No repeat of Monday night governor says
Protesters rallied and marched Tuesday. Baltimore Police Capt. Eric Kowalczyk described them as peaceful which he said is what we re used to seeing in Baltimore. That said about a dozen people had been arrested according to the police captain.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said at noon that he didn t know of additional instances of looting damage or violence. But he was mindful that may not be true for long and said he s especially concerned about Tuesday night.
If there is another flare up Hogan said authorities will be prepared with as much manpower and as many resources as we can (have).
They are not going to be in danger and their property will be protected he said of Baltimore residents and business owners. We re not going to have another repeat of what happened last night. It s not going to happen tonight.
Hogan declared a state of emergency Monday evening after a request from Baltimore s mayor around 6 p.m. that among other things expedited the deployment of hundreds of National Guard members. Up to 5 000 of them are ready to answer the call to join Baltimore police and up to 5 000 law enforcement officers were requested from around the Mid Atlantic region said Col. William Pallozzi of the Maryland State Police.
Rawlings Blake has imposed a mandatory curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. which is one reason why the Baltimore Orioles postponed their Tuesday night game and the Baltimore Ravens called off an NFL draft party set for Thursday night.
Wednesday s game between the Orioles and Chicago White Sox will be closed to the public the Orioles announced. A source within Major League Baseball told CNN the league is not aware of any prior closed door games in major league history.
There was no public school Tuesday nor were there classes at Johns Hopkins University.
Seeing my city like this breaks my heart. But like so many Baltimoreans my resolve is strong the mayor tweeted. We will not let these deplorable and cowardly acts of violence ruin OurCity.
Meanwhile citizens young and old are stepping up. They include people who came out to clean up like Harper and 15 year old Sulaiman Abdul Aziz who said he saw some of the mayhem.
I felt disappointed Abdul Aziz said because a lot of that could have been avoided if people would have started thinking before they would have done all that stuff.
You can read more about the Baltimore riots here.
Broken windows are not broken spines
The tensions in Baltimore come after demonstrations across the country over the deaths of black men after encounters with police including Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri Eric Garner in New York and Walter Scott in North Charleston South Carolina.
This latest eruption came after days of protests over Freddie Gray who mysteriously died on April 19 a week after Baltimore Police arrested him. Anger over his plight may have spurred Monday s violence but Baltimore City Council Member Brandon Scott said it was also fueled by a long long longstanding issue with young African Americans.
We re talking about years and decades of mistrust of misfortune of despair that it s just coming out in anger Scott said. No it is not right for them to burn down their own city. But that is what s coming out of these young people.
At least 20 officers were wounded in the unrest according to Capt. Kowalczyk. One person is in critical condition as a result of a fire he said.
It s clear that what we have to do is change the culture within the Baltimore Police Department Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said Tuesday. The process has been underway for more than two years but there is more to do he said.
Deray McKeeson a community organizer who was active in Ferguson and is now in Baltimore said that while he doesn t condone using destruction and violence he understands it as a way some vent frustrations. Broken windows are not broken spines he said.
McKeeson said the Baltimore vandalism even the injuries to some officers doesn t compare to the lost lives of Gray and other blacks at the hands of police. That s why he said protesters will remain out in full force rallying against what they see as systemic injustice.
Police have continued to kill people the activist said. Tonight will be another night where people come out into the streets to confront a system that is corrupt.
Purge by high school students
That stuff began with word of a purge after school Monday starting in Baltimore s Mondawmin Mall. It echoed a movie titled The Purge about a dystopian society in which for one day each year all laws are suspended for a 12 hour period.
Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said authorities knew about the large purge of high school students from across the city and staged 250 to 300 police officers at the mall as a precaution.
But it wasn t enough said Neill Franklin a former Maryland State Police officer who has worked with Baltimore police. Franklin told CNN that law enforcement officers were prepared physically (but) they were overwhelmed by the number of students.
Police in riot gear took cover behind an armored vehicle as assailants the instigators appearing to be high school students according to Batts hurled heavy objects at them.
I think they thought it was cute to throw cinder blocks at police the police commissioner said.
Dark day for our city
There were many other secondary casualties people who saw their neighborhoods torn apart their homes and vehicles damaged their hopes for stability and progress thwarted by the mayhem.
They were people like Cindy Oxendine who took to the streets to sweep up rocks glass and more despite her aching back.
It started off peaceful and it ends up like this Oxendine told CNN affiliate WBAL. I ve seen stuff like this on the news in other cities but I never thought I would see it in front of my doorstep. It s crazy.
In addition to the clashes with police came the flames and investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives are joining local authorities to look into arson a federal law enforcement source said.
The same source said that dozens of fires that erupted around Baltimore appear to be tied to the unrest. This includes one that consumed an affordable housing center for seniors that was just months away from opening.
Pastor Donte Hickman of the Southern Baptist Church which owns the facility said 60 units of senior housing were lost.
What happened destroyed so much of the progress that the people who actually live here have been working for said Mayor Rawlings Blake calling Monday a very dark day for our city.
But she found light in what she saw Tuesday.
Today I think we saw a lot more of what Baltimore is about. We saw people coming together to reclaim our city to clean our city and to help heal our city. I think this can be our defining moment the mayor said.
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