The shocking violence that has rocked Baltimore is something normally seen in foreign countries, not the United States, Rep. Steve King says.
And the Iowa Republican believes the city made a bad call by apparently telling cops not to go after the rioters who looted stores, set fire to cars and injured dozens of civilians and police officers.
"It looked to me that the cops had orders that said you're not going to engage them and if they come at you, you have to back up," King said Tuesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
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"To think that ranks of officers with riot gear had to retreat from a mob and they couldn't go in there and arrest or didn't go and arrest … you have to win that battle.
"They backed up, retreated and handed parts of that city over to the mob, to the rioters, and that's the kind of thing you see happen in foreign countries, not in the United States of America."
The rioting exploded on Monday, just hours after thousands mourned the death of Freddie Gray, an African American man who died from a severe spinal injury he suffered after being placed under police custody.
A state of emergency has been declared and the city is under a week-long 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew.
There has been widespread criticism of Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who some say gave permission to rioters to engage in violence when she said "while we tried to make sure that they were protected from the cars and the other things that were going on, we also gave to those who wished to destroy space to do that as well."
Some say those words, in effect, told police to stand down. But King believes inaction is no longer an option.
"[The police] have to go in now and assert themselves forcefully, [and] use whatever forces necessary to take control of the streets in Baltimore and impose order. This is a civil society," King said.
"Allowing people [to] … loot liquor stores and other stores and throw huge stones at police officers and fire engines … stealing cars and running them through fires … and threatening to run down police officers with them … a civil society should never have that.
"Whatever their level of grievance [of the rioters] is, it doesn't justify what they're doing in Baltimore."
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