In Baltimore, where protests took place daily under a window of the courtroom where the Porter trial was taking place, the mood was ominous. Protestors carried signs that read, "Police Brutality and Murder Must Stop. We Need Revolution," and "Good Cops Don't Let Bad Cops Brutalize Citizens." Police officers from throughout the state readied for action at a park about two miles from the Courthouse, and authorities closed streets around the courthouse to keep commuters from unwittingly becoming involved with protestors. Police said that, overall, the protesting remained peaceful, although two were arrested, including one man who continued to use a megaphone while court was in session. Defense attorneys have argued repeatedly for a change in venue, arguing that the angry protesting right outside the courtroom - which can be heard in the courtroom - intimidates jurors.
The jury eventually seated in the Porter trial realized almost at once that they would be deadlocked. A note saying that the jury was deadlocked was passed to Judge Barry Williams only a few hours after deliberations began. Williams admonished the jury to continue deliberating, but other notes informed the court that these deliberations were not changing the minds of jurors who disagreed with each other.
Williams insisted that jurors not disclose the numbers on either side of the deadlocked jury, and no numbers - such as 9 for acquittal and 3 for a finding of guilty - have been leaked to the media. The prosecution selected the four-count case against Porter as the one they wanted to try first, because they believed if he was convicted, his testimony could be used against the other five offices. But with a mistrial and hung jury, Porter can claim his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination and refuse to offer such testimony. Porter did testify in his own defense and at several points alleged that it was the driver of the police wagon, who is also charged in the incident, as being the person ultimately responsible for belting Freddie Gray into the back of the wagon.
In its closing argument, the prosecution told the jury that Porter was a liar and was lying to the jury to avoid conviction. Such allegations by the prosecution may make it very difficult to put him on the stand against his fellow officers.
Gray died in the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center several days after sustaining a broken neck and other injuries while riding in the back of the City Police Wagon. He was in the wagon after being arrested in connection with his attempt to flee from police as they arrived at a suspected West Baltimore open air drug sales emporium. It was initially alleged that Gray had been beaten by police and sustained his injury during such a beating. But subsequently the evidence emerged from the coroner's office and other sources that proved police did not beat or otherwise physically mistreat Gray. Videos show Gray alleging injury, but the injury that killed him would have rendered him unable to speak or move his limbs, things he was clearly able to do before entering the police wagon.
The charges against the six officers - all of whom have been released from custody on their own recognizance - stem from the state's allegations that they did not move with reasonable speed to obtain medical aide for Gray after he sustained his fatal injuries, which testimony at the Porter trial indicated took place between the fourth and fifth stops made by the police wagon after Gray was put inside. The wagon stopped to pick up at least one other prisoner. Gray was ultimately taken for emergency treatment. The defense contends that Gray's apparent habit of asking to be taken from the hospital, not only on the day of his death but in previous incidents where he was taken into custody, acted almost to create a 'cry wolf' atmosphere when he made requests for medical care.
The next trial of one of the six charged police officers is scheduled for the second week of January.
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Parts one, two and three of Credible and Incisive's presentation of the Real Christmas Story have already been posted. Please see posts dated December 14, 18 and 21. Today, we print Part 4 of our presentation, which, to be candid, is a verbatim printing of the events leading up to and including the Birth of Christ that are set forth in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke. The version of the Bible being used is the Revised Standard Version. This is the version of the Bible given to me by my parents when I was in the second grade. It is the Bible that I use almost exclusively, although I have tremendous respect and adoration for the King James Version.
From the Gospel of St. Luke, Chapter 1, beginning with Verse 57: Now the time came for Elizabeth to be delivered, and she gave birth to a son. Verse 58: And her neighbors and kinsfolk heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. Verse 59: And on the eighth day they came to circumsize the child; and they would have named him Zeccariah after his father; Verse 60: but his mother said, "Not so; he shall be called John." Verse 61: And they said to her, "None of your kindred is called by this name." Verse 62: And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he would have him called. Verse 63: And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, "His name is John." And they all marveled. Verse 64: And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. Verse 65: And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, Verse 66: and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, "What then will this child be?" For the hand of the Lord was with him.
Verse 67: And his father Zeccariah was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesized, saying,
Verse 68: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people,
Verse 69: and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant, David,
Verse 70: as he spoke by the mouth of his holy
prophets from of old,
Verse 71: that we should be saved from our enemies,
and from the hand of all who hate us;
Verse 72: to perform the mercy promised to our fathers,
and to remember his holy covenant,
Verse 73: the oath which he swore to our father Abraham,
Verse 74: to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand
of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
Verse 75: in holiness and righteousness before him
all the days of our life.
Verse 76: And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
Verse 77: to give knowledge of salvation to his people
in the forgiveness of their sins,
Verse 78: through the tender mercy of our God,
when the day shall dawn upon us from on high
Verse 79: to give light to those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace."
Verse 80: And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness till the day of his manifestation to Israel.
Chapter 2, Verse 1: In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. Verse 2: This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Verse 3: And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city.
From the Gospel of Saint Matthew, Chapter 2, beginning with Verse 19: But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Verse 20: "Rise, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead." Verse 21: And he rose and took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. Verse 22: But when he heard that Archelaus reigned over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. Verse 23: And he went and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, "He shall be called a Nazarene."
Part 5 of the Real Christmas Story will appear in the next post of Credible and Incisive.
Christmas Poems continued:
In the Credible and Incisive post of December 21, 2015 we continued a tradition began last year with the printing of a Christmas Poem. A few of you may recall that John Milton's epic-lengthed poem, "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity," was printed last Christmas season. This year, the credit for the words of the poems goes to PoemHunter.com. Yesterday, we started the Christmas Poetry printings with poems by the English Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the American, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Today, again, we have a poem by the great English Poet Alfred Lord Tennyson and the equally great American Poet Robert Frost.
Part 5 of the Real Christmas Story will appear in the next post of Credible and Incisive.
Christmas Poems continued:
In the Credible and Incisive post of December 21, 2015 we continued a tradition began last year with the printing of a Christmas Poem. A few of you may recall that John Milton's epic-lengthed poem, "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity," was printed last Christmas season. This year, the credit for the words of the poems goes to PoemHunter.com. Yesterday, we started the Christmas Poetry printings with poems by the English Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the American, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Today, again, we have a poem by the great English Poet Alfred Lord Tennyson and the equally great American Poet Robert Frost.
Ring Out, Wild Bells
by Alfred Lord Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892)
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more,
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
Christmas Trees
by Robert Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963)
The city had withdrawn into itself
And left at last the country to the country;
When between whirls of snow not come to lie
And whirls of foliage not yet laid, there drove
A stranger to our yard, who looked the city,
Yet did in country fashion in that there
He sat and waited till he drew us out
A-buttoning coats to ask him who he was.
He proved to be the city come again
To look for something it had left behind
And could not do without and keep its Christmas.
He asked if I would sell my Christmas trees;
My woods—the young fir balsams like a place
Where houses all are churches and have spires.
I hadn’t thought of them as Christmas Trees.
I doubt if I was tempted for a moment
To sell them off their feet to go in cars
And leave the slope behind the house all bare,
Where the sun shines now no warmer than the moon.
I’d hate to have them know it if I was.
Yet more I’d hate to hold my trees except
As others hold theirs or refuse for them,
Beyond the time of profitable growth,
The trial by market everything must come to.
I dallied so much with the thought of selling.
Then whether from mistaken courtesy
And fear of seeming short of speech, or whether
From hope of hearing good of what was mine,
I said, “There aren’t enough to be worth while.”
“I could soon tell how many they would cut,
You let me look them over.”
“You could look.
But don’t expect I’m going to let you have them.”
Pasture they spring in, some in clumps too close
That lop each other of boughs, but not a few
Quite solitary and having equal boughs
All round and round. The latter he nodded “Yes” to,
Or paused to say beneath some lovelier one,
With a buyer’s moderation, “That would do.”
I thought so too, but wasn’t there to say so.
We climbed the pasture on the south, crossed over,
And came down on the north.
He said, “A thousand.”
“A thousand Christmas trees! —at what apiece? ”
He felt some need of softening that to me:
“A thousand trees would come to thirty dollars.”
Then I was certain I had never meant
To let him have them. Never show surprise!
But thirty dollars seemed so small beside
The extent of pasture I should strip, three cents
(For that was all they figured out apiece) ,
Three cents so small beside the dollar friends
I should be writing to within the hour
Would pay in cities for good trees like those,
Regular vestry-trees whole Sunday Schools
Could hang enough on to pick off enough.
A thousand Christmas trees I didn’t know I had!
Worth three cents more to give away than sell,
As may be shown by a simple calculation.
Too bad I couldn’t lay one in a letter.
I can’t help wishing I could send you one,
In wishing you herewith a Merry Christmas.
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Yesterday we also printed three verses from the wonderful and quite moving Christmas Carol, "O Holy Night." The reason we printed three verses is because the third verse is this writer's favorite. Today, the words of another favorite Carol, Silent Night. Wikipedia tells us that the song was originally composed in German and called, Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht. The tune was written in1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in the small town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. In 1858, John Freeman Young, an American, translated the lyrics to English. These are Young's lurics, followed by Mohr's German lyrics:
Silent night, holy night,
all is calm, all is bright
round yon virgin mother and child.
Holy infant, so tender and mild,
sleep in heavenly peace,
sleep in heavenly peace.
Silent night, holy night,
shepherds quake at the sight;
glories stream from heaven afar,
heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!
Christ the Savior is born,
Christ the Savior is born!
Silent night, holy night,
Son of God, love's pure light;
radiant beams from thy holy face
with the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.
Silent night, holy night,
wondrous star, lend thy light;
with the angels let us sing,
Alleluia to our King;
Christ the Savior is born,
Christ the Savior is born!
And Mohr's original German lyrics:
Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,
Alles schläft; einsam wacht
Nur das traute hochheilige Paar.
Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar,
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!
Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,
Hirten erst kundgemacht
Durch der Engel Halleluja,
Tönt es laut von fern und nah:
Christ, der Retter ist da!
Christ, der Retter ist da!
Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,
Gottes Sohn, o wie lacht
Lieb' aus deinem göttlichen Mund,
Da uns schlägt die rettende Stund'.
Christ, in deiner Geburt!
Christ, in deiner Geburt!
I suppose it is obvious that Mr. Young wrote a verse on his own.
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