Baltimore Pinoys agree curfews worked

BALTIMORE, M.D. – It was a quiet night in Baltimore Tuesday night – a far cry from Monday night’s riots that left six police officers seriously injured, cars and buildings burned, and businesses looted.

Thanks to about 2,000 National Guardsmen and more than a thousand police officers from Maryland and out of state.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said, “I get reports from the organization that we do not have a lot of activity or movement throughout the city as a whole. So the curfew is, in fact, working as the mayor had called.”

Some protesters initially refused to disperse that resulted in some minor clashes.

About 10 people were arrested by midnight, mostly for breaking the curfew.

“May 10 p.m. curfew, right now. 10:30, may mga tao pa rin, parang pino-provoke nila yung police na hulihin sila or something,” Baltimore County resident Peter Calleja said. “Pero kasi wala naman talagang mga… sabi ko nga sa ‘yo kanina, 98 percent ng mga Filipinos nasa suburb nakatira sa counties. So walang masyadong nakatira downtown sa area’ng yun. Sa work lang.”

For Filipino teachers who work in the inner city, Wednesday means it’s back to school for them and their students.

Alona Nunes says she wants to make Monday night’s riot a teachable moment in her classroom.

“Baltimore Gov. Larry Hogan made a wonderful point: People have the right to protest, but you don’t have the right to destroy properties or lives,” she said. “I think the more powerful thing to communicate to the students is the sense of accountability and responsibility.”

But some Filipino activists in New York who are demanding justice for Freddie Gray — the 25-year-old who was arrested and died while in police custody in Baltimore — say rioting and looting is part of the protest process.

Jackie Mariano of New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP) said, “Whether people choose to take peaceful means or to take more violent means to bring attention to what’s going on with them, it’s rooted from the same place and that is centuries of government neglect.”

But for the most part, the people of Baltimore say they had enough – even one of Baltimore’s biggest sports stars.

Former football player, Ray Lewis said, “Violence is not the answer! Violence have never been the answer!”

Rica Aldecoa Liu, Loyola University Maryland’s assitant director said, “It seems like the community, the city has stepped up to try and right the path.”

The riots are gone, but protesters in Baltimore say, the voices of non violent protest demanding justice for Freddie Gray will continue.

You may contact Don Tagala at don_tagala@abs-cbn.com for more information.