A new digest of articles in the Baltimore Sun on the recent unrest and other related events
Just trying to catch-up after being away for a while.... May
4, 2015 at 6 a.m....
After more than a week of angry protests over the death of
Freddie Gray, marred at times by violence and rioting, hundreds rejoiced and
sang outside City Hall on Sunday.
Mary Jackson was watching CNN when the rioting broke out in
West Baltimore last Monday, and she couldn't take her eyes off the screen.
Dr. Ben Carson, the celebrated pediatric neurosurgeon who
spent his career at Johns Hopkins Hospital before becoming a darling of
conservative voters, said Sunday he will seek the Republican nomination for
president next year.
A message of hope was delivered by Baltimore elected
officials and clergy at Southern Baptist Church Sunday afternoon, nearly a week
after the Mary Harvin Transformation Center (a project of the church) and
senior apartments were destroyed by a fire nearby during riots last Monday.
Mark Dantzler arrived home from a party early Sunday morning
to find his neighborhood blocked off and his street saturated with blue police
lights.
Baltimore began to move beyond unrest Sunday when Mayor
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake lifted a citywide curfew, the Maryland National Guard
began withdrawing its forces and shoppers returned to Mondawmin Mall, which had
been shuttered after looting.
Baltimore could be set to host a blockbuster sequel with
Kentucky Derby champion American Pharoah and top rivals Firing Line and
Dortmund all pointed toward the May 16 Preakness.
Pushing back against criticism of his own policing
strategies in Baltimore, former Gov. Martin O'Malley said the tensions that
erupted into riots last week would be central to his presidential campaign if
he decides to run.
Baltimore City officials estimate the 39 hours an employee
spent watching pornography on the job during a two-week period equated to about
$1,166 in salary. They fired him in January after monitoring and documenting
the employee's porn viewing.
One man is dead after two separate overnight shootings
Saturday, Baltimore police said.
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings said Sunday he was
"comfortable" with State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby's decision to
charge six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray.
Gov. Larry Hogan attended mass at a Catholic church in the
Sandtown-Winchester community Sunday, part of a "day of prayer and
peace" he had declared in the wake of a tense week that saw looting and
violence following the death of Freddie Gray.
As the 10 p.m. curfew went into effect Saturday night,
police detained one man at Pennsylvania and North avenues, the site of a riot
and looting earlier this week. The handcuffed man had been pepper-sprayed and
police were pouring water into the man's eyes to try to ease the effects of the
spray....
A group of about 50 mostly white protesters stood on a
corner in Hampden on Saturday just as the citywide 10 p.m. curfew went into
effect because, they said, they knew they'd be treated differently than black
protesters in poorer parts of the city.
In a fourth-floor conference room at Baltimore police
headquarters, two training officers in blue T-shirts and blue pants lowered
themselves onto the carpeted floor to demonstrate the leg hold officers used to
restrain Freddie Gray the day he was arrested — and sustained a fatal spine
injury.
It was part dance party, and part angry cry for justice.
James Henderson grabbed his daughter Kya's tiny hand and reminded
his youngest, Kendall, to hold on to him as the family joined a crowd of about
100 Saturday on a march to City Hall.
Unrest in Baltimore put on display the widely different
leadership styles that Gov. Larry Hogan and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake
brought to a crisis that could come to define their administrations.
As more than a dozen pharmacies remained closed after fires
and looting in Baltimore, city health officials on Saturday urged people who
can't get their medicines to call 311 for help.
After riots overtook West Baltimore on Monday, a hashtag
began to appear on Twitter and other social media — #BALTIMORELOOTCREW —
linking together posts that depicted pilfered prescription drugs and demolished
store shelves.
Tonight's Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao bout may be
the fight of the century, but for some Baltimore bar and club owners, it's just
another way the city's ongoing curfew is costing them and their employees
money.
As arson investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives dug through the charred rubble of a West
Baltimore pawn shop Saturday, the bureau put out a call for citizen-captured
videos of fires that erupted during Monday's riots. Anyone with fire videos can
upload...
Baltimore City's top prosecutor, State's Attorney Marilyn J.
Mosby, charged all six officers who had been suspended in connection with
Freddie Gray's death. The highest charge, second-degree depraved heart murder,
went to the driver of the van.
Baltimore police arrested at least 53 people during peaceful
protests Friday, the day charges were brought against the six officers involved
in the arrest of Freddie Gray.
A popular fundraising website has disallowed contributions
for the Baltimore officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray.
The obstacles the Orioles have faced through the first four
weeks of the season – several untimely injuries, an inconsistent pitching staff
and this week's forced scheduling twist – pales in comparison to what has been
going on in Baltimore over the past seven days.
Two men were arrested amid the ongoing unrest in Baltimore
on Tuesday night after stealing a Maryland Transit Administration mobility van
that police then tracked through GPS, a MTA spokesman confirmed.
A 49-year-old Highlandtown corner store employee was fatally
shot at his business on Friday morning, one of two shootings reported in
Southeast Baltimore.
Amid a cacophony of people shouting and car horns honking,
Baltimoreans pulled each other into close hugs and joyful handshakes Friday as
word spread that State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby was charging six police
officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray.
All six police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray
were released from the Central Booking and Intake Center downtown Friday night
after posting bail, court records show.
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