Bush on Baltimore: ‘The process works’

Former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-Fla.) on Friday said that the legal system would discover the truth of Freddy Gray’s death while in Baltimore police department custody.

“The process works, and it will go forward from here on out,” Bush said, according to The Associated Press.

{mosads}“People are innocent until proven guilty,” he said of the six police officers charged in Gray’s death.

Bush, who is exploring a 2016 presidential run, was responding to prosecutors’ finding Gray’s death was a homicide and bringing charges against six police officers.

Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died on April 19 while in police custody following a spinal injury suffered after his initial arrest on April 12.

The former governor said economic inequality may be causing friction between law enforcement officials and minority communities.

“I think we need, as a nation, to have a conversation about why it is we’re creating these big pockets of poverty,” Bush said.

Bush’s remarks came during a stop at the North Carolina Republican Party headquarters in Raleigh. He urged Baltimore’s citizens to exercise restraint as the legal process began searching for justice.

“When you cross the line and you start doing damage to property and harming people, innocent people, that’s a problem,” Bush said.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced during a press conference that afternoon that Caesar Goodson, the driver of a transport van ferrying Gray, would face second-degree murder charges.

Charges filed against the other officers included involuntary manslaughter to assault and false imprisonment.

The Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police on Friday dismissed Mosby’s charges and called for a special prosecutor instead.

President Obama, meanwhile, vowed that same afternoon that “justice needs to be served” for lasting peace in the troubled city.

Baltimore police arrested 235 people on Tuesday after riots began following Gray’s funeral on Monday. At least 20 law enforcement officials were injured in the violent demonstrations.