Chuck Ross, Daily Caller, April 26, 2015

Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake made a stunning admission Saturday in the aftermath of violent protests over the recent death of Freddie Gray, saying she wanted to give space to those “who wished to destroy.”

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“I’ve 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,” Rawlings-Blake said during a press conference Saturday night.

“It’s a very delicate balancing act, because while we tried to make sure that they were protected from the cars and the other things that were going on, we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well.”

And we worked very hard to keep that balance and to put ourselves in the best position to deescalate, and that’s what you saw.”

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Rawlings-Blakes’ spokesman Howard Libit responded late Sunday, saying that the mayor’s words had been taken out of context.