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Baltimore Streets Quiet After Night of Curfew

Baltimore Streets Quiet After Night of Curfew
Baltimore Streets Quiet After Night of Curfew

Riot police in the US city of Baltimore enforced a curfew into the early hours of Wednesday and called it a success, emptying streets scarred by a spasm of rioting and looting.

The northeastern US city, which has high unemployment and pockets of severe poverty, was reported quiet overnight, AFP wrote.

The officers were joined by National Guards as they manned security lines with armored vehicles on streets that saw widespread violence Monday and gave a new focus to a national debate over how American police treat young black men.

Earlier, as the clear-the-streets order took effect at 10 p.m. local time, a crowd of several hundred people faced off against police in riot gear. The nighttime curfew officially ended at 5 a.m. It is to go on every night for another week.

At the standoff on Tuesday, defiant protesters, mainly young black men, threw bottles and other projectiles at the security forces. Police eventually fired smoke bombs and pepper pellets, dispersing the crowd.

Still, the scene was a far cry from the heavy rioting and looting Monday in which gangs of youth torched buildings and cars and ransacked shops in poor areas of the port city of 620,000.

“The curfew is in fact working. Citizens are safe. The city is stable,” Police Commissioner Anthony Batts told a midnight news conference. A total of 10 people were arrested, seven of them for curfew violation, he added. That compared to more than 250 on Monday.

After midnight, after stinging gas clouds forced protesters to disperse, the streets were largely clear. TV footage showed that one intersection that was ground zero of Monday’s mayhem was deserted but for police and other security forces.

 

Financialtribune.com