From City Paper
Late Wednesday evening, Evan Davis was walking down the sidewalk beside the jail where he had been held since Monday night without charges.
“We were protesting, they were trying to clear the streets,” he says, still wearing the peach-colored shirt and tie that he was arrested in. “The part of the protests we are at, nobody was doing anything, we wasn’t burning anything, we wasn’t stealing, you know, it was just a peaceful protest. Things started getting a little crazy a couple blocks down so they start grabbing people, locking them up. We came to central booking. Nobody knew why we were here, they didn’t tell us what we were charged with, we didn’t get fed for the time period that we were here, and they just wouldn’t tell us what we were locked up for. They had us piled in the cells. Cells that were supposed to be for 10 people were like over 20 people piled in the cells. They didn’t know who we were, we were just livestock. I guess it began to get too overcrowded and when that happened, they started to call out people’s names, but they still couldn’t identify us because they didn’t have no pictures for us. They started calling us by name and started releasing us seven to 10 people at a time.”
Davis is one of 101 people just released out of the back door of the Baltimore City Detention Center, without being charged, though the Baltimore City Police Department says they may still be charged.
“I’m disgusted by that,” says Natalie Finegar, the deputy district public defender for Baltimore City. “I think that’s cruel and unusual punishment if you ask. You’ve had people in Central Booking for two days without the opportunity to have contact with their families, post bail, or even know why they are there.”
Finegar filed 82 habeas petitions demanding “the release of individuals that were being held without a statement of probable cause since Monday.”
The scene outside the jail was moving. One white woman with blond hair ran out the door to her waiting boyfriend and jumped up, wrapping her arms and legs around him as they kissed. Other groups of women would come running out of the door together screaming with joy.
The women in one cell described it as torture. They say that guards sprayed mace into the cell.
“Torture,” another woman said. “We took care of each other.” ….MORE
“I’m disgusted by that,” says Natalie Finegar, the deputy district public defender for Baltimore City. “I think that’s cruel and unusual punishment if you ask. You’ve had people in Central Booking for two days without the opportunity to have contact with their families, post bail, or even know why they are there.”
