Baltimore erupted in violence on Monday as hundreds of rioters looted stores, set buildings on fire and injured at least 15 police officers following the funeral of a 25-year-old African-American man who died after he was injured in police custody.
The riots broke out just a few blocks from the funeral of Freddie Gray and then spread through much of West Baltimore in the most violent U.S. demonstrations since looting in Ferguson, Missouri, last year.
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard as firefighters battled blazes set by looters. Rioters with baseball bats smashed windows of cars outside major hotels.
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called the rioters “thugs” and imposed a citywide curfew for adults beginning on Tuesday night, with exceptions for work and medical emergencies. There is already a curfew for children and officials have requested up to 5,000 additional law enforcement officers.
Gray’s death on April 19, 2015 reignited a public outcry over police treatment of African-Americans that flared in 2014 after the killings of unarmed African-American men in Ferguson, New York City and elsewhere.
After more than an hour of mayhem, hundreds of police moved into glass-strewn streets where the worst of the violence had taken place and used pepper spray on rioters who had sacked check-cashing and liquor stores. Looting later spread to a nearby shopping mall.
Police and news helicopters buzzed overhead while firefighters fought a blaze at a pharmacy that had been looted. Rioters twice slashed the fire hose.
An Orioles baseball game was cancelled and schools, businesses and train stations shut down in the city of 662,000 people 64 km from the nation’s capital.
“All this had to happen, people getting tired of the police killing the young African-American guys for no reason. ... It is a sad day but it had to happen,” said Tony Luster, 40, who was out on the street watching the police line.
A string of deadly confrontations between mostly white police and African-American men, and the violence it has prompted, will be among the challenges facing U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who was sworn in on Monday.
Following her swearing in, Ms. Lynch said improving relations between police and the communities they protect will be high on her agenda.
“We can restore trust and faith both in our laws and in those of us who enforce them,” she said. Later, while scenes of riots were broadcast on television, she briefed President Barack Obama.
Print and broadcast reporters, kept out of the White House meeting, protested their exclusion.
A troubled city
The extent of the rioting appeared to catch Baltimore officials somewhat off-guard after a week of peaceful protests.
After Missouri was criticised for a heavy-handed response to protests over the police killing of unarmed African-American teenager Michael Brown in August, cities from Madison, Wisconsin to New York have tread a careful line between allowing peaceful demonstrations over police brutality and preventing violence.
Gray’s family had pleaded for peaceful demonstrations and after the looting started, pastors and community leaders took to the streets to try to prevent violent clashes between African-American youth and police.
Looters were nonchalant and showed their faces.
“We went in there and tore it up,” said Tyrone Jackson, 16, wearing a hoodie and a thin moustache. He said he was one of the looters inside the pharmacy.
Just down the street from the smouldering pharmacy, business owner Daisy Bush, 61, said: “The sad part about it is that a lot of people from the community were up there in the CVS (pharmacy), stealing stuff out of it. It’s a disgrace.”
Earlier in the day youths threw rocks and bricks at police. Several officers had broken bones, the police department said.
The largely African-American city has long struggled with high crime and gangs, a reputation that has made it the setting for gritty television police dramas such as The Wire .
At Gray’s funeral, speaker after speaker before the crowd packing the 2,500-seat New Shiloh Baptist Church said the world was watching to see if justice would be done for Gray.
Gray was arrested on April 12 when he fled from police in a high-crime area. He was carrying a switchblade knife, and he was put inside a transport van to be taken to a police station.
At some point, Gray suffered the spinal injury that led to his death a week later. City Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said on Friday that officers failed to belt him into his seat securely and to give him timely medical attention.
Police have said they would conclude their investigation by Friday and forward the results to state prosecutors. Six officers have been suspended, and the U.S. Justice Department is investigating the incident for possible civil rights violations.
