In 2023, Sgt. Ethan Newberg of the Baltimore Police Department pled guilty to misconduct in office—a charge he was initially given four years before. Now, body camera footage of one of Newberg’s nine known illegal arrests has been recovered by Police Accountability Report. The video shows Newberg escalating a parking ticket given to a FedEx driver to the arrest of a bystander who attempted to attempted to intervene on his coworkers behalf. But Newberg didn’t stop there—he even contacted FedEx in an effort to get the man he was arresting fired. Taya Graham and Stephen Janis discuss the case and the lengthy investigation and trial process that followed, throwing light on just how difficult it really is to hold police accountable for abuses of power.
Production: Taya Graham, Stephen Janis
Post-Production: Stephen Janis, Adam Coley
Transcript
Taya Graham: Hello, my name is Taya Graham, and welcome to the Police Accountability Report. As I always make clear, this show has a single purpose: holding the politically powerful institution of policing accountable. To do so, we don’t just focus on the bad behavior of individual cops, instead, we examine the system that makes bad policing possible. Today we’ll achieve that goal by showing you this video of a police officer arresting a man for talking. I am not kidding. But it’s why this cop felt empowered to abuse him and how the justice system fought to protect the officer that we will be unpacking for you today. It’s a story that reveals a troubling truism that this video goes a long way toward revealing. When police break the law, it can be challenging to hold them accountable.
But before I get started, I want you to know that if you have video evidence of police misconduct, please email it to us privately at par@therealnews.com or reach out to me on Facebook or Twitter @tayasbaltimore and we might be able to investigate for you. Please like, share, and comment on our videos. It helps us get the word out and it can even help our guests. You know I read your comments and appreciate them. You see those little hearts I give out down there and I’ve even started doing a comment of the week to show how much I appreciate your thoughts and to show what a great community we have. We do have a Patreon called Accountability Reports, so if you feel inspired to donate, please do. We don’t take corporate dollars or run ads, so anything you can spare is truly appreciated. All right, we’ve gotten that out of the way.
Now, as we often discuss on this show, holding police accountable is not only difficult but an ongoing challenge. Part of the reason for this is simple: Even when cops are caught breaking the law, the justice system often seems reluctant to punish them. This isn’t my opinion, today we have undeniable proof. That’s because the video I’m showing you now reveals how that system works. It depicts a former Baltimore police officer named Ethan Newberg making an illegal arrest that nearly destroyed a man’s life. An abuse of police power that is as shocking as it is matter-of-fact. But what makes this video even more troubling, is how we had to fight to obtain the video and why our state’s law enforcement establishment wanted to keep it secret.
But first, we need to review the evidence in detail and for that, we have this: The body-worn camera video of one of nine illegal arrests made by Baltimore Police Sergeant Ethan Newberg. Newberg pled guilty to misconduct in office in 2023. Those charges were brought by the office of former state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby in 2019, whose body-worn camera review office caught the illegal encounters and outlined charges that same year. The story of this illegal arrest begins in 2019, in a parking lot of a Baltimore City shopping center. There, police were writing a ticket to a FedEx driver who had stopped next to a curb to deliver a package. Ticketing a person delivering a package is questionable at best but this video is not about a parking ticket. Not hardly.
That’s because another FedEx driver arrived on the scene and began to argue on his coworker’s behalf, a show of driver solidarity that police soon determined was unacceptable. Now, just a note that some of the audio from Officer Newberg’s camera is distorted, which we could not fix, but we still thought it was important enough for you to hear it regardless. Take a look and listen.
[VIDEO CLIP BEGINS]
FedEx Driver 1: All right. I see this man writing me a ticket. There’s a car behind me. I run out here, I tell him I’m ready to move my car. He tells me he can’t; he has to finish it because he started writing it. Man, you don’t have to finish that. I sat there and say, there was a car right behind me. Did you give the person behind me a ticket and write that stuff up for them? He’s like, what car? Man, you seen it. He turned right there and said, oh, that car? Man, stop playing with me. I came out here to move my car. Stop it.
[Police radio talk]
Come on, now. I literally walked and saw him writing and I came right out here and said I’m going to move my car. He going to tell me, oh, I got to finish writing it. You don’t got to finish writing that.
[Distant crosstalk]
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: I’ll tell you what, you got about three seconds to stop him… Pull him over, pull him over. Stop him. Stop him.
[VIDEO CLIP ENDS]
Taya Graham: Now, I’m sure like me, you were confused by this video. What exactly was the crime that the driver committed? Since when did speaking to police constitute a crime? But that brief exercise of the constitutional rights of the driver was met with a resounding show of force, cuffs, and detainment. Just watch.
[VIDEO CLIP BEGINS]
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: Driver’s license and registration. No, no. Driver’s license and registration.
FedEx Driver 2: What’s up? What’s up?
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: Driver’s license?
FedEx Driver 2: Come take it. You a bitch, man. Like I said.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: Take him.
FedEx Driver 2: For what? For what? For what? I ain’t do shit. For what?
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: [Crosstalk] Call the FedEx company. Tell him his driver’s under arrest.
FedEx Driver 2: For what? For what? I see another FedEx driver getting in trouble.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: You’re not going to curse at officers and create a disturbance out here. Your truck’s gone, your job’s gone, I hope.
FedEx Driver 2: That’s cool.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: You have no right to even have this job.
FedEx Driver 2: You have no right to assault me like that. For talking to another employee? Yeah, I ain’t do shit.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: You’re not going to cuss at the police.
[VIDEO CLIP ENDS]
Taya Graham: Now, even after the driver was pushed into the back of a patrol car, Sergeant Newberg was not done. What you’re about to see next is a point we make on this show that is often ignored or at best, underestimated. That’s because even after Officer Newberg had clearly made an illegal arrest, the next step he took was even more disturbing. Take a look.
[VIDEO CLIP BEGINS]
FedEx Driver 2: Stopped for another FedEx employee. Both of us work for FedEx, yo. Both of us work for FedEx. This man asked me for my ID.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: Well, hopefully, you won’t be working for them long.
FedEx Driver 2: I gave this man my ID, right? He took my ID out my hand and grabbed my other hand and said I’m under arrest. For nothing. For nothing.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: You’re under arrest.
FedEx Driver 2: For nothing.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: Disorderly conduct.
FedEx Driver 2: For nothing.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: Sir, step in the vehicle. Sir.
FedEx Driver 2: That’s crazy.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: Have a good day.
FedEx Driver 2: That’s crazy. I’m going to work.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: I need someone to pick up the phone. I need your boss’s number.
FedEx Driver 2: That’s what I’m asking them. I’m saying can I get my phone out of my car so I can get you all that information?
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: No.
FedEx Driver 2: I’ll walk with you and all that. I’m not even going to do none of that. You already got me cuffed up, man.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: No, you’re going to jail and I’m calling your boss to come get your truck.
FedEx Driver 2: That’s okay.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: What’s your boss’s number?
FedEx Driver 2: It’s in my phone in my truck. That’s what I’m saying to you.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: What happens if I call the 1-800-FedEx number?
FedEx Driver 2: It’s going to send you to a hotline and they’re going to send you through a runaround. That’s all they’re going to do. I can literally get out the truck… I mean, get out this car and go with you. Yes, sir.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: No.
FedEx Driver 2: It’s right there inside the GPS thing.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: No.
FedEx Driver 2: That’s what I’m saying. Man, I don’t have no problem with going to jail, sir. I have no issue with that. If you’re going to lock me up, lock me up. It’s okay. I understand you’re frustrated. I understand you’re mad.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: No, I’m not frustrated, man. You’re not going to cuss at my officers. You’re not going to put their life at risk.
FedEx Driver 2: How did I put his life at risk?
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: You caused all these people to start coming out and cussing and carrying on. We have one guy now threatening us of that.
FedEx Driver 2: No, I didn’t cause any of this. I didn’t cause any of that.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: Yeah, you did.
FedEx Driver 2: I stopped for another employee who I know is another employee and said, yo, stop moving your hands around, yo. You don’t want to get [crosstalk] dumb ass.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: It’s all on body camera.
FedEx Driver 2: I know that.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: Police are a bunch of bitches, you’re bitches.
FedEx Driver 2: All this crime going on and y’all stopping a man for a ticket?
[VIDEO CLIP ENDS]
Taya Graham: That’s right. Sergeant Newberg told police to call FedEx with what we can only imagine is an attempt to cost the driver his job. I’m not kidding. Literally, for the crime of exercising his constitutional rights and talking. The officer decides that being put into a cage in the back of a patrol car and disrupting this young man’s life is simply not enough. That saddling him with a criminal record and court costs, legal fees, and perhaps bail was still insufficient. Just watch.
[VIDEO CLIP BEGINS]
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: Oh, this was unbelievable with this guy.
FedEx Driver 2: Look, what I’m saying to him is like, yo, he right. He right. I’m not sitting here disputing saying, yo, you wrong. I could have handled things differently. Same way this man could have handled things differently. We all could have handled things differently.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: I’m done with him. I’m just calling the 1-800 number now.
Police Officer: What’s the number, boss?
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: I don’t know the number.
Police Officer: Don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about it.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: Crew. What does he… Do you guys… Eddie, what are you doing?
Eddie: [Inaudible]
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: But why is he over at this truck?
FedEx Driver 1: Because I work for these guys, FedEx.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: Get him away from the truck.
FedEx Driver 1: What I’m doing [inaudible].
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: Yeah. This is Sergeant Newberg from the Baltimore City Police Department. Do you understand that? You understand what I’m saying? Your FedEx driver in one of your trucks is under arrest and his truck is just sitting out here. I need someone to come get it.
[VIDEO CLIP ENDS]
Taya Graham: But that’s not where the misconduct – And I am not mischaracterizing this here – Of the unrelenting overreach of Sergeant Newberg ended. That’s because when another resident exercised their First Amendment rights, criticizing him for what was clearly an illegal arrest, again Newberg threatened to make the situation worse. Just look.
[VIDEO CLIP BEGINS]
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: You get ready to go too.
Speaker 1: Freedom of speech!
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: You get ready to go too, big, man.
Speaker 1: [Inaudible] officer. Make sure your camera on. Make sure your camera on.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: Go away and take your balloons.
[VIDEO CLIP ENDS]
Taya Graham: Now, there are two types of police behavior that are worth breaking down in this encounter. Two aspects of how police behave when confronted with the wrongdoing of a fellow officer need to be examined. First, the victim of this illegal arrest shows more dignity than the police who arrested him. He tries to be understanding and show respect for the officer after he has not had the same done for him. But above and beyond that act of empathy is how many officers witnessed and worked with Newberg and how they stood by and allowed this illegal act to unfold. Even worse, finding ways to justify it on camera and bolster Newberg’s flimsy case that this driver had committed a crime. Just watch.
[VIDEO CLIP BEGINS]
FedEx Driver 2: Yo, you don’t got to treat us like this. You don’t have to treat people like this. We are human beings. That’s all it is. Y’all want to act… Y’all pulled up here deep. Literally. Literally. Literally. Yo, I didn’t [car door slams shut] –
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: What? That’s your FedEx driver.
Police Officer: We weren’t doing anything to him. He was complaining. He just stopped the other dude. It makes no sense, dude. Bro, you could have just said, hey, Kevin, what you do to [inaudible], and kept it moving, but you wanted to keep jabbing on him.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: Oh, this was unbelievable with this guy.
FedEx Driver 2: – Look, what I’m saying is like, yo, he right. He right. I’m not sitting here disputing saying, yo, you wrong. I could have handled things differently. Same way this man could have handled things differently. We all could have handled things differently.
[VIDEO CLIP ENDS]
Taya Graham: But even after sowing all the chaos that upended this young man’s life, Newberg is not done. At least not finished with exaggerating and portraying the driver to his employer as a reckless individual with contempt for the law. Just listen.
[VIDEO CLIP BEGINS]
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: So you got locked up for him, but what’s he doing for you? He’s over there and ain’t saying a word.
FedEx Driver 2: You right, man. You right. Sir, sir. You right, because he obviously got more common sense than me. That’s literally what I –
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: You really just lost your job probably.
[To FedEx supervisor on phone] Well, I can try to fill you in on what’s going on with your driver, if you’d like to know. A supervisor was called, which would be me, the supervisor, because an employee, I guess he’s on his lunch break, I don’t know what his deal was, was parked in a fire lane in his personal car. An officer was giving him a parking ticket. He was hooting and hollering out here. It turns out he’s a FedEx employee, which whatever, he’s carrying on, didn’t want his ticket. Whatever, that’s his prerogative.
The problem became when your FedEx driver pulled up in a truck, I guess he is a fellow employee of this gentleman, stops in his FedEx truck, and starts cussing at the police and making a heck of a scene. He’s told to knock it off, he continues, and now he’s cussing at the police and people are gathering. I don’t know what this guy’s deal was, but it got to the point where based for safety issues for the police involved, he was taken into custody. I don’t know what this guy’s deal was or what his problem was with the police, but now we have a FedEx truck running here sitting in the middle of the roadway in the shopping center, and we got him in handcuffs in the back of a car. That’s where we’re at.
[VIDEO CLIP ENDS]
Taya Graham: To put an exclamation point on how troubling this entire encounter is, I want you to watch how this arrest actually unfolded and compare it to how Officer Newberg described it to his employer. Let’s watch the arrest and then play back Officer Berg’s description as we play the video of what actually happened.
[VIDEO CLIP BEGINS]
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: [To FedEx supervisor on phone] A supervisor was called, which would be me, the supervisor, because an employee, I guess he’s on his lunch break, I don’t know what his deal was, was parked in a fire lane in his personal car. An officer was giving him a parking ticket. He was hooting and hollering out here. It turns out he’s a FedEx employee, which whatever, he’s carrying on, didn’t want his ticket. Whatever, that’s his prerogative.
The problem became when your FedEx driver pulled up in a truck, I guess he is a fellow employee of this gentleman, stops in his FedEx truck, and starts cussing at the police and making a heck of a scene. He’s told to knock it off, he continues, and now he’s cussing at the police and people are gathering. I don’t know what this guy’s deal was, but it got to the point where based for safety issues for the police involved, he was taken into custody. I don’t know what this guy’s deal is or what his problem was with the police, but now we have a FedEx truck running here sitting in the middle of the roadway in the shopping center, and we got him in handcuffs in the back of a car. That’s where we’re at.
[VIDEO CLIP ENDS]
Taya Graham: Even after all this, the most troubling moment of this entire ordeal occurs when Newberg, using the weapons of handcuffs, jail time, and the loss of a job, to force – And I mean force – The driver to confess that he was wrong on body-worn camera. In this short ordeal of time, Newberg literally manages to violate the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments of the Constitution in a single conversation, shredding the civil rights of this young man and the Constitution, simultaneously. Just look.
[VIDEO CLIP BEGINS]
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: Well, what I should have done is just towed the thing and not wasted my time making any of these phone calls.
FedEx Driver 2: Sir, I understand. I understand. I understand.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: I’m trying to help your company out. I don’t have to do all this stuff.
FedEx Driver 2: I understand that, man. I understand.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: Now I’m just trying to figure out now that you’ve calmed down whether to still take you to jail or let you go on your merry way with this truck.
FedEx Driver 2: I wish you would let me go on my merry way with this truck.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: But the issue I have [crosstalk] – Hold on a minute. The issue I have with this whole situation is I honestly believe that you think you did nothing wrong, and that’s the problem I have with this.
FedEx Driver 2: No, I know what I did wrong.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: What do you think you did wrong? I don’t even care if you pulled up and said to your compadre there, hey, let the punk police do what they got –
FedEx Driver 2: See, that’s what I’m –
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: – You’re not even letting me talk. I don’t even care. Let the punk police write you your ticket. I’m surprised they had nothing better to do and drove away. That’s not exactly what you did. What you did was you took it to the next level and your anger just came spewing out of you and the cussing and the carrying on and people… It’s all on camera, sir.
FedEx Driver 2: – No, I said the fuss and the stuff.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: It was ridiculous. Do you have children?
FedEx Driver 2: Yes.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: You support them with your job?
FedEx Driver 2: Yes.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: Why would anybody risk that to do what you did for him? What is he, your brother? Were we kicking his face in?
FedEx Driver 2: No. Y’all weren’t doing none of that, man.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: Were we choking him?
FedEx Driver 2: It was [inaudible] happening with him.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: You’re a grown man.
FedEx Driver 2: Right, sir.
Sgt. Ethan Newberg: You have a family. This isn’t the street corner down here where it’s like a bunch of knuckleheads jumping all over the police and you have nothing to lose. You have a job, a good job with probably a good company with benefits. What are you doing? Get your head on straight.
[VIDEO CLIP ENDS]
Taya Graham: Now, oddly in the end, Sergeant Newberg lets the driver go, only after he humiliated him, told his boss that he was a lawless instigator, and made him confess to a crime he didn’t even commit. But this particular encounter is not the end of this story. There is much, much more to tell about the crimes of Newberg, a story that has to do with the system we often discuss that makes bad policing possible. For more on that, I’m joined by my reporting partner, Stephen Janis, who was in the courtroom with me when Newberg was sentenced. He’s reviewed the other videos that were released by the Baltimore City Police Department. Stephen, thank you so much for joining me.
Stephen Janis: Taya, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Taya Graham: Stephen, you were at the sentencing hearing for Sergeant Newberg. What did he say before he was sentenced? Was he remorseful? Did he apologize?
Stephen Janis: Taya, we watched his entire proceeding. He was anything but remorseful. He blamed what he did on the culture of Baltimore policing, that is old-school style policing, where police were supposed to go into neighborhoods, sow disorder, and order people around, and he said that was the problem. It wasn’t him. In fact, he said, it’s amazing that my whole career has come down to a couple of arrests on video. He said, if it wasn’t for the video, I wouldn’t be here. He was not remorseful or a man who put the blame on himself.
Taya Graham: What type of sentence did the prosecutors ask for? What did they think was fair for the crimes he committed against the public?
Stephen Janis: Taya, the prosecutors were quite emphatic that he deserved 36 months in prison. They said that an officer like Ethan Newberg makes it more difficult for officers to go out and do their jobs because people see him, see what he does, and think that’s the Baltimore Police Department. It erodes trust in the community. He asked the judge to reaffirm that faith in the justice system by giving him a sentence of three years, making him spend some time behind bars like some of the people that he arrested himself.
Taya Graham: Now, Newberg’s attorney argued that in some sense Newberg was just doing what he was ordered to do. In other words, this was just Baltimore policing as it was designed to work. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Stephen Janis: Ethan Newberg’s lawyer was very emphatic too, saying that, hey, this is the culture of Baltimore Police. Police were supposed to do what former police commissioner Ed Norris said, go into a corner and disrupt. That is, disrupts whatever’s going on in the community. At that point, it was supposed to be targeted at drug dealers, but as we both know who has covered zero tolerance in Baltimore, it was much more widespread and was applied to any situation where people in the city congregated. Drinking a beer on a stoop, any relatively innocent activity suddenly became criminalized. But his lawyer said that’s what they were told to do. Even Ethan Newberg said in his statement that now officers aren’t going out and being proactive like he was, and that’s why crime has gone up in the city. It was an interesting argument in the sense that there was very little remorse or very little taking account for their own actions.
Taya Graham: Stephen, as a reporter who has covered the city of Baltimore for 20 years, you saw some of that policing before, but it’s extraordinary that it’s occurring now because wasn’t the police department under a consent decree when this happened?
Stephen Janis: Taya, since 2016 the city has been under a consent decree with the Department of Justice based upon an investigation that found the Baltimore Police Department engaged in unconstitutional and racist policing for years. This happened way after that. Let’s remember also the Gun Trace Task Force, eight officers who robbed residents and stole overtime, also occurred during the investigation by the Justice Department. It seems like the Justice Department doesn’t have a lot of effect on some individual officers, especially those officers who are used to what we call the old-school style of policing in Baltimore.
Taya Graham: Stephen, finally, what did the judge do? What was the sentence for Sergeant Newberg?
Stephen Janis: Well, Taya, here’s where all the ideas put forward by the prosecutor that this is going to show some accountability to the public: Ethan Newberg got six months of home detention.
Taya Graham: Wait, excuse me?
Stephen Janis: Yeah.
Taya Graham: No jail time for nine different illegal arrests caught on camera?
Stephen Janis: Yeah. Six months of home detention, Taya. No jail time for Ethan Newberg. Not a second in jail. Nothing. Even when he was arraigned, he went to jail for maybe a couple hours and got out despite the fact that we’ve caught nine arrests like this on video and that the suffering of the people in the community, because of his actions, Ethan Newberg will never see the inside of a jail cell. In fact, at the time his lawyer said that he could serve his time not in Baltimore City where the crimes occurred, but in Carroll County, a suburb of Baltimore, which he said would be much safer for Mr. Newberg. It was from the beginning, even though the judge seemed like he was going to sentence him to some time, the judge gave him six months of home detention. That’s the result of what you’ve seen. That’s why people are raising questions about this sentence because they’re saying, how on earth can we hold officers accountable if someone who’s been caught on video breaking the law doesn’t serve any jail time?
Taya Graham: Thank you, Stephen. I want you to think about what Stephen revealed regarding Sergeant Newberg’s punishment, or lack thereof, in the context of the idea I raised at the beginning of the show – How difficult it is to hold police accountable. The video we watched was a perfect example of what happens when police powers are allowed to be abused, unchecked, and what it means when we allow our fear of crime to justify law enforcement that is neither lawful nor effective. But there is a deeper problem here embedded in the crimes of this officer, an idea that informs why we are still dealing with these types of tactics amid efforts to reform policing across the country. To put it as plainly as possible, I have a very simple reason why police tactics like this proliferate and despite the best efforts of activists and in some cases even elected representatives, they will continue to persist. A fight over something that may seem entirely unrelated to policing, but if we probe deeper, is actually one of the primary reasons this debate rages on. Asthma.
Oh, that’s right. You heard me. Your computer, your phone, it’s not malfunctioning. I actually said asthma. A terrible disease that afflicts people from all walks of life and requires them to use an inhaler to survive. It’s a byproduct of industrialization and poverty that consigns people who’ve been affected to dependence upon a medical product that has now been subject to a different conflict, a fight that might seem peripheral, but speaks to the core reason we accept, and in some ways, bolster bad policing in communities that already are under siege. That’s because Senator Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Senate’s Education and Welfare Committee, recently sent a letter to the CEOs of four major pharmaceutical companies. The letter, the contents of which he released publicly this week, asked one simple question; why? Why do four of the largest major drug companies in the US charge up to 10 times more for an inhaler here than they do in other countries?
Why, he wondered, do the sick people in the US often go without inhalers due to their steep price when a citizen of Germany, for example, pays $9 for the same lifesaving care? It’s a critical question because according to that same letter, some 25 million Americans suffer from asthma and another 16 million Americans with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and both require an inhaler to survive. And both must pay multiple times, no, exponential times, what their counterparts in European countries have to fork over for the exact same medication. But of course, at this part of my rant, you’re probably asking, Taya, what the heck does this have to do with a crooked cop? What does the exorbitant price of an asthma inhaler have to do with one rogue officer who decided to make one man’s life utterly miserable?
That is a fair question. Please allow me to answer. Both are related because ultimately both are acts of violence. One is economic violence and the other, is a matter of criminal justice, violence against our liberties, and civil rights, but both seek to degrade our agency, and our quality of life, and erode the rights of the people who are subject to them. We make a fundamental mistake when we limit our conversations about rights to specific guarantees outlined in the Constitution, those rights are important, but they mean little to the people who can’t breathe or can’t afford the medicine to prevent them from suffocating. The point where both of these injustices intersect is often less tangible, but just as important to comprehend because the unchecked power of officers like Newberg stems from the same pathos of the ability of wealthy pharma companies to gouge the sick and the poor.
It’s the disease called inequality. While it starts with the big companies charging outrageous prices, it’s enforced by agents of the government like Newberg who uses power to erode our political efficacy and thus our ability to fight back. If we spend all our time defending our basic rights from one cop, how on earth can we fight the bigger battle for the right to affordable healthcare? If an officer of the law can break the law to break us, what chance do we have to advance or expand our rights not to be overcharged for life-saving healthcare? Seriously, when you think about it, the rights that Newberg assaulted should be the starting point, not the culmination, of our rights. Guaranteeing that the government can’t rifle through our belongings, whatever they want, or that we don’t have to testify against ourselves are not exactly the key to a happy existence; It’s just a basic safeguard from tyranny.
This is why I brought up the idea of the extractive expense of asthma inhalers in the context of over-policing. Because what community, what group of reasonable people would decide that the right to breathe should be prohibitively expensive? What type of society would overcharge people for a lifesaving medication while a person in another country with the same ailment pays a fraction of the cost? Is that the policy of the greatest and wealthiest nation on earth? Is that how we perpetuate freedom and democracy, by gouging desperately ill people? Of course, there is one place where our great nation doesn’t mind being generous. Yes, we might overcharge sick people, but there is a group we don’t mind showering with cash and thrusting them into the 1%, and that group is cops, or more specifically Sergeant Ethan Newberg himself.
That’s right because the same officer whose crimes were captured on the video that we showed you was actually notorious for one other rather intriguing distinction. The man who decided to cost another man his livelihood held a singular position in the city for which he worked that is entirely relevant to the topic of this show. Ethan Newberg, it turns out, was one of the highest-paid employees in the entire city. In the year he made all those illegal arrests, he gained roughly $239,000 in pay in overtime, a salary that put him on par with the mayor and the police commissioner, and money he made making illegal arrests and ruining people’s lives. He made over a quarter million dollars while violating the rights of Baltimore City residents like me.
If I take the precepts of capitalism to its logical conclusion that our free and fair market puts obvious values on goods services and people, there are a few conclusions that I can draw from these facts: One, a crooked cop who makes a legal arrest is exceptionally valuable to society. His ability to conjure reasons to put innocent people in cages gives him a real chance of being part of the luminous 1%. Conversely, if you are sick with asthma, it is perfectly acceptable to gouge you for illicit gains. Your life-threatening condition, through no fault of your own, deserves not one cent of compassion from the richest nation on earth. Hardly. The powers that be have made it impossible for the government to regulate or protect your right to breathe. Instead, they have all but assured companies that they can charge you whatever they want, that they, the rich CEOs and greedy shareholders, can reach into your pockets and extract every single penny in exchange for lifesaving medicine you cannot live without.
As you can see, it’s easy to ascertain what this country values and what rights amount to; A calculus I can outline for you before, if you’re keeping score at home. The crooked cop, enriched. The sick, they are impoverished. The innocent, jailed. The CEOs, showered with cash. The people, ignored. Our rights, diminished. Our health, monetized and our freedoms, limited. These are the inequities we have to fight. These are the values we must rethink. This is the justice that we deserve and we must demand because all of it is worth fighting for.
I have to thank Stephen Janis for his intrepid reporting, research, writing, and standing with me in that courtroom and helping me fight to get those body camera videos. Stephen, thank you so much.
Stephen Janis: Taya, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Taya Graham: I want to thank mods and friends of the show, Noli D. and Lacy R. for their support. Hi, Noli D. A very special thanks to our Accountability Reports patrons, we appreciate you and I look forward to thanking each and every one of you personally in our next livestream, especially Patreon associate producers John E.R., David K., Louis P., Lucita G., and super-friends Shane B., Pineapple Gold., Chris R., and Matter of Rights. I want you watching to know that if you have video evidence of police misconduct or brutality, please share it with us and we might be able to investigate for you. Please reach out to us. You can email us tips privately at par@therealnews.com and share your evidence of police misconduct.
You can also message us @policeaccountabilityreport on Facebook or Instagram or @eyesonpolice on Twitter. Of course, you can always message me directly @tayasbaltimore on Twitter or Facebook. Please like and comment. I really do read your comments and appreciate them. We do have the Patreon link pinned below, so if you feel inspired to donate, please do. Anything you can spare is truly appreciated. My name is Taya Graham and I’m your host of the Police Accountability Report. Please be safe out there.
Maximillian Alvarez: Thank you so much for watching The Real News Network, where we lift up the voices, stories, and struggles that you care about most. We need your help to keep doing this work, so please tap your screen now, subscribe, and donate to The Real News Network. Solidarity forever.
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