Baltimore police enforce curfew by firing pepper balls to disperse crowds

Police and protesters clash in Baltimore riot

Baltimore police started arresting protesters and firing pepper balls to disperse crowds as a 10pm curfew came into force on Tuesday night, just hours after President Barack Obama lamented a "slow-rolling crisis" over police treatment of African-Americans.

Much of the protest area in Baltimore was calm on Tuesday, but protesters gradually replaced groups of residents who had helped clear up the area following the worst riots to hit the city since the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968.

"The curfew violators are refusing to follow lawful orders by officers to leave the area. An emergency curfew is in effect," Baltimore police said on Twitter.

National Guard troops were positioned across Baltimore after the rioting that erupted on Monday following the funeral of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died in police custody from unexplained spinal injuries.

Mr Obama called for reform and retraining of police departments, and said that police unions should "own up" to the fact that there were problems with the behaviour of some of their members. Calling for national "soul-searching" about conditions in deprived urban communities, he also advocated a broader push to bring opportunities through education, job training and infrastructure investment.

"This has been a slow-rolling crisis that has been going on for some time," he said at a White House press conference on Tuesday. "This is not new. And we shouldn't pretend that it's new."

Since the killing last year of a young black man by police in Ferguson, Missouri, he said that "we have seen too many instances of what appears to be police officers interacting with individuals - primarily African Americans, often poor - in ways that raise troubling questions. It comes up almost once a week".

He said that the riots had been the work of a "handful of criminals and thugs" and that they "need to be treated as criminals".

As police helicopters flew over Baltimore, volunteers carrying cleaning equipment were joined by residents from across the city who wanted to help the western district of Mondawmin to recover from the violence that erupted in the African-American neighbourhood on Monday.

"I cried all day yesterday," said Cynthia Swann, who had come to assist the effort with her sister.

Ms Swann stressed that she did not condone the violence, but added that rioters were venting a frustration that was felt by the whole community because of what she described as frequent abusive treatment by the local police.

Six police officers have been suspended over the incident involving Gray and the Justice department is investigating.

"The western district police have had their feet on this community for years," said Ms Swann, adding that the tensions were exacerbated by the high unemployment rate.

The Justice Policy Institute said 45 per cent of the working age population in Mondawmin did not have jobs. Meanwhile, chronic high school truancy runs at about 33 per cent.

Mr Obama, who worked as a community organiser in Chicago in his 20s, said that there were "impoverished communities" in American cities where it "is more likely that kids end up in jail or dead than that they go to college".

"If we think that we are just going to send the police to do the dirty work of containing the problems that arise without.....helping to lift up those communities and give those kids opportunity, then we are not going to solve this problem," he said.

National guard troops with rifles were deployed on Tuesday to protect the city amid concerns that rioting youths would return to the streets later in the day.

"They are going to keep going until they get justice," said Nathaniel Edwards, 29, an assisted living worker who had known Gray since they were children.

In the downtown harbour area that is popular with tourists, roughly 100 national guard troops in military fatigues, state troopers and police lined a main boulevard. Lieutenant Daniel Pickett said there had been no riots in the area - about 15 minutes by car from the main protest zone - but that the troops were there as a precaution.

"We are just keeping the peace," said Lt Pickett.

Governor Larry Hogan condemned the clashes, which escalated during the afternoon as youths looted shops, torched police cars and threw rocks and bottles, injuring 15 officers.

Baltimore imposed a week-long 10pm-5am curfew from Tuesday as violence and looting continued through the night. Buildings and cars were set on fire and fire crews were attacked.

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