Joseph Kent, the Baltimore man whose televised police “kidnapping” enraged the Internet, is set to be released today, Baltimore’s Central Booking and Intake Facility told the Daily Dot.
Kent was charged with violating the city’s 10 p.m. curfew, a CBIF employee said. The employee said she was instructed to not provide further information, and refused to say who had arrested Kent or to speculate on when on Thursday he would be set free.
He was one of many protesting in Baltimore after the police negligence-related death of Baltimore man Freddie Gray. Those protests have turned violent, with multiple officers reported injured, an unknown toll on civilians, and conflicting reports about who’s starting the violence.
Kent’s actual arrest, caught as if an afterthought on CNN right before 11 p.m. Tuesday night, provided a shocking image: a single man approaching a long line of riot police, suddenly swept away in a van with remarkable speed.
#JosephKent got me feeling like America is a military state.. when did the @BaltimorePolice start lookin like the paramilitaries in Colombia
— Ms. Ann Drist (@Juicy_Kayy_) April 29, 2015
#JosephKent kidnapped live on CNN and bundled into a National Guard hummer http://t.co/ZXBWXaYNM9 Venezuela? Baltimore, US!
— Jorge Martin ☭ (@marxistJorge) April 29, 2015
https://twitter.com/ImJustCeej/status/593288035841626112
Stephen Beatty, a Baltimore lawyer who says he represents Kent, says his client has urged nonviolent protest.
The one thing #JosephKent stressed to me most was he didn't want any more violence. Please honor his wish. He earned it with his liberty.
— 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔹𝕚𝕘 𝔸𝕔𝕢𝕦𝕚𝕥𝕥𝕒𝕝™ (@BeattyLaw) April 30, 2015
Sceengrab via YouTube | Remix by Fernando Alfonso III