Police say curfew in riot-hit Baltimore working

Police have fired smoke bombs and pepper pellets at protesters who defied a curfew across Baltimore, but said the curfew was for the most part effective.
A total of 10 people were arrested, Police Commissioner Anthony Batts told a midnight news conference yesterday.
"The curfew is in fact working," he said. "Citizens are safe. The city is stable."
His account of a relatively calm city was a stark contrast from rioting Monday evening and night that racked Baltimore - the latest US community roiled by unrest and stoked by anger over police treatment of blacks. More than 250 people were arrested.

Nervous authorities imposed the emergency night-time curfew at 10:00 pm (local time) in a bid to stave off another night of violence after rioters looted stores, torched buildings and cars, and attacked police on Monday.
But several hundred protesters initially refused to clear the tense streets yestersday according to TV estimates, and a fire was started near a library.

Batts said that of the 10 arrests, seven were for violation of the curfew.
A line of heavily equipped riot police moved on the crowd of mainly young, black men, who lobbed back whatever they could get their hands on.
Police responded with pepper pellets and fired smoke bombs, and appeared to have quickly and successfully dispersed the crowd.

Armored police vehicles moved in to help enforce the curfew, which was to be lifted at 5:00 am and then re-imposed each night for a week.
"The curfew violators are refusing to follow lawful orders by officers to leave the area. An emergency curfew is in effect," Baltimore police tweeted.
National Guard troops were deployed to back up police in the gritty port city of 620,000, where the violence and looting erupted on Monday after the funeral of 25-year-old African-American man Freddie Gray, who died after suffering severe spinal injuries during an arrest.
Earlier in the day, President Barack Obama condemned Monday's rioting. But he warned that incidents in recent months "raise troubling questions" about the policing of black communities in the United States.

Last year's fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, triggered coast-to-coast protests.
"Since Ferguson... We have seen too many instances of what appears to be police officers interacting with individuals - primarily African American, often poor - in ways that raise troubling questions," the president said.