|
 With helicopters overhead and armored vehicles on the ground, most
people respected a curfew that started at 10 p.m. EDT (0200 GMT
Wednesday) and goes until 5 a.m. all week.
But a few hundred people defied authorities, gathering at an
intersection that was the scene of heavy looting in the largely
black city a night earlier. Police broke up the group using rubber
bullets and projectiles with pepper spray chemical irritant, and
arrested seven people. Three more were arrested elsewhere in the
city.
Baltimore erupted in violence on Monday hours after the funeral for
a black man who died April 19 after he was injured in police custody
a week earlier.
The death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray has renewed a national debate
on law enforcement and race that was sparked by police killing
unarmed black men last year in Ferguson, Missouri; New York City and
elsewhere.
Just ahead of the curfew, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake went to the
intersection where protesters had gathered and pleaded with them to
go home.
 "Let's take our babies home and abide by the curfew. I want to thank
you for understanding that we want to bring peace," Rawlings-Blake
said through a megaphone.
On Monday, shops were looted, 19 buildings were set on fire, 20
officers were injured and police arrested more than 250 people in
the city just 40 miles (64 km) from the nation's capital in
Washington.
More than 2,000 National Guard troops and 1,000 police from all over
Maryland, as well as from New Jersey and the District of Columbia,
were sent in to restore order.
Almost a quarter of the 620,000 people in Baltimore live below the
poverty line and decayed, crime-ridden areas of the city inspired
the gritty television police drama "The Wire."
CLEANUP
Baltimore saw scenes of reconciliation, cleanup and even
celebration, as well as continued protest on Tuesday.
Groups of demonstrators marched and chanted "Black Lives Matter,"
one of the anthems of a national movement against police use of
lethal force, which is used disproportionately against minorities.
Near a looted and burned-out CVS pharmacy, hundreds of people waved
flags and swayed in the street as they watched 50 dancers gyrating
to the drumming of a unity band put together for the evening from
music groups from all over the city.
"It feels good to see everyone coming together. People just enjoying
themselves," said Roxanne Gaither, 45. "This is what Freddie Gray
would have wanted to see. Last night was terrible. If a curfew is
what it takes to avoid that, so be it."
In Chicago, about 500 people demonstrated outside police
headquarters and marched in solidarity with the people of Baltimore,
chanting "Stop Police Violence." At least one person was arrested,
but the event was mostly peaceful.
For nearly a week after Gray died from a spinal injury, protests in
Baltimore had been peaceful and Mayor Rawlings-Blake said she acted
cautiously on Monday to avoid a heavy-handed response that would
incite more violence.
[to top of second column] |
Police in Ferguson, Missouri, were widely criticized last year for
an aggressive, militarized response to demonstrations and rioting
after a white police officer shot dead an unarmed black teenager.
On Tuesday Baltimore's mayor responded to critics who said she
waited too long to act.
"It's a very delicate balancing act, when we have to make sure that
we're managing but not increasing and escalating the problem," said
Rawlings-Blake, 45, an African-American and Democrat who grew up in
the city.
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, said he had called
Rawlings-Blake repeatedly Monday but that she held off requesting
the National Guard until three hours after looting started. He ended
up declaring a state of emergency while she imposed the curfew.
'NO EXCUSE'
The security crisis disrupted the city's daily routines. Schools
were closed on Tuesday, but were scheduled to reopen on Wednesday.
In a rare move, the Major League Baseball game between the Baltimore
Orioles and Chicago White Sox will be played as scheduled Wednesday
but closed to the public.
Gray was arrested on April 12 while running from officers. He was
taken to the police station in a van, with no seat restraint and
suffered a spinal injury.
Six officers have been suspended, and the U.S. Justice Department is
investigating possible civil rights violations.
"There's no excuse for the kind of violence that we saw yesterday,"
said President Barack Obama. "It is counterproductive."
Obama also said at a news conference the problems in places such as
Baltimore were not new and need to be addressed by everyone.
"We can't just leave this to the police," Obama said, adding that,
"We as a country have to do some soul searching. This is not new.
It's been going on for decades."
(Additional reporting by Jim Bourg and Ian Simpson in Baltimore,
Laila Kearney in New York, Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles and Suzannah
Gonzales and Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; Writing by Mary Milliken and
Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Grant McCool)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
