(Newswire.net — May 11, 2015) — Baltimore, Ma. – During April’s protests against the police brutality in the case of Freddie Gray killing in Baltimore, protesters clashed with the police in leaving buildings and cars in flames. The Baltimore Police department cars at one point became the target of the aggravated mob. Black teenager Allan Bullock was caught on camera as he was smashing the windows of an abandoned police car. After 18-year-old Bullock realized he was photographed smashing police car windows with a traffic cone, he turn himself in to the autorities.
The family lawyer suggested boy’s parents that it is in the best Alan’s interest to turn him self in. Maurice Hawkins, Bullock’s stepfather, told the teen he ought to surrender before the police “find him, knock down our door and beat him,” so Alan voluntarily went to the police station, believing that smashing a PD car windows isn’t much of a crime. The judge, however, set bail at $500, 000.
“As parents we wanted Allen to do the right thing,” Bullock’s mother Bobbi Smallwood told The Guardian. “He was dead wrong and he does need to be punished. But he wasn’t leading this riot,” she said.
Despite the efforts of public defenders and advocates to lower the bail amount, the authorities would not relent. Last week Allan’s parents learned that the community organized and had collected half a million dollars in donations from all around the world. Bullock was released from jail on bail last Thursday.
Within this story of an act of humanity, defying the injustice system in Baltimore, there is another story which may also help explain the protesters rage against the police and courts in Baltimore.
The state attorney charged six Baltimore PD officers in the wrongful death of Freddie Gray. The greatest bail for the accused in these cases was set at $350,000. This raises the question in the minds of many as to whether a life of a black man in Baltimore is worth less than a window of the Baltimore PD vehicle.
Various politicians, public figures and activists once again emphasized injustice that people raised their voices against.
“I think the $500,000 he’s released on is an example of the arbitrary and capricious nature of our bail system,” said State Delegate Jill Carter, a Baltimore Democrat, who met with Bullock after his release.
Deray Mckesson, said Ferguson community organizer who came to Baltimore to join the peaceful protests. Apparently, in Baltimore “broken windows are worse than broken spines,” he criticized the bail.
“Freddie Gray will never be back. Those windows will,” Mckesson told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.