WORLD WAR III
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Title: Continuing riots plunge Baltimore into chaos
Source:
AP
URL Source: [None]
Published: Apr 28, 2015
Author: AP
Post Date: 2015-04-28 02:58:55 by rlk
Keywords: None
Views: 7581
Comments: 36
BALTIMORE (AP) -- Rioters plunged part of Baltimore into chaos Monday, torching a pharmacy, setting police cars ablaze and throwing bricks at officers hours after thousands mourned the man who died from a severe spinal injury he suffered in police custody. The governor declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard to restore order - but authorities were still struggling to quell pockets of unrest after midnight. The violence, which began in West Baltimore - within a mile of where Freddie Gray was arrested and pushed into a police van earlier this month - had by the end of the day spread to East Baltimore and neighborhoods close to downtown and near the baseball stadium. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, in her first day on the job, said she would send Justice Department officials to the city in coming days. A weeklong, daily curfew was imposed beginning Tuesday from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., the mayor said, and Baltimore public schools announced that they would be closed on Tuesday. At least 15 officers were hurt, including six who remained hospitalized late Monday, police said. Two dozen people were arrested. Officers wearing helmets and wielding shields occasionally used pepper spray to keep the rioters back. For the most part, though, they relied on line formations to keep protesters at bay. Monday's riot was the latest flare-up over the mysterious death of Freddie Gray, whose fatal encounter with officers came amid the national debate over police use of force, especially when black suspects are involved. Gray was African-American. Police have declined to specify the races of the six officers involved in his arrest, all of whom have been suspended with pay while they are under investigation. But Gray's family said violence is not a way to honor him. "I think the violence is wrong," Grays' twin sister, Fredericka Gray, said late Monday. "I don't like it at all." The attorney for Gray's family, Billy Murphy, said the family had hoped to organize a peace march later in the week. Emergency officials were constantly thwarted as they tried to restore calm in the affected parts of the city of more than 620,000 people. Firefighters trying to put out a blaze at a CVS store were hindered by someone who sliced holes in a hose connected to a fire hydrant, spraying water all over the street and nearby buildings. Later Monday night, a massive fire erupted in East Baltimore that a spokesman for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake initially said was connected to the riots. He later texted an AP reporter saying officials are still investigating whether there is a connection. The Mary Harvin Transformation Center was under construction and no one was believed to be in the building at the time, said the spokesman, Kevin Harris. The center is described online as a community-based organization that supports youth and families. Kevin Johnson, a 53-year-old resident of the area, said the building was to have been earmarked for the elderly. Donte Hickman, pastor of a Baptist church that has been helping to develop the center, shed tears as he led a group prayer near the firefighters who fought the blaze. "My heart is broken because somebody obviously didn't understand that we were for the community, somebody didn't understand that we were working on behalf of the community to invest when nobody else would," he said. Earlier Monday, the smell of burned rubber wafted in the air in one neighborhood where youths were looting a liquor store. Police stood still nearby as people drank looted alcohol. Glass and trash littered the streets, and other small fires were scattered about. One person from a church tried to shout something from a megaphone as two cars burned. "Too many people have spent generations building up this city for it to be destroyed by thugs, who in a very senseless way, are trying to tear down what so many have fought for, tearing down businesses, tearing down and destroying property, things that we know will impact our community for years," said Rawlings-Blake, a lifelong resident of the city. Obama pledges assistance as needed for Baltimore riots Police urged parents to locate their children and bring them home. Many of those on the streets appeared to be African-American youths, wearing backpacks and khaki pants that are a part of many public school uniforms. The riot broke out just as high school let out, and at a key city bus depot for student commuters around Mondawmin Mall, a shopping area northwest of downtown Baltimore. It shifted about a mile away later to the heart of an older shopping district and near where Gray first encountered police. Both commercial areas are in African-American neighborhoods. Later in the day, people began looting clothing and other items from stores at the mall, which became unprotected as police moved away from the area. About three dozen officers returned, trying to arrest looters but driving many away by firing pellet guns and rubber bullets. Downtown Baltimore, the Inner Harbor tourist attractions and the city's baseball and football stadiums are nearly 4 miles away. While the violence had not yet reached City Hall and the Camden Yards area, the Orioles canceled Monday's game for safety precautions. On Monday night, Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings and about 200 others, mostly men, marched arm-in-arm through a neighborhood littered with broken glass, flattened aluminum cans and other debris, to protest Gray's death. As they got close to a line of police officers, the marchers went down on their knees. After the ministers got back on their feet, they walked until they were face-to-face with the police officers in a tight formation and wearing riot gear. In a statement issued Monday, Attorney General Lynch said she would send Justice Department officials to the city in coming days, including Vanita Gupta, the agency's top civil rights lawyer. The FBI and Justice Department are investigating Gray's death for potential criminal civil rights violations.
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 19.
#1. To: rlk (#0)
Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake: "It's a very delicate balancing act. Because while we try to make sure that they were protected from the cars and other things that were going on, we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well. Now the mayor is very angry and says that she was quoted "out of context" and that she never said That Bad Thing to begin with. Also, she'll never say it again.
Breaking: Baltimore Mayor Key Player in Obama’s Federal Takeover of Local Police
John Boehner and Mitch McConnell will give them a few billion as reparations for 21st Century Policing. They'll be playing Midnight Basketball with AlGore in no time.
There are no replies to Comment # 19. End Trace Mode for Comment # 19.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest "I made it very clear that I work with the police and instructed them to do everything that they could to make sure that the protesters were able to exercise their right to free speech.
#18. To: TooConservative, CZ82, hondo68, Fred Mertz, rlk (#1)
Now the mayor is very angry and says that she was quoted "out of context" and that she never said That Bad Thing to begin with. Also, she'll never say it again.
#19. To: Deckard, 21st Century Policing, Black Privilege, rioting for dollars (#18)
Replies to Comment # 19.
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