rallied around
her as she has asked for a presidential
pardon. She has lost almost everything she
values – her reputation, her marriage, her
property, and there is a motion to revoke her
law license, leaving her with no means of
support.
This case is not only about Marilyn Mosby. It is about the
misogynoir that she has faced. She was
targeted and prosecuted because she had the
nerve to take the system on, targeted, and
charged just like Fannie Lou Hamer, who was
blinded and then evicted from her home after
she registered voters. She has been targeted
because she has been a vocal advocate for
justice, opposing mass incarceration, racial
disparities, and police violence. Pushing for
police accountability, she has collided with
well-financed opponents who want to see her
punished, making an example of her as a
deterrent to others who speak up.
I do not use the term lynching lightly. There were nearly
five thousand documented lynchings in this
country, and nothing compares to a noose
around the neck or the burning alive that so
many of our people experienced. But the
writer, Richard Wright, once spoke to the
widespread effect of lynching, saying that a
lynching that happened in Mississippi could be
felt in Chicago. In other words, lynchings
were a warning to Black people – stay in your
place. Similarly, the prosecution of Marilyn
Mosby is a warning to Black women. Stay in
your place. How dare you challenge the
establishment?
It is a warning to other Black women. In Georgia,
prosecutor Fani Willis has had her personal
life embarrassingly explored in public because
the former President doesn’t want to face
charges that he tampered with 4an election. In
New York, prosecutor Letitia James has faced
potshots, threats, and ignorance because she
has pursued financial fraud charges against
the former President. In Maryland, billionaire
bully David Trone has spent $57 million of his
own money to defeat Prince George’s County
Executive Angela
Alsobrooks. Alsobrooks may beat him, but if not, will she pay a
price for standing up to a bully? He has the
dollars and the racist, vindictive nature to
hurt her. In San Francisco, Mayor London Breed
is up against financial bullies whose
misogynoir is troubling.
It’s open season for Black women, and we must respond in
kind. Black women can support the sisters on
the firing line, Mosby, who will be sentenced in May unless she secures
a pardon; Alsobrooks, whose primary is May 14, and Breed, who is
in a fight to retain
her mayoralty. We must be vigilant about attacks against those
courageous prosecutors who are simply doing
their job of bringing charges against the
former President. A specious attack on one of
us is an attack on all of us. Misogynoir is a
disease, and it puts us all in jeopardy.
