Two America's indeed.
Millionaire 'reserve deputy' Robert Bates buys his way onto the police force, shoots and kills a black man and gets this treatment:
Video shows Reserve Deputy Robert Bates announcing he is going to deploy his Taser after an undercover weapons sting on April 2 but then shooting Eric Courtney Harris in the back with a handgun.
Bates was charged with second-degree manslaughter Monday.
He surrendered Tuesday morning, accompanied by his attorney, Clark Brewster, and immediately posted bail of $25,000.
Compare that treatment to this:
The 18-year-old pictured smashing a police car with a traffic cone, in one of the defining images of the Baltimore riots, is being held on half a million dollars’ bail and may face years in jail after his stepfather persuaded him to turn himself in to authorities.
...
“By turning himself in he also let me know he was growing as a man and he recognised what he did was wrong,” Hawkins said on Wednesday at his home in a low-income block in south Baltimore. “But they are making an example of him and it is not right.”
“It is just so much money,” Smallwood, 43, said of the bail sum of $500,000. “Who could afford to pay that?” Hawkins said the total exceeded the bonds placed on some accused murderers in Baltimore. Smallwood added: “If they let him go he could at least save some money and pay them back for the damage he did.”
Bullock is not alone in receiving such a high bail:
Inmates appeared before Judge Flynn Owens from the Baltimore City Detention Center via videolink. They routinely requested via their public defenders for bail figures to be lowered. Often this was denied and in some cases bail figures put forward by the state’s attorney were increased by Judge Owens.
Roselyn Michelle Roberts, a 43-year-old grandmother, faced two charges of fourth-degree theft and burglary. The court heard that Roberts suffered from manic depression and earned around $60 a week babysitting her grandchild. The state’s attorney argued for a $50,000 bail. Judge Owens revised the figure to $100,000 citing two pending cases against her and a record of eight prior convictions.
The court heard how Antonio Jackson, a father of one who works as a warehouse labourer, was allegedly caught with a pair of tennis shoes still with their price tag. He was not arrested at the scene of looting and his public defender argued he would lose his job if not released. The state’s attorney requested $50,000 bail. This was revised by Judge Owens to $100,000, who cited a single occasion when Jackson failed to appear at a scheduled court date.
Seems to me that nothing has changed in Baltimore.