Baltimore?s top clergy responded with outrage to the arrest of a fellow pastor who was driving to church, calling for changes in city arrest policies.
“It is unconscionable what is happening with the city Police Department,” said Bishop Douglas Miles, pastor of Koinonia Baptist Church and director of BUILD, a community activist group that represents churches citywide.
“It?s very obvious that the department is now out of control and in need of serious training and community relations,” he said.
The Rev. Charles Neal and his wife, Dana, were stopped May 28 in the 2900 block of Franklin Street for driving without a front license plate. Neal was subsequently arrested for driving with a suspended license, even though MVA records provided by Neal indicate his license was valid at the time. Neal spent 17 hours in Central Booking, while his wife was left on the street after their car was impounded.
“We were polite to them; they treated us like nothing,” Neal told The Examiner.
Police spokesman Matt Jablow said there is no single policy regarding arrests.
“Officers have a lot of discretion about when an arrest needs to be made,” Jablow said. “It?s extremely flexible.” He added that the department is looking into Neal?s arrest but that the officer who took him in “believes it was the right thing to do.”
But the Rev. Willie Ray, head of the Stop The Killing, Save Another Youth Coalition, said arresting clergy would not help the city.
“If you arrest the healers, the city will get sicker,” he said. “They should have at least escorted his wife.”
He expressed concern that arresting Neal, whom he said has helped the coalition?s efforts to counsel city youth against violence, sends the wrong message to people trying to make Baltimore a better place to live. “It?s rough. It?s a lack of respect for people, period,” Ray said.
Miles said the problem is a police policy that is often inflexible and at odds with citizens? needs. “There are such things as the letter of the law and the spirit of the law, and police officers have to be able to distinguish between them,” he said.
Examiner Staff Writer Kathleen Cullinan contributed to this story.
