Baltimore mayor: "Lot of pain here, but there's also a resiliency"
The mayor of Baltimore acknowledged her city has experienced a "very dark time" with a "lot of pain," but said that residents have also shown a "resiliency that is characteristically Baltimore."
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake pointed to the "relative calm" after the second night of the citywide curfew as evidence.
"You saw community leaders, you saw elected officials, working together to bring the peace," the mayor said Thursday on "CBS This Morning."
Even gang members, she added, were out on the street corners encouraging people to go home.
The 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew was enforced Tuesday after riots broke out Monday in West Baltimore, within a mile of where Freddie Gray was arrested and placed into a police van in early April. Gray died April 19 of unexplained spinal injuries sustained while in police custody, sparking civil unrest in the city.
According to Rawlings-Blake, the community's pain extends beyond Gray.
"If it were just about Freddie Gray, on the day that his mother begged the city, his family begged the city for peace so that she could mourn, you wouldn't have seen what you saw on Monday. It's about larger issues and those are those issues that we're working on," she said.
On Thursday, Baltimore police turned over the findings of their investigation into Gray's death to prosecutors at the state's attorney office. They will review the information and consider charges while conducting their own investigation.
Many have accused officials of not being transparent enough, going weeks without providing more details into Gray's death and deciding not to release the police report to the public. The mayor said for there to be justice for the Gray family, "not just to have the optics of justice," the process has to be protected.
"Yes, they want answers, but they want answers in a way that will be protect their ability to get justice for Freddie Gray," Rawlings-Blake said.
She also addressed criticism she received after using the word "thug" to describe the protesters earlier in the week.
"It is very clear there is a difference between what we saw over the past week with the peaceful protests ... and the thugs who only want to incite violence and destroy our city," Rawlings-Blake said Tuesday. "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."
She said she regretted her use of the word.
"It was very clear to me in the heat of what was going on, in the heat of this crisis, I let my anger overcome me," Rawlings-Blake said. "I've apologized multiple times, and I've apologized not just for the fact that I used the word, but because it has forced a conversation about a word instead of about the pain that many people are feeling across our city."
Officials were also criticized for the delay in deploying the National Guard, but Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Monday evening he had been waiting for Rawlings-Blake's decision.
"We declared a state of emergency and I issued executive order less than 30 seconds after requested by City of Baltimore," Hogan had said. "We were trying to get in touch with the mayor for quite some time. She finally made that call, and we immediately took action."
Rawlings-Blake said there is nothing to be gained from politicizing the decision.
"I'm from Baltimore. I grew up here, my parents grew up here, I'm raising my daughter here. I love this city, and when you see your city burning, you would do anything in your power to bring the resources necessary to bring healing and to fix the problem," Rawlings-Blake said. "So as soon as it was clear that we needed the National Guard, I made that call without hesitation, without equivocation, period."