Baltimore Riots

On monday night April 27th the city of Baltimore was in Chaos, with rioting and looting encompassing certain parts of the city.

The police response was to cordon off the area and contain the riots to the surround areas of Pennsylvania and West North Avenues. State police and additional officers were called in from surrounding areas such as D.C.

As the night continued the governor declared a state of emergency and authorized the formation of Maryland’s National Guard quick-reaction force, which arrived Monday night.

Authorities also issued a weeklong citywide curfew from 10pm-5am, that would go into effect Tuesday. It is expected that nearly 2,000 National Guard troops will arrive in baltimore by the end of the day, Tuesday.

The Guard troops are military policeman with a handful of airmen. Rick Breitenfeldt, a spokesman for the National Guard Bureau said the Guard will be in place for “as long as it takes.” The National Guard is to help with infrastructure security and conduct presence patrols in key parts of the city.

Authorities have said but are not certain, that many baltimore citizens took advantage of the death of Freddie Gray as an excuse to to start riots and looting. There is speculation that Gray died because of police brutality and neglect of medical attention for a spinal injury, authorities are still unsure what caused the spinal injury.

Capt. J. Eric Kowalczyk of the Baltimore Police Department said “the social media campaign that appeared to be goading Baltimore residents into rioting on Monday afternoon was timed to 3 p.m., about when schools were being dismissed.” Because of this police deployed for protest/riot being started by high schoolers. As the day dragged on adults soon took over the protest that quickly turned into riots.

Because police deployed for a high school type event they were not prepared to handle the mass crowds. Which prompted the governor to call in the National Guard and implement a citywide curfew.