Baltimore mayor under pressure after 'space to destroy' remark

Pressure was growing on Tuesday on Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to lead the city away from violence after she was accused of delaying an emergency response and making statements alternately criticized as inciting riotous protests and dismissing protesters’ concerns.

At a news conference, Rawlings-Blake said she had ordered police to “give those who wished to destroy space to do that”.

On Monday night she made a testy appearance at a news conference in which she referred twice to protesters as “thugs”.

The mayor’s office later said Rawlings-Blake’s comments on Sunday had been misunderstood. “The mayor is not saying that she asked police to give space to people who sought to create violence,” the office said in a statement. “Any suggestion otherwise would be a misinterpretation of her statement.”

Baltimore was the scene of violent clashes on Monday between protesters and police after a funeral for Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old man who died on 19 April from an unexplained spinal injury sustained while in police custody. At least 27 people were arrested and 15 police officers were injured, according to officials.

The violence in Baltimore threatened to overshadow bilateral talks on Tuesday between Barack Obama and visiting Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, as Maryland governor Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency, activating the state’s 5,000 national guard personnel with an executive order.

Hogan suggested at a news conference Monday that he would have taken the step sooner, but he could not reach Rawlings-Blake to coordinate it.

“We were all in the command center in the second floor of the state House in constant communication, and we were trying to get in touch with the mayor for quite some time,” Hogan said. “She finally made that call, and we immediately took action.”

At a news conference Tuesday, the governor accused Rawlings-Blake of “holding back”.

“I didn’t have a conversation with the mayor about ... why she was holding back,” Hogan said.

Rawlings-Blake, a Baltimore native who took office in 2010 after her predecessor was convicted of embezzlement, held a news conference Monday to condemn looting and burning by protesters.

“I’m a lifelong resident of Baltimore and too many people have spent generations building up this city for it to be destroyed by thugs who in a very senseless way are trying to tear down what so many have fought for,” Rawlings-Blake said, later tweeting a version of the line.

By Tuesday morning, the mayor had softened her tone. “Seeing my city like this breaks my heart,” she tweeted. “But, like so many Baltimoreans, my resolve is strong. We are already seeing volunteers from across Baltimore joining together to clean up damage. We will not let these deplorable and cowardly acts of violence ruin #OurCity.”

In three years of Rawlings-Blake’s mayoral term, the city of Baltimore paid out $5.7m to settle lawsuits claiming that police officers violently assaulted members of the public and abused criminal suspects, according to an investigation by the Baltimore Sun.

Obama was expected to take questions about the violence at a midday news conference Tuesday to follow a bilateral meeting with Abe, in town to discuss regional security, nuclear non-proliferation and other issues. Obama spoke on Monday with Rawlings-Blake, the White House said.

The new attorney general, Loretta Lynch, who had been sworn in just hours earlier, released a statement on Monday condemning “the senseless acts of violence by some individuals in Baltimore”. The head of the justice department’s civil rights division planned to visit Baltimore on Tuesday to continue a criminal investigation into “the tragic death of Mr Gray,” Lynch said.

The president waited five days after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, last summer before addressing protests in that city. “It’s important to remember how this started,” Obama said then. “We lost a young man, Michael Brown, in heartbreaking and tragic circumstances … There is never an excuse for violence against police or for those who would use this tragedy as a cover for vandalism or looting.”

Lynch takes over the justice department as a growing number of US cities – St Louis, New York, Oakland, Cleveland – have witnessed major protest activity following particularly brazen cases of police brutality. Lynch, a former US attorney, has substantial experience with high-profile police brutality cases, notably winning convictions against four New York City police officers in the 1999 Abner Louima case.

Senator Rand Paul, a Republican candidate for president, said on Tuesday that the violence in Baltimore was “depressing, it’s sad, it’s scary”.

“I came through the train on Baltimore last night, I’m glad the train didn’t stop,” Paul told the conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, laughing.

Paul said it was too early to talk about “root causes” but “there are so many things we can talk about: the breakdown of the family structure, the lack of fathers, the lack of a moral code in our society”.

“This isn’t just a racial thing, it goes across racial boundaries,” he said.

New Jersey governor Chris Christie, meanwhile, a potential opponent for Paul in the Republican primary, said that he had consulted with Hogan and was sending a contingent of New Jersey state police to Maryland.

“Our full deployment of @NJSP will unfold later today to help ensure a peaceful resolution for the city and people of Baltimore,” Christie tweeted. “There will be a deployment of 150 @NJSP and personnel and 100 of those troopers will provide operational support. Approximately 50 enlisted and civilian personnel will provide investigative and logistical support. @NJSP will be on the ground for the initial term of 72 hours, as per the request from Maryland.”

Two Democrats likely to be prominent in the 2016 presidential race also weighed in on the violence. Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, who has not declared a candidacy but has established a political action committee, tweeted on Monday that he was “saddened that the city I love is in such pain this night”.

“All of us share a profound feeling of grief for Freddie Gray & his family,” O’Malley wrote. “We must come together as one City to transform this moment of loss & pain into a safer & more just future for all of Baltimore’s people.”

A few hours later, 2016 candidate Hillary Clinton also tweeted support for Gray’s family, writing: “Tonight I am praying for peace & safety for all in Baltimore, & for Freddie Gray’s family – his death is a tragedy that demands answers. -H.”