BALTIMORE, (Reuters) – Baltimore’s mayor and police yesterday again blamed outside agitators for violence and vandalism that flared during a mostly peaceful protest over last week’s death of a young black man who sustained an unexplained spinal injury while under arrest.
A day after thousands of demonstrators marched through the city demanding justice in the investigation into the April 19 death of Freddie Gray, 25, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake condemned the lawlessness that erupted on Saturday.
On Saturday evening, scores of protesters splintered off from the main rally to hurl bottles, metal barricades and various objects at police and their patrol cars, and to vandalize storefronts and other properties downtown, authorities said.
There were 35 arrests, and six officers suffered minor injuries, according to police and the mayor.
The protest was the latest expression of a national outcry over a white-dominated U.S. law enforcement establishment that civil rights leaders accuse of routinely disrespecting and brutalizing African-Americans.
“Last night we saw a small group of agitators turning what was otherwise a peaceful demonstration into violent disruptions,” Rawlings-Blake said at a news conference held by civic leaders and clergy at a Baltimore church, echoing comments she made Saturday night. “I will not let those individuals put their agendas ahead of our city’s.”
