Baltimore protesters arrested after staging a sit-in at city hall

Police said they charged 16 people, including three juveniles, with trespassing. Since the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who suffered a critical spinal injury in police custody, the police department and its leaders have taken the brunt of criticism for decades of government failures to address the city’s woes.

Marilyn Mosby is prosecuting six Baltimore police officers for their involvement in Mr. Gray’s death, with the first trial set to begin on November 30. That incident was followed by a spike in crime and, in July, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake fired police commissioner Anthony Batts and she appointed Davis into the interim role. The full council still has to vote on his permanent appointment.

Members of the Baltimore Uprising coalition, which includes both high school and community activists, began shouting from the upper gallery of City Council chambers as a Council subcommittee prepared for its vote Wednesday.

The Baltimore Sun reported that at least 12 protesters have been arrested and jailed, according to reports posted to the #BaltimoreUprising hashtag on the social medium Twitter.

After more than a dozen protesters were arrested, others left voluntarily but voiced their disappointment with the police response.

Activists remained at city hall overnight, saying they wouldn’t leave until their demands were met.

Demonstrators angry about the use of police force took over parts of Baltimore’s City Hall and remained there into the early house of Thursday, police said.

“Frankly we’re exhausted and fed-up in trying to figure out how to have conversations with people who clearly don’t represent us and don’t care about us”, said Tre Murphy of Baltimore BLOC and Baltimore Algebra Project. Secondly, he said, they plan to continue to advance the agenda they introduced last night.

Lawrence Grand Pre, a protester who heeded police warnings and left, said those remaining were “young people being young people, and talking a lot about social justice”.

Addressing the council subcommittee earlier, Davis said that he remains committed to training officers to actively engage and interact with community members.

A few of the demonstrators said police have shown heightened aggression when dealing with protesters since Davis took command. Davis still has to be approved by the full council. Davis also emphasized his commitment to “respect and fight for the right for Americans to assemble and peacefully protest”. Councilman Nick Mosby, the husband of State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, voted against the confirmation, and mayoral candidate Carl Stokes abstained.

An Associated Press reporter stationed outside saw the five leave shortly after midnight Wednesday. He says they want to challenge what he called the “coronation process” for interim Police Commissioner Kevin Davis “and ask a few critical questions about how police have handled protests since he’s been in charge”.