UPDATE: Curfew, decried by ACLU and citizens, lifted today
ACLU calls for an end to the night-time restrictions, saying they limit citizen rights and quash press coverage of peaceful protests
Above: Signs and voices calling for the curfew to end were everywhere in Baltimore on Saturday.
Today civil liberties lawyers said it, speakers outside of City Hall got a crowd to chant it and a 61-year-old legal secretary among them directed an angry message about it at Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake:
“She has got to stop this curfew,” said Amanda B., who lives in Northeast Baltimore and spent her Saturday with over 1,000 marchers fired up by both the fatal arrest of Freddie Gray and restrictions stemming from the five-day-old curfew.
“Look at all the people going to jail for nothing,” she said, referring to the curfew. “Grown adults like us have got to go and sit in the house like children? No!”
This evening Police Commissioner Anthony Batts held a news conference to call on citizens to be “patient” and to announce that the curfew would continue tonight – despite widespread calls for it to end immediately amid civil liberties concerns and the growing economic effects of the shut-down on restaurants and other businesses.
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UPDATE: Mayor lifts curfew Sunday morning. “My goal has always been to not have the curfew in place a single day longer than was necessary. I believe we have reached that point today,” she said via @MayorSRB. “Effective immediately, I have rescinded my order instituting a city-wide curfew. I want to thank the people of Baltimore for their patience.”
At a news conference outside Mondawmin Mall, Rawlings-Blake was asked when the National Guard would leave the city. “They unwind. It’s not like. . . you flip a switch,” she said, adding that it will happen “over this next week.”
Speaking separately in Baltimore, Gov. Larry Hogan said he had spoken with the mayor, agreed with her that the curfew should be lifted and said evacuation of the Guard had already begun this morning.
Hogan said it would take time to remove the 4,000 people moved into Baltimore this week – “1,000 police officers and 3,000 Guard.”
“We had to build an entire city to save the city,” Hogan remarked.
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“We see [today] some of the same people we saw Monday,” Batts said, referring to the chaotic night of Freddie Gray’s funeral that erupted into violence in several parts of the city, leading Mayor Rawlings-Blake to declare a 10 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew effective for a week.
“We’re going to keep everything in place,” Batts said of tonight’s curfew, but added, “We all want to get back to normalcy.”
He even made a joke about tonight’s heavyweight boxing match, perhaps to encourage people to watch the event on TV instead of going outside.
“On a lighter note, as for Mayweather-Pacquiao tonight, I predict . . .” Batts broke off, chuckling, without finishing the quip, and left the microphone.
Batts was followed, at a news conference in front of police headquarters, by Col. William M. Pallozzi, head of the Maryland State Police. Pallozzi also noted that “the issue of keeping the curfew in place was our decision.”
“We have had several peaceful days,” Pallozzi acknowledged, “but it has always been about safety.”
He also counseled patience.
“Engendering Needless Tension”
But patience was growing thin today in a city full of restive citizens bristling at the police state atmosphere and the pain it is causing to the city’s pocketbook.
“It has now become clear that the curfew is serving as nothing more than a tool for curtailing the First Amendment rights of peaceful demonstrators, legal observers and the news media,” said the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland in a letter calling for Rawlings-Blake to call off the night-time restrictions.
“The people of Baltimore have marched, demonstrated and exercised their rights for days largely without incident,” said ACLU-MD legal director Deborah A. Jeon.
Jeon said the curfew has “clearly outlived its usefulness,” and now only “reminds city residents of their broken relationship with police.”
The overnight curfew, she said, “is being used to restrict the First Amendment rights of protesters, legal observers and the media, and is engendering needless tension and hostility. It creates, not deters, a climate of fear and burdens Baltimore residents’ ability to simply go about their lives.”
ACLU: Curfew Limiting Media Coverage
The ACLU’s letter cited also concerns about the way the curfew is being enforced.
“Last night, police showed up at City Hall in great numbers, dressed in full-riot gear, to break up a peaceful assembly of about 100 individuals,” the letter said. It charged that police arrested at least 15 people at City Hall and at least 53 protesters citywide last night.
“Police also interfered with news media outlets that were attempting to cover the arrests, even though the terms of the curfew allow them to be present in the street past curfew hours in order to cover events as they unfold,” the letter said.
“Even more disturbingly, police suddenly revoked permits that had previously been issued to legal observers, forbidding them from witnessing and documenting police actions against peaceful demonstrators and the media after curfew hours.” [See Amnesty International’s statement on this.]
“These actions appear to serve no purpose other than to stop protected First Amendment activity and to quash coverage of police activity during the hours the curfew is in effect,” the letter continued.
Blow to Business
Bar and restaurant owners have joined activists and organizers in calling for Rawlings-Blake to #EndtheCurfew, to borrow from the movement’s Twitter hashtag.
“Restaurant and bar staff are asking, ‘How will I make the rent this month?’” restaurateur Sergio Vitale, of Aldo’s in Little Italy, asked last night on Twitter.
Another person Tweeted “It’s time to lift the curfew & send the national guard home,” while a third, writing tonight, pointed out: “Flight delayed and will be coming in post-curfew. This should be fun.”
At today’s City Hall rally, Leon DeLawrence said he is a dishwasher and was told today there was “no work” at his job.
“It makes me so mad they’re doing this,” he said. “Maybe people wouldn’t be so angry and cause trouble if they would just get rid of this curfew.”