Freddie Gray is the 25-year-old black man who died in April one week after being arrested by police in Baltimore. Six Baltimore officers are being charged with Gray's death, which has since become one of the recognizable cases in the Black Lives Matter movement. Today a trial began for one of the officers, which CNN covered by indicting Gray and his mother Gloria Darden when it chose to describe him as the "son of an illiterate heroin addict." People cried foul on Twitter, Mediaite reports, calling the description "disgusting" and "tasteless," besides saying it was irrelevant information when it came to the trial. Others accused the article writers with trying to "put Gray on trial" for his own murder. Similarly the New York Times drew a media firestorm for describing the Planned Parenthood shooter, who lest we forget actually killed three people, as a "gentle loner." Here's CNN's quote in context:
But that was the only questionable description of Gray in the article. Towards the end of it CNN wrote, "At 25, Gray already had a lengthy rap sheet," citing an interview one of the accused six officers had with The Washington Post. "…Gray was known to officers as a "frequent flyer" with several arrests dating back to his teens," wrote CNN. "Most of them involve possession or sales of heroin and marijuana." What follows are some of people's reactions:
