This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The city of Baltimore was poised for military-enforced lockdown on Tuesday in an effort to prevent another night of rioting over the death of a young black man, as President Obama urged the US to begin “soul-searching” over its growing crisis in race and policing.

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About 1,500 US national guard troops lined the streets and residents were ordered to stay inside their homes once a 10pm curfew went into effect, as police chiefs conceded rioters had “outnumbered us and outflanked us” during violent clashes into the early hours.

The military deployment proceeded as activists warned of a critical moment. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) said America was “in the throes of a national crisis” as the Urban League declared a “state of emergency of tremendous proportions”.

Condemning the rioters as criminals, Obama nonetheless delivered his sharpest criticism of law enforcement since a protest movement erupted last summer. “There are some police who aren’t doing the right thing,” he said.

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“This is not new. It’s been going on for decades,” said Obama. “We as a country have to do some soul-searching.” In emotional remarks, the president called on the country to tackle the problems of impoverished black communities before they descended into crisis.

Obama spoke from the White House Rose Garden alongside Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was in Washington for talks on a trans-Pacific trade deal, while officers wearing body armour in western Baltimore began making more arrests.

About 235 people were arrested during violent clashes with police, looting and arson following the funeral of Freddie Gray on Monday. Police shot at rioters throwing bricks and bottles with teargas, rubber bullets and pepper balls. At least 15 police officers were injured, six seriously. Nineteen buildings and 144 vehicles were burned.

The unrest in Baltimore is the latest flashpoint in months of protest that have followed the fatal police shooting of unarmed black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri, last year.

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Gray, 25, died in hospital on 19 April, a week after lapsing into a coma from injuries sustained during his arrest while being transported in a police van. He was chased for “catching the eye” of a lieutenant and running away. A knife was found in his pocket. His family said his spine was “80% severed” at the neck and his voice box almost crushed.

Police have declined for more than a week to explain how Gray suffered his injuries. The six officers involved in Gray’s arrest have been suspended. City authorities are conducting a criminal inquiry and the US department of justice is looking into potential civil rights charges.

As heavily armed soldiers continued rolling into the city in armoured vehicles on Tuesday, embattled authorities in Baltimore were struggling to control a growing crisis in their city, long notorious for urban blight and accusations of police brutality.

“This is not martial law,” General Linda Singh, the commander of the Maryland national guard, said at a press conference as troops arrived in armoured vehicles. “Martial law means that at that point the military fully takes over, so we have not reached that point.”

The deployment, ordered by Maryland’s governor, Larry Hogan, was the first time the national guard had been called up for a civil disturbance in Maryland since rioting after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr in 1968.

A week of clashes following the killing of the civil rights leader that April led to six deaths and more than 700 people injured. More than 5,500 were arrested. “It is nowhere near as bad as that at this point,” said Hogan. “We want to make sure it doesn’t get to that.”

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Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the city’s embattled mayor, repeatedly condemned the rioters as “thugs”, a term seen as racially charged by many protesters. She said a city-wide curfew for all residents between 10pm and 5am would be imposed for a week beginning on Tuesday night.

The mayor has come under withering criticism for her unsteady handling of the crisis and has at times appeared at odds with her own police commanders. Governor Logan suggested she had delayed the declaration of a state of emergency by being unreachable. “I wish I could be three places at once,” Rawlings-Blake said on Tuesday.

The chaotic scenes unfolded throughout Monday night despite several appeals for calm from Gray’s family. “I think the violence is wrong,” said his twin sister, Fredericka.

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Street battles followed warnings from police chiefs that notorious gangs such as the Bloods and Crips had agreed to set aside differences and attempt to kill police officers. However, this failed to materialise. School students who had staged a walkout began pelting police stationed near Gray’s funeral.

Thirty-four of those arrested on Monday were juveniles, police said. Meghann Harris, a secondary school teacher, accused authorities of stranding disenchanted boys beside police in riot gear by cancelling public transport early in the afternoon.

“If I were a student that just got trapped in the middle of a minefield by cops without any way to get home and completely in harm’s way, I’d be ready to pop off, too,” Harris said in a post to Facebook.

Teenagers furious at the death of Gray after years of perceived mistreatment pledged to defy the curfew order. “People are getting revenge, and they are just getting started,” said Quatiarra Bonaparte, a 14-year-old schoolmate of some of those involved. “This was probably about 2%. We still got about 98 to go.”

Concern over further unrest was increased by the closing of all public schools in the city on Tuesday, leaving more than 80,000 pupils with no classes to attend on a sunny spring day. “The police wanted a war, and now they have a war,” said Donetta Dixon, 34.

National guard forces were deployed to Ferguson, Missouri, last November as the small town prepared for riots that followed the decision not to prosecute a white police officer who killed an unarmed black 18-year-old. Yet Governor Jay Nixon was sharply criticised for confining the soldiers to guarding a police command centre while the city burned.

Documents released earlier this month disclosed that national guard commanders referred internally to protesters in Ferguson as “enemy forces” and “adversaries”.