Author: Ed Payne

The emotions are raw and protests are growing in Baltimore, where a community wants answers in the death of Freddie Gray.

Tuesday evening, as protesters chanted “No justice! No Peace!,” Gray’s distraught mother, Gloria Darden, collapsed in tears at the spot her son was arrested this month. She was whisked away.

Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died of a spinal injury Sunday, exactly one week after he was taken into custody.

The demonstrations are only gaining momentum. The crowd will be back on Wednesday in front of the Western District police station where Gray was taken after his arrest.

On Thursday, they will rally in front of city hall.

“We won’t stop,” one man said Tuesday. “We have the power and, of course, today shows we have the numbers.”

Feds getting involved

The increasing public pressure comes as the Department of Justice announced it was opening an investigation into the case

A spokesman said the agency is investigating whether the civil rights of Gray were violated during a struggle on April 12.

An autopsy found that Gray died from a severe spinal cord injury, but Baltimore Deputy Police Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez told reporters Monday that there is no indication of how the injury occurred.

“We welcome outside review,” Police Captain Eric Kowalczky said. “We want to be open, we want to be transparent. We owe it to the city and we owe it to the Gray family to find out exactly what happened.”

Police plan to conclude their own investigation by Friday, May 1. From there, the case will go to the state’s attorney’s office, which will decide whether to file charges.

Officers involved

Earlier in the day Tuesday, the Baltimore Police Department released the names of six police officers involved in the case. All have been suspended with pay.

They are: Lt. Brian Rice, 41, who joined the department in 1997; Officer Caesar Goodson, 45, who joined in 1999; Sgt. Alicia White, 30, who joined in 2010; Officer William Porter, 25, who joined in 2012; Officer Garrett Miller, 26, who joined in 2012; and Officer Edward Nero, 29, who joined in 2012.

After an “in-custody death,” it’s standard procedure to release the names of officers involved, said Kowalczyk.

It doesn’t mean the officers did anything wrong, nor does it mean that these were the only officers involved, he said.

Of the six officers, three were on bikes and initially approached Gray, another made eye contact with Gray, another officer joined in the arrest after it was initiated and one drove the police van, Kowalczyk said.

Mayor’s pledge

Speaking to CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said she understands where the protesters are coming from. She understands their frustration.

“Mr. Gray’s family deserves justice, and our community deserves an opportunity to heal, to get better, and to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen again,” she said.

Adding to the frustration is an autopsy that hasn’t yielded many answers in Gray’s death. In fact, some feel it’s prompted more questions.

“I’m going to make sure that as we get information that we can confirm, we’re going to put that information out in the public,” Rawlings-Blake said. “I want people to understand that I have no interest in hiding information, holding back information.”

She’s angry, she said, and among the questions she wants answered are: Why did police stop Gray in the first place? And why did arresting officers make what she called the mistake of not immediately requesting medical attention when Gray asked for it?

“We will get to the bottom of it, and we will go where the facts lead us,” she said. “We will hold people accountable if we find there was wrongdoing.”

Family attorney William Murphy urged patience in the case and called for a careful investigation.

“Now am I skeptical of the police investigation? You bet. Do I have reason to be skeptical? Yes, I am a normal human being who understands the history of the relationship between white police and black people in this country,” he said. “That’s enough to make me skeptical.”

What we know

According to documents obtained Monday, the April 12 incident began when Gray ran from police.

While the court documents allege that one of the arresting officers, Garrett Miller, took Gray into custody after finding a switchblade in his pocket, the Gray family attorney called the allegation a “sideshow.” Gray was carrying a “pocket knife of legal size,” Murphy said.

Police never saw the knife and chased Gray only after he took off running, the attorney said.

Court documents said Gray “fled unprovoked upon noticing police presence.”

“The officer noticed a knife clipped to the inside of (Gray’s) front right pants pocket. The defendant was arrested without force or incident,” the documents say. “The knife was recovered by this officer and found to be a spring assisted, one-hand-operated knife.”

The mayor has questioned whether police should have pursued Gray in the first place.

“It is not necessarily probable cause to chase someone. So, we still have questions,” Rawlings-Blake said.

Gray was in perfect health until police chased and tackled him, Murphy said. Less than an hour later, he was on his way to a trauma clinic with a spinal injury, where he fell into a coma.

The family has not seen the autopsy report yet, Murphy said, and relatives are still waiting to take possession of Gray’s body. The family intends to have a second, private autopsy conducted once Baltimore police turn over the body, the attorney said.

What the police say

Police, according to their own timeline, spotted Gray, gave chase, caught him, cuffed him and requested a paddy wagon in fewer than four minutes.

The transport van left with Gray about 11 minutes after that, police said, and another 30 minutes passed before “units request paramedics to the Western District to transport the suspect to an area hospital.”

Murphy and angry residents of Baltimore want to know what happened in those 30 minutes in between.

When cell phones began recording, Gray was already on the ground with three officers kneeling over him. He let out long screams.

Police said Gray requested medical attention, including an inhaler, and an ambulance took him to the University of Maryland Medical Center’s Shock Trauma Center.

“He lapsed into a coma, died, was resuscitated, stayed in a coma and on Monday underwent extensive surgery at Shock Trauma to save his life,” Murphy said. “He clung to life for seven days.”

CNN’s John Verhovek, Suzanne Malveaux, Eliott C. McLaughlin, Evan Perez, Shawn Nottingham, AnneClaire Stapleton, Julian Cummings, Chris Cuomo, Ben Brumfield and Dana Ford contributed to this report.

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(CNN) — Gov. Mike Pence unleashed a firestorm on Indiana last week when he signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Critics of the law contend it could be used by individuals and businesses to discriminate — particularly against the LGBT community of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals — on the basis of religion.

(Photo courtesy/WXIN)

Those for and against Indiana’s controversial “religious freedom” bill gathered at the Statehouse on Wednesday, March 25, 2015, the day before Governor Mike Pence signed the bill into law.

The ramifications for the Hoosier State are just starting to be felt in the form of boycotts, petitions and travel bans.

As the controversy mushrooms, here’s what got us to where we are. And where things are headed.

The act is signed

Last week, Pence put his signature on the RFRA — a law that allows Indiana businesses to cite their religious freedom as a legal defense.

The law states that the government can’t “substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” and that individuals who feel like their religious beliefs have been or could be “substantially burdened” can lean on this law to fend off lawsuits.

In an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, Pence says the RFRA “ensures that Indiana law will respect religious freedom and apply the highest level of scrutiny to any state or local governmental action that infringes on people’s religious liberty.”

Pence notes that there is no reference to sexual orientation in the law.

The backlash is immediate

Civil liberties and gay rights groups hold to their stance that the law could be used by businesses to deny service to people based on their sexual orientation and justify that discrimination based on their religious belief.

“Silence is consent!” tweets Laurel Davilia, a commentator on Brass Knuckles Progressives Radio.

Boycotts begin

From sports teams to musicians to other cities and states, they fell like dominoes.

The NCAA, which is headquartered in Indianapolis and set to host its men’s basketball Final Four in the city this week, said the law could lead it to move events elsewhere in future years. The NBA, WNBA and NFL issued critical statements too.

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay says fans of all stripes are welcome.

“The Colts have always embraced inclusiveness, tolerance, and a diverse fan base,” Irsay tweets. “We welcome ALL fans to Colts Nation. ONE FAMILY!”

A petition posted on change.org hopes to get the Big Ten Conference to move its football championship out of Indianapolis.

“I think that Indiana needs to be told that it must respect all persons regardless of sex, age, religion, gender identity, or sexual orientation,” Sean Burke of Madison, Wisconsin, says in the petition. “As a football fan, I think we can send a message by calling on the NCAA and Big Ten Conference to take a stand.”

Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis is scheduled to host the league’s championship game through the 2021 season.

At last check, the petition had more than 11,000 supporters.

The mayors of San Francisco and Seattle have barred spending on travel to Indiana. The governors of Connecticut and Washington state did the same thing.

And you can add Wilco to the boycott bandwagon. The group is canceling its May 7 show in Indianapolis, it says on Facebook.

“The ‘Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act’ feels like thinly disguised legal discrimination to us,” Wilco says. “Hope to get back to the Hoosier State someday soon, when this odious measure is repealed.”

Cher is among the artists speaking out. Her son Chaz Bono is a transgender man.

“#GOVPENCE IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF RIGHT WING RACISM, ASAULT ON WOMANS RIGHTS & HATRED OF LGBT AMERICANS,” she tweets.

State walks back … sort of

Indiana’s top two state lawmakers pledged Monday to amend the state’s controversial “religious freedom” law to clarify that it cannot be used to discriminate against gay people.

“This law does not discriminate, and it will not be allowed to do so,” David Long, the Indiana Senate president pro tem, said during a news conference with state House Speaker Brian Bosma.

Pence had said earlier that he was working with lawmakers to clarify the law.

Critics don’t buy it

Critics still weren’t on board with the anti-discrimination claims. Opponents of RFRA marched around the state capitol.

Someone even created a satire ad: “Indiana. It’s a great place to be a bigot.”.

They demand change

The rhetoric has reached such a fever pitch that a front page editorial in Tuesday’s edition of the Indianapolis Star blares the headline: “Fix. This. Now.”

The editorial suggests the RFRA and protections for gays and lesbians can co-exist.

The state is at a crossroads it says.

“(N)o matter its original intent (the law) already has done enormous harm to our state and potentially our economic future,” according to the editorial. “Only bold action — action that sends an unmistakable message to the world that our state will not tolerate discrimination against any of its citizens — will be enough to reverse the damage.”

The editorial closes with:

“Governor, Indiana is in a state of crisis. It is worse than you seem to understand.

“You must act with courage and wisdom. You must lead us forward now. You must ensure that all Hoosiers have strong protections against discrimination.

“The laws can co-exist. And so can we.”

Some presidential hopefuls offer support

Some of the GOP’s top figures are backing Pence despite the controversy. Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio have voiced their support. Both are considered likely Republican candidates for the White House.

Sen. Ted Cruz, who announced his candidacy last week, is also on board.

“I’m proud to stand with Gov. @mike_pence for religious liberty, and I urge Americans to do the same,” Cruz tweets.

Indy is not the only state

Indiana is the 20th state to adopt a “religious freedom restoration” law, most of which are modeled after the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1993.

But that law passed with the backing of a broad-based coalition and wasn’t set against the backdrop of gay rights or the wave of marriage equality laws that have swept the country in recent years.

Adam Talbot, a spokesman with the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, stresses that those 20 laws are “dramatically different in their scope and effect.”

“Calling them similar in this way risks being misleading. Indiana is the broadest and most dangerous law of its kind in the country,” Talbot says.

Arkansas’ legislature passed an Indiana-style law on Friday, which now heads to the state’s governor for approval.

Governor hard pressed to explain

Despite the countroversy, the Indiana governor says concerns that his state’s new “religious freedom” law will allow businesses to turn away LGBT customers is the result of a “tremendous amount of misinformation and misunderstanding.”

Still, he was hard pressed to explain why that wasn’t the case.

Given a chance on Sunday to add some clarity, Pence refused to answer at least six yes-or-no questions from ABC’s George Stephanopoulos about whether the measure legalizes discrimination against gays and lesbians.

Jeremy Diamond and Eric Bradner contributed to this report.

CNN — President Barack Obama’s war drums continue to beat, but an offhand comment from Secretary of State John Kerry has set in motion a diplomatic effort by Russia — seized on at the United Nations — to ward off a U.S. strike on Syria in favor of mediation.

What Kerry said was that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could prevent a strike if he “could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week.” Kerry added that Syria would not be willing to do this.

Russia has latched on to the proposal, and Syria says it is taking the idea seriously.

The view is that Kerry’s comment is either an accidental out for a president hemmed in by his own red line, or a momentum-sucking goof that may have erased any chance Obama had to engage in a military strike without broader international approval.

Will Russia’s proposal delay an Obama strike? And how can Obama sway Americans to support military action? With his approval ratings on all fronts tanking, his prime-time televised address Tuesday night will be crucial. It’ll be the administration’s closing argument after a week of courting lawmakers.

Here are five things to look for today.

1. What Obama says in his speech

The president will still make the case that Congress must authorize military force in Syria, a senior administration official told CNN. This, despite the fact that Obama believes Kerry’s offhand offer for Syria to turn over its chemical weapons could bear fruit now that Russia and the United Nations have jumped aboard.

The link between the two? The administration argues that the offer to turn over chemical weapons wouldn’t be on the table if not for the threat of force.

A senior administration official told CNN that Kerry’s not in trouble with the president for the comment, but does admit that it was off the cuff while restating administration policy. Bottom line: It wasn’t inconsistent with what was happening behind the scenes, according to the official.

To make his case for a military strike, the president will lay out what happened in the chemical weapons attack in Syria on August 21, and why it’s in America’s interest to act. He’ll argue that the United States can’t let this kind of attack go unanswered, and he’ll tell us how he sees it affecting the safety of U.S. troops.

And perhaps the toughest one of all, he’ll tell a nation weary from more than a decade of war why Syria isn’t Iraq or Afghanistan.

2. Whether Russia’s diplomatic volley has knocked the steam out of a strike

The White House isn’t acting like it has. If anything, the lobbying on Capitol Hill is intensifying ahead of the president’s address.

It all starts with Obama, who will go to the Hill on Tuesday to make his case to Senate Democrats, a Senate leadership aide told CNN. Making sure to hit both sides of the aisle, the president also will attend the Senate GOP lunch, a Senate Republican aide said.

The House Armed Services Committee hosts three of the administration’s big guns beginning Tuesday morning: Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. All of them will get important face time with the influential committee.

Although no longer a member of the administration, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will speak on Syria at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening, just ahead of the president’s national address.

3. Whether the lobbying efforts pay off in votes

For the time being, the tide is against the White House. On Monday, six senators notched their votes in the “no” column, with just one, Democrat Barbara Mikulski, saying she would favor military intervention against Syria. In the House, chalk up 13 new “no” votes.

That brings the total of “no” votes to 29 in the Senate and 161 in the House.

Still, there are a lot of undecided members — 46 in the Senate and at least 229 in the House. The numbers could still work out for the president.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid postponed a procedural vote that had been scheduled for Wednesday. The Senate’s in no hurry to vote on Syria.

4. If Obama fares better in the court of public opinion

The president’s approval rating on foreign policy is at an all-time low of 40%, a steady slide from 54% in January, according to a CNN/ORC International survey.

Just three in 10 approve of how he’s handling Syria.

The public is split right down the middle on whether Obama is a strong leader, whether he is honest and trustworthy, and whether he inspires confidence.

Then there’s the whole “war weariness” issue in play. Six in 10 say the war in Iraq was a mistake, and 50% say the same thing about Afghanistan. Three-quarters say the United States doesn’t need to be the “world policeman.”

Also hurting the president’s cause, more than seven in 10 say a strike would not achieve significant goals for the United States, and a similar amount say it’s not in the national interest for the country to get involved in Syria’s civil war, a separate CNN/ORC International poll shows.

The sentiments come despite survey results that show 80% of Americans believe al-Assad’s regime gassed its own people.

5. How the international community reacts

The next move appears to be Russia’s in this diplomatic chess match. Can Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov deliver on the offer to have Syria hand its chemical arsenal over to international control, or is it just an effort to buy time for the Assad regime?

Lavrov said Tuesday that Russia’s working on a “workable, clear, specific plan” that it’ll present soon.

The White House is willing to listen and, perhaps, wait a bit — but not too long.

“It’s certainly a positive development when the Russians and Syrians both make gestures towards dealing with these chemical weapons,” Obama told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Monday. But he said the threat of American force would remain.

“We don’t want just a stalling or delaying tactic to put off the pressure that we have on there right now.”

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is listening, too. He’s considering asking the U.N. Security Council to demand the Syrian government immediately hand over its chemical weapons to be destroyed.

France and Germany also say they like what they’re hearing about a diplomatic solution. But, the French foreign minister said, the Security Council needs to oversee the process, which should start immediately, and the plan shouldn’t let anyone off the hook for ordering a chemical attack.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tuesday that France is proceeding with caution.

“We take note of this new position with interest but also precaution,” he said. “We do not want it to be used as a maneuver for diversion.”

What the French want to see is for Syria to be transparent about its chemical weapons program and to put it under international control.

France also wants the perpetrators of the deadly chemical weapons attack tried before the international justice system, Fabius said.

Iran, a longtime Syria ally, welcomes the Russian initiative “to stop militarism in the region.”

China, also an ally of Syria, says it welcomes and supports the proposal.

The opposition Free Syria Army says Russia’s proposal is nothing more than a stalling tactic.

“Here we go again with the regime trying to buy more time in order to keep on the daily slaughter against our innocent civilians and to fool the world,” said Louay al-Mokdad, a spokesman for the group.

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