Baltimore riots: Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake under fire for 'suggesting rioters would have space to break the law'

Questions are being raised in Baltimore about the handling of tensions that had been simmering for over a week before yesterday’s burst of violence by its Mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who at the weekend spoke of wanting to give people leeway to protest the death in police custody on 19 April of Freddie Gray.

Most notably at a press conference last Saturday she spoke of a attempting a "balancing act" between protecting the city while also giving "those who wish to destroy space to do that as well".

If Mayor Rawlings-Blake was giving license to residents of her city to break the law and "destroy" then apparently that was exactly what transpired yesterday. The remark had already sparked a wave of criticism. "This is incredible. I've never seen anything like this before," Rush Limbaugh the conservative radio pundit scolded. "I do not recall, I'm sure other mayors have said things that are similar."

The controversy they sparked forced the mayor to take to Facebook to defend the comments. "There has been some discussion about my remarks on Saturday, some of which were taken out of context. I want to clarify - I did not instruct police to give space to protesters who were seeking to create violence or destruction of property.

"Taken in context, I explained that, in giving peaceful demonstrators room to share their message, unfortunately, those who were seeking to incite violence also had space to operate. And we worked very hard to put ourselves in the best position to deescalate those instances."

By last night, she had adopted a tone, however, of outrage and disgust at what was transpiring under her watch. "It is idiotic to think that by destroying your city you’re going to make life better for anybody," she said at a press conference. "Too many people have spend generations building up this city for it to be destroyed by thugs who, in a very senseless way, are trying to tear down what so many have fought for."

She then ordered the imposition of a 10pm to 5am curfew for all of Baltimore, a city of over 650,000 people about 45 miles north of Washington DC, beginning and lasting for a week at least.

A life-long resident of the city, Ms Rawlings-Blake, 45, became the youngest person ever elected to the City Council in 1995 where she rose to be Council President. She was elected Mayor in 2010. Earlier this year she appeared as ensemble cast member in a production of Chicago in the city.