I don't have a ton of time to be on here today as it's finals week, but I thought, as someone who has actually been placed in police custody and driven in one of these vehicles, I could provide a bit of insight.
On Halloween night in 2008, I was out at a bar in South Bend, Indiana with 3 friends. We were in town for the Pitt/ND game. We were having a nice time at the bar, dressed as "Frat Douchebags" and drinking the wonderful $15 RedBull/Vodka pitchers this bar likes to sell. I had a few too many, went outside and was sitting on the curb texting people. Eventually one of my friends comes out and convinces me to come back inside to get our friends and head back to my brother's house. On the way back in, there was a miscommunication between me and the bouncer (read: he was a dick and tried to charge me a 2nd cover and I wasn't really nice in my reply). A seemingly decent police officer came over to try to calm me down, but at that point, I was pretty much a lost cause. I said something really crappy to the cop and he put me in handcuffs, which only made me get more lippy. I proceeded to slam me into the concrete wall outside the bar, into the street lamp post, onto the sidewalk itself, and then onto the trunk of the car. Afterward a while he transferred me (and my friend who got arrested for, I kid you not, calling the officer "sir" against the officer's orders) into a wagon. We were not properly secured. I know this because I was able to get my phone out and text the other two friends that "Matt and I are in the paddy wagon and going downtown", to which they replied "cool, what bar?" (smart friends). I can tell you that I cracked my body/head into random walls of the wagon at least 3 times, and eventually fell onto the floor. When we got to the station they had to pick me up off the floor (no easy task, as I was about 330lbs at the time). I am not sure I'd say that the cops gave us a "rough ride" per se, but pretty much every ride in one of those things, if not properly secured, while handcuffed, will be a rough ride. If you were trying to make it rough, it would be extremely rough.
Now, the reason that I think they did this? Not because I was overly dickish to the cop. He'd probably heard what I said and worse 100 times in his career. But because it was 2am, and he was working at a bar, on Halloween, with a bunch of rich white kid ND students acting a fool, and here was this big drunk idiot saying shit to him. It upset him, and made him act out of character (I hope).
Now, fast forward to Baltimore. Historically violent city. Very black city (64% black). A lot of drug crime (Sheeeeiiiiiiit). These cops probably act a certain way because of the environment that they are in. It's conditioned them. And then something like this happens, and it comes out from the darkness that cops treat blacks like shit, and everyone is surprised.
I have admittedly been unable to really pay too much attention on this situation, only able to get bits and pieces from my occasional glances at Twitter or CNN.com, so I don't know all the details. But to claim the cops aren't at fault here is ridiculous. Once you've put someone in custody, they are in your custody. You can't throw your hands up after and say you aren't sure what happened to them.
Just my $.02
Also, as a bonus, here's a sweet pic of the frat boys and aforementioned $15 RBV pitchers taken a few hours before this happened (yeah, I woulda tossed me into a wall too, but, keep in mind it was Halloween...)
Were your hands cuffed in front or behind you?
