After Thousands Rally in Baltimore, Police Make Some Arrests as Curfew Takes Hold
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
New York Times
MAY 2, 2015
BALTIMORE — This beleaguered city took on a festive, almost celebratory feel Saturday as thousands of people of all ages and races rallied peacefully in front of City Hall to call for an end to police mistreatment of black men, but also an end to the curfew imposed by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake amid riots set off by the death of Freddie Gray, who sustained a fatal spinal cord injury in police custody.
The gathering, bookended by marches through city streets, felt at times like a street carnival, with a dash of black power militancy. It came a day after six police officers were charged in the death of Mr. Gray, 25. The rally stood in stark contrast to the looting and arson that took place here Monday night, and the scattered violence after a similar demonstration on April 25.
A freshly painted memorial to Freddie Gray on Saturday morning at the Gilmor Homes, where he was arrested.Baltimore Prosecutor Faces National History of Police AcquittalsMAY 2, 2015
As one speaker after another addressed the crowd on a grassy plaza in front of City Hall, Julian Burke, 23, a painter, handed out balloons, saying, “We’re spreading good vibes.” A group called Food Not Bombs served free vegan meals.
“The public got an answer yesterday,” Ms. Adams said, explaining the change in mood. “I just hope that the changes stick. I’m really hopeful that it doesn’t turn.”
The presence of thousands of camouflage-clad National Guard troops and armored vehicles was a sign that the city was not quite back to normal. While many protesters called for an end to the citywide curfew that Ms. Rawlings-Blake put in place Tuesday night — and the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland said it had “outlived its usefulness” — Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said it would remain in effect Saturday night “for everyone’s safety.”
The mood changed again at night. Not long after the 10 p.m. curfew began, someone threw a water bottle at a passing truck carrying National Guard troops, and a lone, shouting pedestrian would not leave the intersection of West North and Pennsylvania Avenues. The police used pepper spray to subdue the man, who was then thrown down and dragged by his hair. A small group of other people began throwing rocks and bottles across the intersection toward police officers, who made several arrests.
In his first public comments since Marilyn J. Mosby, the state’s attorney for Baltimore City, announced she would prosecute six officers for charges including murder and manslaughter, Mr. Batts defended his department, but said he would not “tolerate any misconduct.” He refused to comment on specifics of the case, but said, “Now we will have the confidence that the truth will come out.”
As Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland called for a statewide “day of prayer and peace” on Sunday, a spokesman for Ms. Rawlings-Blake, Kevin Harris, said in an interview that the mayor was re-evaluating the curfew on a daily basis and was “very encouraged the demonstrations over the last few days have been peaceful.” He added, “We know that the curfew is having an economic impact on the city.”
Many people here, especially those who work night shifts, say the 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew has been difficult for them. In West Baltimore on Saturday, J. R. White, 36, who owns a car detailing business, said the restrictions were forcing him to cut back his hours. “They need to end that now,” Mr. White said after taking a selfie photo in front of a makeshift graffiti memorial to Mr. Gray at the spot where he had been arrested. “People can’t pay the bills if they can’t work.”
Even though the scene outside City Hall was calm, Governor Hogan’s office announced in an email sent during the demonstration that the National Guard had increased its presence in the city. Mr. Hogan’s office said 3,000 soldiers and airmen had been deployed, up from 2,500 on Friday.
Saturday’s protest and rally had been called by Black Lawyers for Justice, a Washington-based group whose leader, Malik Shabazz, clearly makes Baltimore’s mainstream black leadership nervous. Mr. Shabazz, a former chairman of the New Black Panther Party, has been labeled an extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which calls him a “racist black nationalist” who is “particularly skilled at orchestrating provocative protests.”
A protest he led on April 25 turned briefly violent after he told demonstrators at City Hall to go out into the streets of Baltimore and “shut it down!” But on Saturday, it was Mr. Shabazz himself who was shut down, by members of the crowd who shouted, “It’s not about you!” and implored him to “let the youth speak!” when his own speech went on at length.
When the rally ended, a boisterous but peaceful crowd marched back toward West Baltimore, pooling at West North and Pennsylvania, where a CVS drugstore was looted and burned on Monday night. The intersection had been blocked earlier in the week by officers in full riot gear; now the crowd broke into a happy call-and-response chant: “Take back! Baltimore! Take back! Baltimore!”
Someone turned on a loudspeaker, and the crowd began to dance.
Earlier in the day, volunteers handed out bags of supplies and food at the Simmons Memorial Baptist Church, a block from the intersection, where the sign on the church proclaimed, “Praying for the Freddie Gray Family.” Joyous Jones, a church lay leader wearing an “I Bleed Baltimore” T-shirt, said that the food giveaway was a regular event but that more people turned out to help Saturday, and more companies, including the grocery chains Trader Joe’s, Safeway and Giant, donated food.
“It makes me feel warm, to see so many people helping,” she said.
City officials had been bracing for Saturday’s demonstration, but the day got off to an almost sleepy start. Just past noon, a small crowd, including a group of New Yorkers, started gathering near the intersection of Mount and Presbury Streets, in Gilmor Homes, at the spot where Mr. Gray had been arrested.
A few blocks away, children played with a toy car on a stoop, and church members emerged from the Mt. Pisgah C.M.E. Church after attending the funeral of their bus driver.
“It’s gonna be peaceful. Yes, it is,” said Delphie Horne, 86, who sat in a wheelchair with her granddaughter, Michelle Lennon, 12, at her side. Ms. Lennon shook her head shyly when asked if she expected to attend the protest and rally at City Hall.
Across the street, the Guard troops stood ready. Another church member, Sharon Ann Hargrove, 62, who works as a tax preparer here, stopped to thank them. “I know y’all give up your life every day for us,” she told them. Turning to a reporter, she added, “They’re not our enemies.”
But on the minds and lips of many was Ms. Mosby’s announcement. “I think they charged the officers just to calm the city down,” said Tajhi Cooper, 22, a lifelong resident of the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood. “But I don’t think they’re going to get convicted.”
The protests, he said, were “showing that we want change, that we want something different.”
Many people came with a sense that they were watching history unfold, with origins in the civil rights era but an ultimate path still unknown. Several hundred marched from the Gilmor Homes to meet the much larger group that had massed at City Hall.
Crystal Miller, 47, marched down Pennsylvania Avenue with the youngest of her eight children, 18-month-old Noah, on her hip. “It could have been my children,” said Ms. Miller, who has four sons and four daughters.
Ms. Miller, who is in a training program to get a certificate for nursing home care, said Friday’s charges had spurred her to march. She said she had feared that the officers would not be charged and that the city would be ablaze in anger.
“I was scared. I was praying on it,” she said, adding that she hoped Mr. Gray’s death would inspire lawmakers to expand the use of police cameras from cars and bodies to the interior of transport vans. “They need video cameras in these vans,” she said. “That would stop some of this.”
Amid the celebration, there was an undercurrent of anger, not only over police treatment of black men, but over the lack of jobs and recreation centers, as well as dilapidated housing for Baltimore’s poor.
“Eye Contact is NOT a Crime,” one sign said — a reference to police admissions that Mr. Gray had been arrested after a lieutenant made eye contact with him, which contributed to Ms. Mosby’s assertion that the officers had made an illegal arrest.
Salesmen hawked T-shirts with the phrase “Black Lives Matter.” There was also a thread of the 1960s; black power advocates raised their fists, and communists distributed Marxist literature.
Rashaan Brave, a division chief in the Baltimore Parks and Recreation Department; Rashad Vance, who teaches in a middle school and at Morgan State University; and Travis Vance, a civil engineer, all of whom live in Baltimore, made their way on bicycles to City Hall. Each was trying to understand the aftermath of Mr. Gray’s death, the anger of youths and ways to help them.
“This is history. I just wanted to be involved,” said Rashad Vance, 32. “I’ve been telling my students, ‘Protest, but nonviolently.’ ”
New York Times
MAY 2, 2015
BALTIMORE — This beleaguered city took on a festive, almost celebratory feel Saturday as thousands of people of all ages and races rallied peacefully in front of City Hall to call for an end to police mistreatment of black men, but also an end to the curfew imposed by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake amid riots set off by the death of Freddie Gray, who sustained a fatal spinal cord injury in police custody.
The gathering, bookended by marches through city streets, felt at times like a street carnival, with a dash of black power militancy. It came a day after six police officers were charged in the death of Mr. Gray, 25. The rally stood in stark contrast to the looting and arson that took place here Monday night, and the scattered violence after a similar demonstration on April 25.
A freshly painted memorial to Freddie Gray on Saturday morning at the Gilmor Homes, where he was arrested.Baltimore Prosecutor Faces National History of Police AcquittalsMAY 2, 2015
As one speaker after another addressed the crowd on a grassy plaza in front of City Hall, Julian Burke, 23, a painter, handed out balloons, saying, “We’re spreading good vibes.” A group called Food Not Bombs served free vegan meals.
“The public got an answer yesterday,” Ms. Adams said, explaining the change in mood. “I just hope that the changes stick. I’m really hopeful that it doesn’t turn.”
The presence of thousands of camouflage-clad National Guard troops and armored vehicles was a sign that the city was not quite back to normal. While many protesters called for an end to the citywide curfew that Ms. Rawlings-Blake put in place Tuesday night — and the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland said it had “outlived its usefulness” — Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said it would remain in effect Saturday night “for everyone’s safety.”
The mood changed again at night. Not long after the 10 p.m. curfew began, someone threw a water bottle at a passing truck carrying National Guard troops, and a lone, shouting pedestrian would not leave the intersection of West North and Pennsylvania Avenues. The police used pepper spray to subdue the man, who was then thrown down and dragged by his hair. A small group of other people began throwing rocks and bottles across the intersection toward police officers, who made several arrests.
In his first public comments since Marilyn J. Mosby, the state’s attorney for Baltimore City, announced she would prosecute six officers for charges including murder and manslaughter, Mr. Batts defended his department, but said he would not “tolerate any misconduct.” He refused to comment on specifics of the case, but said, “Now we will have the confidence that the truth will come out.”
As Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland called for a statewide “day of prayer and peace” on Sunday, a spokesman for Ms. Rawlings-Blake, Kevin Harris, said in an interview that the mayor was re-evaluating the curfew on a daily basis and was “very encouraged the demonstrations over the last few days have been peaceful.” He added, “We know that the curfew is having an economic impact on the city.”
Many people here, especially those who work night shifts, say the 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew has been difficult for them. In West Baltimore on Saturday, J. R. White, 36, who owns a car detailing business, said the restrictions were forcing him to cut back his hours. “They need to end that now,” Mr. White said after taking a selfie photo in front of a makeshift graffiti memorial to Mr. Gray at the spot where he had been arrested. “People can’t pay the bills if they can’t work.”
Even though the scene outside City Hall was calm, Governor Hogan’s office announced in an email sent during the demonstration that the National Guard had increased its presence in the city. Mr. Hogan’s office said 3,000 soldiers and airmen had been deployed, up from 2,500 on Friday.
Saturday’s protest and rally had been called by Black Lawyers for Justice, a Washington-based group whose leader, Malik Shabazz, clearly makes Baltimore’s mainstream black leadership nervous. Mr. Shabazz, a former chairman of the New Black Panther Party, has been labeled an extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which calls him a “racist black nationalist” who is “particularly skilled at orchestrating provocative protests.”
A protest he led on April 25 turned briefly violent after he told demonstrators at City Hall to go out into the streets of Baltimore and “shut it down!” But on Saturday, it was Mr. Shabazz himself who was shut down, by members of the crowd who shouted, “It’s not about you!” and implored him to “let the youth speak!” when his own speech went on at length.
When the rally ended, a boisterous but peaceful crowd marched back toward West Baltimore, pooling at West North and Pennsylvania, where a CVS drugstore was looted and burned on Monday night. The intersection had been blocked earlier in the week by officers in full riot gear; now the crowd broke into a happy call-and-response chant: “Take back! Baltimore! Take back! Baltimore!”
Someone turned on a loudspeaker, and the crowd began to dance.
Earlier in the day, volunteers handed out bags of supplies and food at the Simmons Memorial Baptist Church, a block from the intersection, where the sign on the church proclaimed, “Praying for the Freddie Gray Family.” Joyous Jones, a church lay leader wearing an “I Bleed Baltimore” T-shirt, said that the food giveaway was a regular event but that more people turned out to help Saturday, and more companies, including the grocery chains Trader Joe’s, Safeway and Giant, donated food.
“It makes me feel warm, to see so many people helping,” she said.
City officials had been bracing for Saturday’s demonstration, but the day got off to an almost sleepy start. Just past noon, a small crowd, including a group of New Yorkers, started gathering near the intersection of Mount and Presbury Streets, in Gilmor Homes, at the spot where Mr. Gray had been arrested.
A few blocks away, children played with a toy car on a stoop, and church members emerged from the Mt. Pisgah C.M.E. Church after attending the funeral of their bus driver.
“It’s gonna be peaceful. Yes, it is,” said Delphie Horne, 86, who sat in a wheelchair with her granddaughter, Michelle Lennon, 12, at her side. Ms. Lennon shook her head shyly when asked if she expected to attend the protest and rally at City Hall.
Across the street, the Guard troops stood ready. Another church member, Sharon Ann Hargrove, 62, who works as a tax preparer here, stopped to thank them. “I know y’all give up your life every day for us,” she told them. Turning to a reporter, she added, “They’re not our enemies.”
But on the minds and lips of many was Ms. Mosby’s announcement. “I think they charged the officers just to calm the city down,” said Tajhi Cooper, 22, a lifelong resident of the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood. “But I don’t think they’re going to get convicted.”
The protests, he said, were “showing that we want change, that we want something different.”
Many people came with a sense that they were watching history unfold, with origins in the civil rights era but an ultimate path still unknown. Several hundred marched from the Gilmor Homes to meet the much larger group that had massed at City Hall.
Crystal Miller, 47, marched down Pennsylvania Avenue with the youngest of her eight children, 18-month-old Noah, on her hip. “It could have been my children,” said Ms. Miller, who has four sons and four daughters.
Ms. Miller, who is in a training program to get a certificate for nursing home care, said Friday’s charges had spurred her to march. She said she had feared that the officers would not be charged and that the city would be ablaze in anger.
“I was scared. I was praying on it,” she said, adding that she hoped Mr. Gray’s death would inspire lawmakers to expand the use of police cameras from cars and bodies to the interior of transport vans. “They need video cameras in these vans,” she said. “That would stop some of this.”
Amid the celebration, there was an undercurrent of anger, not only over police treatment of black men, but over the lack of jobs and recreation centers, as well as dilapidated housing for Baltimore’s poor.
“Eye Contact is NOT a Crime,” one sign said — a reference to police admissions that Mr. Gray had been arrested after a lieutenant made eye contact with him, which contributed to Ms. Mosby’s assertion that the officers had made an illegal arrest.
Salesmen hawked T-shirts with the phrase “Black Lives Matter.” There was also a thread of the 1960s; black power advocates raised their fists, and communists distributed Marxist literature.
Rashaan Brave, a division chief in the Baltimore Parks and Recreation Department; Rashad Vance, who teaches in a middle school and at Morgan State University; and Travis Vance, a civil engineer, all of whom live in Baltimore, made their way on bicycles to City Hall. Each was trying to understand the aftermath of Mr. Gray’s death, the anger of youths and ways to help them.
“This is history. I just wanted to be involved,” said Rashad Vance, 32. “I’ve been telling my students, ‘Protest, but nonviolently.’ ”
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