Baltimore calms after curfew
BALTIMORE — Cars rolled through the streets, students returned to class and a symphony played on a sidewalk Wednesday, offering the city a slice of normalcy as it recovers from the rioting and looting earlier this week.
Still, anger and anxiety hung over Baltimore.
Thousands of people hit the streets in Baltimore and several other cities from Boston and New York to Indianapolis and Washington, D. C., on Wednesday to protest the death of a black man who died of spinal injuries after his arrest by Baltimore police and to demand reforms to police procedures.
While protests of the death of Freddie Gray were mostly peaceful, there were some arrests, including 16 in Baltimore and more than a dozen at a rally in Manhattan’s Union Square. Gray, of Baltimore, was critically injured in police custody.
After meeting with faith leaders and a lawyer for Gray’s family, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings- Blake said officials were working hard to make the investigation into Gray’s death transparent and keep the community informed.
Authorities carefully monitored the rally af ter teenagers started the violence Monday after noon, throwing bricks and bottles at officers who had gathered near a major bus transfer point. The situation escalated from there, overwhelming police as protesters set fire to cars and buildings and raided stores.
Schools closed Tuesday because of the mayhem, but reopened Wednesday, after the city’s first night of a curfew went off without the widespread violence many had feared. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake talked to fourthand eighth- graders at New Song Center in West Baltimore, not far from where Gray was arrested. She said she was impressed by the children’s perspective. “They understand very clearly the difference between demonstrators that have a righteous purpose and those who are preying on this opportunity for their own benefit,” she said.
About 3,000 police and National Guardsmen descended on the city to help keep order, and life wasn’t likely to get completely back to normal anytime soon: The curfew was set to go back into effect at 10 p. m.
And in what was one of the weirdest spectacles in major- league history, Wednesday afternoon’s Baltimore Orioles game at Camden Yards was closed to the public for safety reasons. Press box seats were full, but the grandstands were empty.
Earlier in the day, protesters outside the office of Baltimore’s top prosecutor said they supported State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who took office in January and pledged during her campaign to address aggressive police practices.
Mosby’s office is expected on Friday to get investigative findings from police on Gray’s death. She will then face a decision on whether and how to pursue charges against the six police officers who arrested Gray.