Baltimore rioters were permitted too much distance from police Monday night, allowing them to loot and burn businesses and cars, former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik said Tuesday on
Newsmax TV's "Newsmax Prime."
The New York Times quoted a police spokesman saying restraint was shown because most of the protesters were minors.
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"It could be a combination of that and the message that came from the mayor to give these people distance," Kerik told host J.D. Hayworth. "And basically, they give them too much distance. It wasn't a peaceful protest. These were rioters. These were people pillaging and destroying property."
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has called in the National Guard and said riots won't be repeated.
Kerik noted that other resources have been brought in as well, including 150 New Jersey state troopers and the Maryland state police.
"Hopefully, they can keep it under control," Kerik said.
Thomas Ruskin, a former NYPD detective, told Hayworth the police should have been given their marching orders a day earlier.
"And they should have been allowed to do police work last night, not stand up the street and watch people in stolen cars driving through lit debris in the street and causing people's businesses to be looted and burned, Ruskin said.
Former Rep. Michael Patrick Flanagan noted that while 20 police officers were injured by rioters throwing bricks, rocks, and bottles, no protesters have been reported to have been hurt.
That shows the police were shackled from doing their jobs, the Illinois Republican said. It also shows the protesters are professionals, he added.
"These are gang-related activities," Flanagan said. "These are not the same people who were having quiet protests before the funeral" of 25-year old Freddie Gray. Gray died in police custody of a nearly severed spinal cord, sparking the protests.
Political analyst Larry Elder said that reports of a gang "truce" to protect the neighborhood won't last. When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Riots are the language of the unheard," there were no major cities with black mayors, black leadership in law enforcement, or a police department that is 43 percent black as is the case today in Baltimore, Elder said.
"This is just thuggish behavior, and it should be called as such," Elder said.
Ruskin said he has never heard of gangs looking out for the community.
"The only thing I've heard a gang doing is destroying a community, destroying the neighborhood," bringing in drugs and violence, he said. "They protect their own turf, but they don't protect neighborhoods."
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