Baltimore mayor, police commissioner urge calm as city prepares for night curfew

Baltimore's mayor and police commissioner urged calm Tuesday afternoon as the city prepared for a second night of unrest following riots Monday that left parts of the city in rubble and disarray.

"For the most part, the city has been calm today," said Commissioner Anthony Batts at a joint press conference with the mayor late Tuesday.

He said police made two arrests after some "opportunists" tried to loot some businesses in the eastern part of the city, but in general, residents pulled together to bring "calm and peace" back to the city.

Batts said the presence of law enforcement in the city has been boosted by the arrival of state troops, the Maryland National Guard as well as officers from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the D.C. area and several other counties in the state.

"The numbers are growing to make sure everyone is safe," he said.

A demonstrator has his faced washed off after police reacted with pepper spray when items were thrown at officers outside a looted and burned CVS pharmacy in Baltimore on Tuesday. (Jim Bourg/Reuters)

The entire city is under curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. ET, but as of 6 p.m. ET small groups of demonstrators were still marching in the streets in parts of the city.

The city spent Tuesday cleaning up after the riots that kicked off soon after the funeral of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died in police custody. Hundreds of volunteers swept the streets of broken glass and other debris and boarded up the windows of looted and burned-out businesses and buildings.

The mayor thanked all those "who spent all day yesterday and today trying to figure how to come together as a city, how to heal."

The streets were calm Tuesday, with public schools and many businesses close. The Baltimore Orioles announced that their Wednesday night game against the White Sox would be closed to the public.

City won't be 'unprotected,' governor vows

Authorities remained vigilant against the possibility of another outbreak of looting and arson overnight Tuesday to Wednesday.

"We're not going to leave the city unprotected," Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan vowed during a visit to a West Baltimore intersection where cars were burned and windows smashed the night before.

The city remains under a state of emergency.

Commissioner Batts responded to criticism that polic had been unprepared for Tuesday's escalation, by saying several hundred officers had been deployed around the site where the riots began but had deliberately held back because the rioters were teenagers

"Do you want people using force against 14,15 16-year-old kids?" he said. "They're old enough to know what they're doing. they're old enough to be accountable, but they're still kids."

State police and law officers from other jurisdictions joined Baltimore police in patrolling the streets Tuesday. National Guardsmen in riot helmets with face shields surrounded City Hall, standing behind bicycle-rack barriers.

It was the first time the National Guard was called out to quell unrest in Baltimore since 1968, when some of the same neighbourhoods burned after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Maryland National Guardsmen patrol near downtown businesses in Baltimore, Tuesday, a day after looting and arson erupted. (Patrick Semansk/Associated Press)

As firefighters doused smoldering fires around the city, many lamented the damage done by the rioters to their own neighbourhoods.

Hundreds of volunteers helped shopkeepers clean up as helmeted officers blocked a stretch of North Avenue in the neighbourhood where Gray, 25, was arrested earlier in this month in a case that has become the latest flashpoint in the national debate over the police use of deadly force against black men.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake tours the city Tuesday in the aftermath of Monday's rioting. (Matt Rourke/Associated Press)

Hardware stores donated trash bags and brooms, and city workers brought in trucks to haul away mounds of trash and broken glass.

With schools closed, Blanca Tapahuasco brought her three sons, ages 2 to 8, from another part of the city to help sweep the brick-and-pavement courtyard outside a looted CVS pharmacy.

"We're helping the neighbourhood build back up," she said. "This is an encouragement to them to know the rest of the city is not just looking on and wondering what to do."

CVS store manager Haywood McMorris said the destruction didn't make sense: "We work here, man. This is where we stand, and this is where people actually make a living."

15 officers hurt, 200 people arrested

The rioting started in West Baltimore on Monday afternoon — less than 2 km from where Gray was arrested — and by midnight had spread to East Baltimore and neighbourhoods close to downtown and near the baseball stadium.

Marchers from the 300 Men March arrive at Pennsylvania Avenue and and W. North Avenue in Baltimore. (Steven D'Souza/CBC)

The rioters set police cars and buildings on fire, looted a mall and liquor stores and hurled rocks, bottles and cinderblocks at police in riot gear. Police responded occasionally with pepper spray or cleared the streets by moving in tight formation, shoulder to shoulder.

At least 15 officers were hurt. There were 144 vehicle fires, 15 structure fires and nearly 200 arrests.

The same community they say they care about, they're destroying. You can't have it both ways.- Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake

"They just outnumbered us and outflanked us," Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said. "We needed to have more resources out there."

The rioting was the worst such violence in the U.S. since the turbulent protests that broke out over the death of Michael Brown, the unarmed black 18-year-old who was shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, last summer.

"I understand anger, but what we're seeing isn't anger," Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake lamented. "It's disruption of a community. The same community they say they care about, they're destroying. You can't have it both ways."

Officials criticized for delaying response

State and local authorities found themselves responding to questions about whether their initial response had been adequate.

Rawlings-Blake waited hours to ask the governor to declare a state of emergency, and the governor hinted she should have come to him earlier.

People clean up a CVS drug store Tuesday that was looted and set on fire during clashes with police on Monday in Baltimore. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

"We were all in the command centre in the second floor of the state House in constant communication, and we were trying to get in touch with the mayor for quite some time," Hogan said at a Monday evening news conference. "She finally made that call, and we immediately took action."

Rawlings-Blake said officials initially thought they had gotten the unrest under control.

Maryland National Guard spokesman Lt. Charles Kohler said that about 2,000 members would be deployed through the day and that the force could build to 5,000.

We are going to be out in massive force.- Maj.-Gen. Linda Singh, Maryland National Guard

"We are going to be out in massive force, and that just means basically that we are going to be patrolling the streets and out to ensure that we are protecting property," said Maj.-Gen. Linda Singh, adjutant general of the Maryland National Guard.

Also, State police said they were putting out a call for up to 500 additional law enforcement officers from Maryland and as many as 5,000 from around the mid-Atlantic region.

Gray was arrested April 12 after running away at the sight of police, authorities said. He was held down, handcuffed and loaded into a police van. Leg cuffs were put on him when he became irate inside. He died of a spinal cord injury a week later.

Authorities said they are still investigating how and when he suffered the injury — during the arrest or while he was in the van, where authorities say he was riding without being belted in, a violation of department policy. A report into the death is expected Friday, CNN reported.

Six officers have been suspended with pay while the investigation continues.

While they are angry about what happened to Gray, his family said riots are not the answer.

"I think the violence is wrong," Gray's twin sister, Fredericka Gray, said late Monday. "I don't like it at all."

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