Baltimore is under a state of emergency and weeklong curfew after an afternoon and night of violence between residents and police following the funeral of
Freddie Gray, a man fatally injured while in police custody.
Clean-up of the city is beginning, while schools are closed.
The violence started after police responded in force to rumors of a "purge." On police advice, local businesses shut down, and then:
When 3 p.m. came, 75 to 100 students heading to Mondawmin Mall were greeted by dozens of police officers in riot gear. The mall is a transportation hub for students from several nearby schools.
The students began pelting officers with water bottles and rocks. Bricks met shields. Glass shattered up and down Gwynns Falls Parkway. Officers sprayed Mace. Confrontations bled into side streets, where officers threw bricks back. A heavily armored Bearcat tactical vehicle rolled through the neighborhood.
According to Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, there were nearly 200 arrests, 144 vehicle fires, and 15 structure fires.
- Several journalists reported being injured by protesters.
- Local clergy tried to counter violence with peaceful protest:
Hundreds of Baltimore clergy linked arms and took to the streets in an effort to restore the peace. WBAL Reporter Deborah Weiner described the remarkable scene. “These are the church leaders who are putting themselves in harms way to end the violence… they are linked arm-in-arm… one gentleman is in front in a wheelchair.”
- Brand-new Attorney General Loretta Lynch:
“I condemn,” the new attorney general said in a statement Monday night, “the senseless acts of violence by some individuals in Baltimore that have resulted in harm to law enforcement officers, destruction of property and a shattering of the peace in the city of Baltimore. Those who commit violent actions, ostensibly in protest of the death of Freddie Gray, do a disservice to his family, to his loved ones, and to legitimate peaceful protestors who are working to improve their community for all its residents.”
- Ta-Nehisi Coates:
When nonviolence is preached as an attempt to evade the repercussions of political brutality, it betrays itself. When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse. When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con. And none of this can mean that rioting or violence is "correct" or "wise," any more than a forest fire can be "correct" or "wise." Wisdom isn't the point tonight. Disrespect is. In this case, disrespect for the hollow law and failed order that so regularly disrespects the rioters themselves.