Maryland National Guard’s adjutant general told reporters the guard will be armed and ready to protect themselves if needed when they are deployed to Baltimore to help law enforcement quell the riots in the city.
“We are going to be coming in with up-armored Humvees and mainly because I want to make sure that our folks are being protected as well as some pieces of larger equipment that will allow us to move more forces if we need to,” said Major General Linda Singh.
“We will be carrying our weapons…because if my folks need to protect themselves, they have the ability to do that, but that’s only in the event that they need to do that,” she said.
Singh specified that there will be 5,000 national guardsman that can be called up by authorities.
“It will be up to the state police or the governor to tell us how many they need and at what points in time,” Singh said.
Governor Larry Hogan placed Baltimore under a state of emergency and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake imposed a week-long curfew on to the city that begins Tuesday night.