Baltimore Mayor: City Being ‘Destroyed By Thugs’ In ‘A Senseless Way’ [VIDEO]

During a press conference Monday night, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake blamed “thugs” for the riots consuming the city during the afternoon and in the early evening. The mayor said that the city is being “destroyed by thugs who in a very senseless way are trying to tear down what so many have fought for.”

MAYOR RAWLINGS-BLAKE: What we see tonight that is going on in our city is very disturbing. It is very clear there is a difference between what we saw over the past week with the peaceful protests, those who wish to seek justice, those who wish to be heard, and want answers and the difference between those protests and the thugs who only want to incite violence and destroy our city.

I’m a life-long resident of Baltimore and 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. Tearing down businesses. Tearing down and destroying property, things that we know will impact our community for years. We are deploying every resource possible to gain control of the situation and to ensure peace moving forward.

I’ve been in contact with our governor and he has agreed — and I have requested and he has agreed to deploy the national guard as soon as they are available. They will be immediately deployed. We’ve ordered a curfew be in effect, instituting tomorrow the curfew city wide, 10:00 p.m., to 5:00 a.m. Again, there will be a city wide curfew, 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. This preliminary curfew will last for one week and be extended as it is necessary.