Life in Baltimore one year after Freddie Gray death
A year after Freddie Gray's death, and the riots that followed, daily life in Baltimore has largely returned to its old ways.
Gray's death on April 19, 2015 — a week after he was arrested and injured in a police transport van — became a focal point in the national debate over police treatment of African-Americans. On April 27, looting, rioting and arson broke out after his funeral and continued through the night. More than 200 people were arrested. The Maryland National Guard was called up, and a nightly curfew was imposed.
Now, with the smoke cleared and the debris long hauled away, Baltimore looks much the same as it did before the unrest. Long-blighted buildings mark the landscape where protesters marched. Baseball fans, forced by the curfew to stay away for one game last year, gather to cheer on the Orioles. Shoppers and commuters walk past storefronts with repaired windows. A CVS drugstore that burned has reopened to regular business.
And Gray's grave, surrounded by people and flowers last April, today sits unmarked and unperturbed.
This combination of photos shows Freddie Gray's burial on April 27, 2015, top, and the area where his unmarked grave lies on April 20, 2016, at Woodlawn Cemetery in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
This combination of photos shows blighted buildings behind a protester on May 2, 2015 as he leads marchers in a chant in response to Freddie Gray's death, top, and the same buildings on April 14, 2016, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
This combination of photos shows a baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles on April 29, 2015, with no fans, top, and a game between the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles on April 19, 2016, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
This combination of photos shows a demonstrator raising his fist on April 27, 2015, in front of police and a burning building during unrest following Freddie Gray's funeral, top, and a man walking children across the same street on April 19, 2016, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
This combination of photos shows a firefighter on April 27, 2015 pulling a hose toward a burning store amidst unrest following Freddie Gray's funeral, top, and a reopened store on April 19, 2016 at the same location in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
This combination of photos shows a man breaking a store window on April 25, 2015 following a protest march in response to Freddie Gray's death, top, and people walking past the store on April 19, 2016, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
This combination of photos shows a protester, left, fighting with a bar patron on April 25, 2015 following a march in response to Freddie Gray's death, top, at a bar outside of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and bar patrons congregating on April 19, 2016, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
This combination photos shows protesters marching on May 2, 2015 in response to Freddie Gray's death, top, and a man crossing the same street on April 17, 2016, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Text from the AP news story, AP PHOTOS: Life in Baltimore 1 year after Freddie Gray death.
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