Baltimore witnesses peace-restoring signs after riots
Xinhua, April 30, 2015 Adjust font size:
Signs of peace showed on the streets of Baltimore Wednesday, a day after the riots-torn U.S. city declared a one-week long curfew.
Members of National Guards and the city's Police Department were maintaining the order of streets of the downtown area, including the Inner Harbor. According to Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, some 2,000 National Guardsmen and more than 1,000 police officers from across Maryland and neighboring states were assigned to streets of Baltimore on Tuesday night.
The governor urged everyone to obey the curfew at a press conference.
The city's public schools reopened Wednesday, with the school district's CEO Gregory E. Thornton praising "thousands and thousands of students who made good decisions" and did not participate in the riots Monday.
However, he said that the students who joined the violence will be held accountable. "We are working to identify those students, who will experience consequences in full accordance with the law and City School's code of conduct".
The baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox played Wednesday, which was closed to the public. Analysts said that the league has never played without one single fan not showing at the scene in its history.
A seven-day curfews has began since 10 p.m. Tuesday. Police Commissioner Batts said that 10 people were arrested last night, including seven for violating curfew, two for looting and one for disorderly conduct.
At the crossroad of Pennsylvania Avenue and the North Street, where a CVS drug store was burned down during the riots, much fewer people showed on streets Wednesday afternoon.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlinigs-Blake made comments that her city is recovering. "I think we saw a lot more of what Baltimore is about, " she said," We saw people coming together to reclaim our city, to clean our city and to help our city. I think this can be our defining moment." Endite