Maryland National Guard troops fanned out here Tuesday and residents began to repair neighborhoods as the city’s mayor defended the response to a previous night of riots and looting fueled by the recent death of a black man in police custody.

As a 10 p.m. curfew came and went Tuesday, a line of police behind riot shields used pepper balls and smoke grenades to disperse a crowd of about 200 at North and Pennsylvania avenues. Protesters tossed bottles at police, but no immediate arrests or serious injuries were reported before the crowd quickly dispersed.

On Monday night, upheaval roiled the city when roaming groups of youths faced off with police just hours after the funeral for Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old man who died earlier this month after police arrested him.

City officials said fires consumed 19 buildings and 144 vehicles, while at least 20 police officers were injured and 235 people arrested. On Tuesday, shop owners covered storefronts with plywood, and many residents swept debris from streets. The acrid smell of charred vehicles and buildings hung in the air.

Government offices, schools and businesses closed or scaled back hours of operation. Johns Hopkins University canceled classes in the city.

In an unusual move, the Baltimore Orioles announced the team would play a scheduled game at its Camden Yards stadium in Baltimore on Wednesday but close it to the public. A three-game series starting Friday against the Tampa Bay Rays was moved to Florida.

Baltimore officials focused Tuesday on containing the immediate threat of additional lawlessness, beginning a weeklong, citywide 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew. Schools were set to reopen Wednesday.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake defended her administration’s decision not to crack down heavily on a crowd of young people that clashed with police Monday afternoon before the confrontation spiraled into widespread mayhem that overwhelmed the city police force.

She said officers have to maintain safety while trying not to escalate tensions. “We worked very swiftly, and it’s a very delicate balancing act,” Ms. Rawlings-Blake said.

Gov. Larry Hogan said an influx of up to 2,000 Maryland National Guard troops, more than 400 state troopers and officers from other states would help ensure that chaos didn’t return to the city’s streets.

A person familiar with the governor’s thinking said Mr. Hogan believed Ms. Rawlings-Blake should have asked him to mobilize the National Guard earlier on Monday. The violence began at about 3 p.m. on Monday.

“Finally I believe around 6 o’clock, the mayor requested us to bring in the National Guard and declare a state of emergency,” Mr. Hogan said. “We did so immediately.”

Ms. Rawlings-Blake called Mr. Hogan as the violence rapidly escalated, said a person familiar with the situation. The crowd initially was made up of teens, and police didn’t want to overwhelm them with force, this person said.

Demonstrations on Saturday that broke out in violent pockets of the city largely were peaceful, and so didn’t affect the way the mayor approached the events on Monday, this person said.

Gene Ryan, president of the union that represents the city’s police officers wasn’t available for comment, a spokeswoman said. Cole Watson, president of the union that represents Baltimore County police, including several dozen who assisted the city, called the events Monday night “a very difficult situation to manage.”

“Unfortunately, it appeared for much of the afternoon they were in a reactive mode,” he said.

Some experts declined to second-guess the apparent lack of an aggressive police response.

“All of these situations are fluid and it’s difficult to predict what is going to happen,” said former New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

Referring to protests that turned violent in Ferguson, Mo., last year, he added, “Ferguson may have played a role in terms of the concerns about the optics of the situation.”

Some residents were critical of the mayor’s handling of the situation.

As Rick Zeskind nailed plywood over broken windows of his hardware store in West Baltimore, he said he thought the police could have prevented more damage if the mayor had given them freer reign. “Her telling them to let the people go is just wrong,” Mr. Zeskind said.

Others defended the mayor’s decision to allow police to take a less aggressive stance with crowds.

“What would it have looked like if they would have went into the kids with sticks and dogs? It would have been ’68,” said Eric D. Booker, president of a community association in a Northeast Baltimore, referring to widespread deadly riots in 1968 following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Mr. Gray was arrested April 12 after running from police while they were on patrol in a section of West Baltimore known for illicit drug dealings. After he was caught, police said they found he was carrying a switchblade and arrested him.

A family lawyer has said that while Mr. Gray was in police custody, his spine was nearly severed at his neck and he had three broken vertebrae. He died April 19 after being hospitalized and falling into a coma. The circumstances of his fatal injury remain unclear and federal and city probes are underway.

Six police officers have been suspended with pay, and five have given statements to authorities. None has commented publicly.

The confrontations with police tapped a deep well of distrust between residents and law enforcement. Youths brazenly set fires and taunted lines of shield-bearing police who stood their ground Monday as they were pelted with rocks and bottles.
(Wall Street Journal)