On the first day after Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake had lifted Baltimore’s curfew, Pennsylvania and North avenues were still blocked off by officers toting riot shields – and still tense.

Word had spread yesterday that someone was shot by police and arrested, a claim that Baltimore Police later discredited. (They said a fleeing suspect’s handgun went off injuring no one. ) Amid the initial panic at the scene, where rioting had broken out on Monday, police pushed back the crowd and pepper-sprayed a bystander.

After the man being arrested was taken away by ambulance (as a precaution police later said) the crowd – confused, somber and curious – seemed ready to assume the worst, that another citizen had been injured by police.

“Somebody just got shot. There’s just enough violence right now,”said Tayvon, a young man of 26 watching the scene.

Mistrust of the police was a common theme on the Penn North corner. “I think that it’s vile how [police] get away with so much,” said Donyea Moon, adding, “I don’t think all cops are bad, though.”

Others were surprised to still find police with riot shields and a cordoned-off street.

“The curfew was lifted, so why are they still here?” asked Melissa, a 17-year-old student at Coppin Academy, looking over her shoulder to look at the line of officers.

Asked about Monday’s looting and rioting, some in the crowd had disdain for it,  while others had mixed emotions.

“It does have something to do with racism. But I know how they [the rioters] did it was wrong,” Melissa said. “They should give back to the community instead of hurting people’s jobs and educations.”

Charlie, a 10-year-old student at Liberty Elementary, was eager to share his view. “They shouldn’t have did the riots. They wasn’t for Freddie Gray, because [Gray’s] parents said they didn’t want that. It wasn’t fair to other people.”

Most seemed to think that Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake had not responded well during the riot or shown decisive leadership.

Moon, however, was diplomatic. “She act like she cares. Whether she really does, who really knows.”

“She can’t do as much as black people think she can,” Tayvon added.

Students React to Accusations

After school on Monday, students flocked to the bus stop across from Mondawmin Mall.

Felipe, a 17-year-old at Frederick Douglass High School, shared his exasperation with students at the school being blamed for instigating the riot last Monday.

“If you blame one school, you have to blame other schools. And adults were there, too,” he said.

Many adults, including teachers, have risen to the students’ defense, saying the MTA exacerbated the situation by shutting down bus and subway service in the area that day leaving the students corralled with a large contingent of police.

Amber Pieper Glaros, a former city teacher, gave us permission to use her Facebook post on what happened.

“No matter who instigated, many of the kids there were just trying to get home. Children from Baltimore City Schools have no private school buses. Kids use the MTA buses, Light Rail and Metro to get to and from school. West-side students from citywide middle and high schools were trapped [at the] Mondawmin hub when the decision was made to close down the MTA. Not ‘thugs’ but successful students from the premier Baltimore high schools. Yes, there were adolescents bent on creating havoc but there were many others just trying to get home from school. These are kids who are between 11 and 18 years-old. They should have been better protected.”

At Mondawmin yesterday, Dairyein and Raven, both 17 and students at Douglass, shared that sense of indignation.

“They blame it on our school,” said Dairyein. “How did we start everything? We got out at 3″– or later than the start of the rock-throwing at police.

On the mayor’s response to the riot, Raven and Dairyein had differing views.

Dairyein argued that “she’s not giving support” to the community. Raven, on the other hand, had a more sympathetic perspective: “She’s under pressure. She’s never had things like this on her hands before.”

Mondawmin Mall Reopens

A noticeable police presence could be found around the mall yesterday, as many people made use of its array of businesses. There was no visible sign of damage from the looting that took place last Monday.

Aravind, 25, works at a stand selling perfume. He said he was lucky to be spared from the looting. “Look there, there and there,” he said, pointing to three other stalls selling similar goods. “We were the only ones not hurt.”

Aravind had begun working at Mondawmin Mall two weeks ago. “I was here for a week, then got one week off.” He said he hadn’t noticed much difference in business after the riot except that evening hours were curtailed at 6 p.m. instead of the normal closing time of 9 p.m.

From appearance alone, it’s hard to believe that Storm was one of the stores looted just a week ago. Teeming with shiny apparel, the store is owned by Sandtaz Taylor, 26. “They stole tons of stuff. I’m still doing inventory. Being a private owner, it’s a bit much.”

Before the riots, Taylor had planned to open a second store at The Gallery in the Inner Harbor. However, her manufacturers stopped shipping items to Baltimore following last week’s outburst of violence, delaying the opening of her new store for a week.

“I feel like they should have protected us more,” Taylor said about the police’s handling of the disturbances. “They locked us out of here before we could go in and take some of our stuff.”

Calls for Protesters to be Released

Another theme on Monday was continuing calls for jailed protesters, still being held at Central Booking, to be released.

“Drop the charges, drop the bail, protesters shouldn’t go to jail,” a group chanted at last night’s City Council meeting, briefly disrupting proceedings.

But a Baltimore City Circuit Court judge, earlier in the day, upheld Gov. Larry Hogan’s emergency order that has allowed people to be held longer than 24 hours without seeing a court commissioner.

Meanwhile, the conditions at Central Booking, according to public defenders and other legal observers, have been “deplorable.”

With flimsy evidence of probable cause, arrested protesters, many with little or no previous record, were being held without bail, attorney Marci Tarrant Johnson, of the Public Defender’s Office, said last week.

“If one person is denied due process, we all suffer,” Johnson wrote in a Brew op-ed. “If one persons rights and freedoms are trampled on, it’s not only a reflection on all of us, but it puts our own liberty at risk.”