Baltimore Awaits Answers in Black Man's Death, Remains on Edge

Baltimore: Police and National Guard troops patrolled Baltimore's streets, giving the city a semblance of calm on Wednesday after the worst civil unrest in decades as residents await an official account of the death of a 25-year-old black man.

After a curfew helped police thwart the kind of violence that saw buildings burned and stores looted on Monday night, schools reopened and business resumed in the city where the man, Freddie Gray, died April 19 of spinal injuries suffered while in police custody.

The city of 620,000 became the latest flashpoint in a national movement against law enforcement's use of lethal force, which protesters say is disproportionately exercised against minorities. The deaths of black men over the past year at the hands of police in New York, Ferguson, Missouri; Cleveland, Ohio, and elsewhere reignited a debate about race relations in the United States.

Baltimore's Major League Baseball team, the Orioles, prepared to play the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday, but without any spectators at the stadium, in a sign of the tenuous security situation. Baltimore's Symphony Orchestra staged an impromptu concert for a gathering of several hundred people.

"I'm going to be going to some actions that will be much more about Freddie Gray and about what happened, but I like that this has the potential to be a healing event," said Sam Williamson, 24, as he listened to the music.

If the police investigation finds no wrongdoing by the six officers involved in Gray's arrest, Williamson predicted more protests would follow. "There will be a lot more demonstrations and they will be larger," he said.

Gray had been arrested on April 12 after fleeing from police in a high-crime area and was carrying a switchblade knife.

Baltimore Police have said they will conclude their investigation by the end of the week, when the results will be turned over to state prosecutors and followed by an independent review.

'WANT TO KNOW TRUTH'

It is still unclear if the police will make public their findings, but residents seemed to turn their focus to Friday and several expressed a desire to see at least some of the officers held accountable.

"It doesn't have to be all of them, we don't want to be told some story. We want to know the truth," said Kevin Eaton, a 52-year-old musician.

Action against any of the officers, he said, "that would be a victory. That would be historic. The minute we hold one of them responsible for this, that will be a victory."

The U.S. Department of Justice is conducting a separate probe into possible civil rights violations.

New U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch called Baltimore's riots "senseless acts of violence" that are counterproductive to the ultimate goal of "developing a respectful conversation within the Baltimore community and across the nation about the way our law enforcement officers interact" with residents.

Diving into the debate over police use of force, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton on Wednesday urged police departments throughout the country to use body cameras and called for an end to excessive prison sentences that burden black communities.

"There is something wrong when a third of all black men face the prospect of prison during their lifetimes," said Clinton.

Some Baltimore residents, echoing that view, saw Baltimore's plight as part of a bigger problem in America.

"People, especially African-Americans, have been brutalized," said Tony R. Jefferson, 67, who was on his way to get a haircut at a barber shop a block from the main protest site.

"It's happening all over the country," he added. "Something is terribly wrong with America."

Monday's rioting in Baltimore followed a week of largely peaceful protests in the city, where almost a quarter of the residents live below the poverty line. The neighborhood that saw the worst of the violence was already filled with many burned-out buildings and vacant lots that had not been rebuilt since the 1968 riots that followed the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.