Curfew begins in riot-torn Baltimore

Show Caption Hide Caption Baltimore police enforcing curfew, use pepper spray Police officers used pepper spray to try to enforce curfew and break up crowds on the second night of protests in Baltimore.

BALTIMORE -- A citywide curfew took effect Tuesday night in tense, riot-torn Baltimore as a heavy presence of police and National Guard troops sought to disperse protesters.

Dozens of people remained in the streets after the 10 p.m. curfew. Officers with bullhorns and self-appointed citizen peacekeepers urged them to go home, and when some failed to disperse, police fired pepper pellets and smoke canisters.

Some protesters hurled objects at police, who held shields and formed a line across an intersection and slowly advanced toward protesters.

Baltimore police said on Twitter: "Officers are now advancing on the group. They remain aggressive and disorderly."

"We've got a long night ahead of us,'' Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said earlier. Security forces "will not tolerate violence or looting,'' he vowed.

Hogan said a massive display of security was deployed in the city: 2,000 National Guard troops and 1,000 law enforcement officers.

Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said in a news conference late Tuesday night that 10 people had been arrested, seven of them for violations of a 10 p.m. curfew.

The Baltimore Orioles canceled Tuesday's scheduled home game and in an unusual move said Wednesday's game will be played in an empty Camden Yards stadium, without spectators.

Baltimore's school system announced it would reopen for classes Wednesday.

Batts defended his agency's slow response to violence that tore through the city a day earlier, leaving cars and buildings gutted by fire and stores looted. Batts said the young age of those who took to the streets with rocks and bricks -- high school students, many of them -- caused officers to take a measured initial response to Monday's violence.

"Why didn't you move faster? Because they're 14, 15 and 16 year old kids out there,'' Batts said at an afternoon news conference, posing to himself a frequently asked question.

"They're old enough to know better ….old enough to be accountable. But they're still kids, unfortunately, and we have to take that into account when we're out there.''

The violence erupted on the day of the funeral for Freddie Gray, 25, who died after suffering a mortal spinal injury while in police custody.

Appearing with Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Batts defended her against critics for an initially low-profile response, calling her "courageous.'' He acknowledged that Baltimore's police culture must change: "We have more to do, but we can't do it by destroying this beautiful city."

"Overall today has been a very good day,'' Batts said. "We're going to be out in strong numbers making sure we have no issues in our city.''

There were some tense protests and a massive cleanup underway. The city was going on a week-long nightly curfew beginning at 10 p.m.

Hogan said 250 people were arrested in Monday's violence. Police said more than 20 police were injured, and Batts said one of them remained hospitalized Tuesday. About 20 businesses and more than 140 cars burned as the mayhem spilled into Tuesday's early hours. From 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., the city's Office of Emergency Management reported 10 major blazes.

"Acts of violence and destruction of property cannot and will not be tolerated,'' Hogan said. "This is far from over.''

President Obama promised a thorough investigation into the death of Gray.

U.S. Justice Department officials met with members of Gray's family late Tuesday, in addition to relatives of police officers who were most seriously injured in Monday's unrest, a Justice official said. Vanita Gupta, chief of the department's Civil Rights Division, and Ronald Davis, director of the Community Oriented Policing Services office, were dispatched to Baltimore to represent the department.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch spoke with Hogan and members of the Maryland congressional delegation to discuss the developments in Baltimore and to offer assistance.

Across the city, schools were closed, the National Guard was on the streets and wreckage was everywhere. Across the street from a burned and looted CVS store, several people threw water bottles at officers who stood in riot gear. At times protesters argued among themselves, some pleading for a peaceful event and others arguing that the police officers needed to feel the pain they have inflicted on the community.

Still, Batts said only two arrests were made by late afternoon. "For the most part, the city has been calm today,'' Batts said.

James Brown, 27, an event planner, said he believes the situation will worsen. "This is not going to end," he said. "Black men feel like we don't have rights. We are not being heard."

Earlier, Rawlings-Blake toured the destruction.

"We will not let these deplorable and cowardly acts of violence ruin our city," she tweeted. "I sincerely want to thank all those out there cleaning up streets and sharing their love for #OurCity. Thank you, Baltimore!"

Rawlings-Blake walked back comments she made about "thugs" trying to tear down the city.

"I wanted to say something that was on my heart … We don't have thugs in Baltimore. Sometimes my little anger interpreter gets the best of me," she said, pointing to her head. "We have a lot of kids that are acting out, a lot of people in our community that are acting out."

She dismissed claims that she waited too long to send in a heavy police and National Guard presence. She cited a "delicate balancing act" between managing the problem and making it worse.

"It is very important that we respond to the situation as it is on the ground," she said. "There are always going to be armchair quarterbacks who have never sat in my seat."

Police Capt. John Kowalczyk said the relatively light initial police presence was because authorities were preparing for a protest of high schoolers. A heavy police presence and automatic weapons would not have been appropriate, he said. Kowalczyk said police made more than 200 arrests, 34 of them juveniles.

During the mayhem, social media was alive with "#purge," an apparent allusion to the film The Purge, which featured a 12-hour period in which all crime is legal.

Gray, 25, died April 19, one week after being arrested and suffering a severe spinal injury. After Gray's funeral Monday, protests ostensibly against police violence quickly deteriorated into devastating riots. Bands of looters, some armed with crowbars, roamed the city, hurling rocks at police, destroying patrol cars, smashing store windows and torching buildings.

Residents swept glass and debris from battered sidewalks and streets while National Guard members stood sentry during daylight hours Tuesday.

Tanisha Owens, 30, an elementary school teacher living in Baltimore, said she hopes young people will get a chance to come to peaceful protests in the city and learn how to voice their concerns.

"My students see this destruction happen to their communities and they need to also see the good side of it," Owens said. "I want them to understand that not everyone is bad. There's also good in their city."

Owens added that she was impressed at how quickly people cleaned up stores affected by looting. She and several co-workers came to the city with brooms and gloves but found that all the places they wanted to volunteer were already cleared of debris.

But many said they remain frustrated by what they believe is unfair treatment of blacks by police.

"We have too much violence against all the little brown children," Mitchum Alexander, 46, of Baltimore, said. "We need to put a stop to this and educate law enforcement and people in society so incidents like this don't occur."

Martin O'Malley, former governor of Maryland and former mayor of Baltimore, stopped by West Baltimore where hundreds of demonstrators gathered all day.

"There's a lot of pain in our city right now, a lot of people feeling very sad," O'Malley said. "We have got to come through this together. We are a people who have seen worst days and we will come through this."

Yet as O'Malley walked through crowds of protesters some heckled him and told him to leave.

Wayne Gray, 47, has lived in Baltimore his entire life and said O'Malley had a chance to help the city and didn't. Instead, Gray said O'Malley didn't help improve the lives of poor people and started the culture and policies that led to over arresting black men.

"He had a chance to fix this," Gray said of O'Malley. "He's part of the frustration that built up in these black men."

Hogan also toured parts of the city. "What happened last night is not going to happen tonight," he said.l

Many businesses, wary of a resurgence of violence that had overwhelmed police and fire fighters, closed on Tuesday.

The list included Security Square Mall with more than 100 stores in western Baltimore. Many downtown businesses were closed, and mutual fund houses T. Rowe Price and Legg Mason announced that most employees were working from home.

Jamal Bryant, a local activist and pastor of Empowerment Temple AME Church, opened his church to teens with no place to go due to the school closures. He promised to conduct training on how to protest without destroying the city.

Bryant tweeted: "We're also gonna take HS students to go clean up OUR neighborhoods. We must rise from the ashes. Meet at @EmpowermentTem2 at 10"

Obama also said economic and cultural problems must be addressed to fully solve the problem of violence on streets here and across the nation. Still, he stressed, that's no excuse for the violence.

"When individuals get crowbars and start opening doors to loot, they're not protesting," Obama said in response to a query at a White House news conference. "They're not making a statement. They are stealing. When they burn down a building they are committing arson. And they are destroying and undermining businesses and opportunities in their own communities."

Contributing: Donna Leinwand Leger, John Bacon