Attorney General Loretta Lynch visited Baltimore today, where she met with Freddie Gray’s family, city leaders, and community groups. She assured the group that the Justice Department was there to help.
“This is a flashpoint situation,” Lynch said. “We lost a young man’s life, and it begins to represent so many things.’’
A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed that 96 percent of Americans expect more situations like those in Baltimore and Ferguson to happen this summer. Sixty percent of black respondents said the unrest in Baltimore was because of “long-standing frustrations about police mistreatment of African Americans.” Fifty-eight percent of white respondents said that those rioting used the protests as an excuse to loot.
Later, she met with about a dozen police officers. “To all of you on the front lines, I want to thank you,” she said. “You really have become the face of law enforcement.”
In April, the Justice Department and the FBI launched a civil-rights investigation into 25-year-old Gray’s death.
The city, besides struggling with big questions about policing and inequality, is trying to figure out how to clean up and rebuild the neighborhoods most affected by riots. CVS plans to rebuild the store that burned down, and city government is trying to figure out how to quickly help workers who no longer have a job after businesses were wrecked.
