National
Baltimore Police Chief: ‘There is a Sense of Rage’
Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts, shown here surveying the city streets on April 30, said police wanted to allow people to express their freedom of speech and that officers were striving to take a measured approach to the demonstrations
(Photo: Alex Brandon, AP)
Yamiche Alcindor, USA TODAY
BALTIMORE (USA Today) — Thursday night, Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts walked alongside dozens of officers asking people to go home and to obey the city’s 10 p.m. curfew.
Standing across from a burned-out CVS that has become the epicenter of protests, Batts told USA TODAY police wanted to allow people to express their freedom of speech and that officers were striving to take a measured approach to the demonstrations.
“There is a sense of rage and rightly so,” Batts told USA TODAY. “The Constitution says you should have the right to protest in the street and walk to get your point across. So that’s what we facilitate.”
National attention is fixated on Baltimore after 10 days of protests following the death of Freddie Gray, 25, a black man who died of a severe spinal injury April 19 while in police custody. Tensions exploded into violence Monday. Clashes between police and demonstrators led arrests of more than 200 protesters and injuries to 20 police officers.
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