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The Dripby Brew Editors3:12 pmAug 20, 20120

Charges against maced EBDI protester to be dropped

The attorney for Thomas Threatt, whose arrest by Baltimore city police during a March protest was captured on video, says charges against the self-employed laborer are being dropped today in Circuit Court.

“The state saw the video, which was enhanced, and zeroed in on the police brutality and decided it was not in their interest to pursue the case,” attorney Arthur M. Frank said this morning.

Threatt had been facing charges of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and failure to obey a police officer and in June requested a jury trial.

Frank said he hopes the state drops charges filed against three other men arrested during the protest, which had been organized near Johns Hopkins Hospital by the group Community Churches United.

The demonstrators had been protesting what they said was the failure of East Baltimore Development Inc. (EBDI) to provide construction jobs promised to East Baltimore residents.

Also arrested were Richie Armstrong, William Simmons and Earl King.

The video shows a prone Threatt trying to protect his face by pressing it to the ground, as five or six officers pin him down, yanking his head up by the hair at one point so they could continue to reach within inches of his face and spray it with the mace.

The video also shows officers putting their knees on Threatt’s back and neck.

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