A brief roundup of today's news from or about the Baltimore protests:
- President Obama addressed Monday's protests during a joint press conference with Prime Minister Abe.
[T]here’s no excuse for the kind of violence that we saw yesterday. It is counterproductive. When individuals get crowbars and start prying open doors to loot, they’re not protesting, they’re not making a statement -- they’re stealing. When they burn down a building, they’re committing arson. [...]
[T]he violence that happened yesterday distracted from the fact that you had seen multiple days of peaceful protests that were focused on entirely legitimate concerns of these communities in Baltimore, led by clergy and community leaders. And they were constructive and they were thoughtful, and frankly, didn’t get that much attention. And one burning building will be looped on television over and over and over again, and the thousands of demonstrators who did it the right way I think have been lost in the discussion.
- Baltimore schools were closed Tuesday, posing problems for poorer students that rely on those schools for their meals.
- There will be a police-enforced curfew tonight and from 10 PM ET to 5 AM ET. The curfew is expected to last through the week.
- The Baltimore Orioles announced that tomorrow's game against the White Sox will go forward without fans in the seats: the game will be closed to the public.
- Police Commissioner Anthony Batts says his department will present its report on the death of Freddie Gray to prosecutors by this Friday. Gov. Hogan has requested that the preliminary autopsy report on Gray be released "as soon as possible."
- Community volunteers gathered today at a badly fire-damaged CVS to assist in clean-up efforts.
- A "tone-deaf" move by Whole Foods attracted online scorn.
- David Graham highlights "the absence of legitimate authority" in the city.
- Conservative pundits need to stop quoting Martin Luther King Jr. This goes doubly if the pundit works for Fox News.