Maryland National Guard – Baltimore Magazine https://www.baltimoremagazine.com The Best of Baltimore Since 1907 Thu, 06 Aug 2020 02:06:22 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/cropped-favicon-32x32.png Maryland National Guard – Baltimore Magazine https://www.baltimoremagazine.com 32 32 ​State of Emergency and Citywide Curfew: What You Need to Know https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/community/state-of-emergency-and-curfew-what-you-need-to-know/ Tue, 28 Apr 2015 12:00:00 +0000 https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/?p=69331 Continued]]> Last night, as most Baltimoreans are no doubt aware, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency, activating the MD National Guard to help quell the violence and chaos that erupted across the city Monday afternoon and evening.

It is the first time the National Guard has been deployed because of civil unrest in the state since the aftermath of April 4, 1968 assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. The current violence and unrest comes in the wake of protests around the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, who died in police custody nine days ago.

For the second straight day, the Orioles have announced, tonight’s game against the Chicago White Sox will be postponed and a possible double-header will be played tomorrow. Wednesday’s game will played at 2:05 p.m. and will be closed to the public.

The National Guard remains a visible presence around the city today, from West Baltimore, where riots first broke out, to City Hall and the Inner Harbor. More than 500 National Guardsmen are here supporting the operation, with a target of 2,000 troops activated to provide support by the end of the day, according to a statement this afternoon from Hogan’s office. There are also more than 400 state troopers and other allied law enforcement officers from Maryland in Baltimore as well as 300 law enforcement from Pennsylvania, 150 from New Jersey, and 45 from the District of Columbia. So far there have been more than 200 arrests and at least 19 structure fires. From surrounding counties, 37 fire engines, eight truck companies, and two heavy rescue units from surrounding counties have been called.

It’s worth noting that the executive order, which can be found here, is also perquisite for potential federal assistance.

The National Guard will remain activated until the state of emergency is lifted.

The governor, who has set up an office in Baltimore, was scheduled this morning to meet with faith and community.

Also last night, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced that city officials are imposing a weeklong curfew, starting this evening, from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

The new, weeklong curfew that the mayor issued last night and begins this evening requires people to be off city roads and out of “public places” unless they are driving to or from work or have a medical emergency. A violation of the curfew, which is laid out below, places constitutes a misdemeanor offense and places individuals at risk of arrest.

From the official curfew order:

The curfew applies to all persons within the City of Baltimore, including those traveling through the City of Baltimore, excluding only 1) public safety officers; 2) persons working for the federal, state, or local law enforcement; 3) legislative offices and their aides; 4) persons employed by a health care facility, who are traveling to or from a health care facility 5) people going to and from work; 6) and individuals traveling through Baltimore City via I-95 and who are not driving into the city. No person located within the City of Baltimore may be in a public place during the curfew, whether in a vehicle or on foot. No person within the City of Baltimore may engage in a march, parade, assembly or demonstration on a public place, whether during the curfew period or during other hours unless the event has a previously issued permit.

The new curfew is on top of the city’s current juvenile curfew, in place since last year, which requires minors under 14 years of age to be indoors by 9 p.m. on school nights. Minors under 17 years of age are required to be indoors by 10 p.m. on school nights and 11 p.m. on weekends.

In addition to the ongoing curfew for juveniles: “Minors may not be in a public place except when accompanied by the minor’s parent; when strictly necessary to travel to and from school when required to be at school, and when going to or returning from an official school, religious, or other recreational activity supervised by adults and sponsored by the City of Baltimore, a civic organization, or another similar entity that takes responsibility for the minor.”

Also: “No operator of an establishment or his agents or employees may knowingly permit any minor to remain on the premises of that establishment if that minor’s presence would violate the subsection above.”

At noon Monday, Rawlings-Blake’s office sent out an email to business and community leaders clarifying specific questions about the curfew.

The mayor’s office’s letter:

Dear Business and Community Leaders,
Many businesses have asked about the curfew policy being implemented tonight and its impact on business hours and employees. Below are key points:
1. The night-time curfew applies for all citizens (with exceptions of emergency personnel and those commuting to and from work for essential functions, including students traveling to/from classes).
2. Non-essential business operations should be suspended from 10:00 p.m. until 5:00 a.m. This includes restaurants, entertainment venues and bars, which should be closed during these times. Please ensure visitors and patrons have enough time to travel before the curfew begins.
3. For essential business operations, employees traveling to and from work during the curfew should have a valid picture ID (presumably a driver’s license) and a document from their employer stating their need to work during curfew hours with dates and employee hours.
4. Drivers or individuals may be stopped by law enforcement and should be prepared with the information above to avoid arrest.
The curfew will begin today, Tuesday, April 28th at 10:00 p.m. and be in place for approximately one week (or until needed).

Finally, also at noon, the mayor’s office said Rawlings-Blake will be meeting with clergy at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Bethel A.M.E. Church on Druid Hill Avenue to discuss church strategies to protect City residents from vandalism and violent protests and that she will update the public on the latest developments in the protests and rioting in the city.

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]]> 200th Anniversary March of the Defenders https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/community/200th-anniversary-march-of-the-defenders/ Thu, 11 Sep 2014 13:32:00 +0000 https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/?p=67450 Continued]]> As part of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of North Point Thursday morning, 500 members of the Maryland National Guard’s 175th Infantry Regiment re-created the 6-mile march that the Maryland Militia took 200 years ago to engage the British redcoats, who had landed at the end of the North Point Peninsula in preparation for the Battle of Baltimore.

The march began atop Hampstead Hill in Patterson Park, headed down Eastern Avenue through Highlandtown—where throngs of nearby school children greeted the soldiers with waving flags—toward a final destination at Battle Acre Park in Dundalk.

The Battle of North Point is considered critical to the ultimate defense of the Baltimore in the War of 1812, and not all the volunteer citizen/soldiers of the Maryland Militia returned home.

(Don’t forget: the Hampstead Hill Festival, with a wide range of history and entertainment, including a performance of the not-to-be-missed, Capital Fringe Festival award-winning “1814: The Rock Opera,” takes place this weekend at Patterson Park.)

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]]> Overheard at Joppa Market Place, Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse, and War Memorial Building https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/community/overheard-at-joppa-market-place-red-emmas-bookstore-coffeehouse-and-war-memorial-building/ Thu, 03 Apr 2014 09:00:00 +0000 http://server2.local/BIT-SPRING/baltimoremagazine.com/html/?post_type=article&p=8877

Ring Tone

February 8, 2014
Joppa Farm Road, Joppa 

“There’s nine matches, and only three have been approved for weapons,” Dan McDevitt reminds the motley crew of tough guys, heels, cheap-shot artists, Samoans, and “Black Wall Street” thugs—some doing push-ups, others pulling on Lycra singlets and elbow pads—backstage at the sprawling Joppa Market Place. The venue normally hosts an Amish flea market, but tonight is the site of Maryland Championship Wrestling’s (MCW) 16th Anniversary Show.

Meanwhile, 64-year-old WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler, best known for putting comedian Andy Kaufman in a neck brace in the 1980s, poses for photos with row after row of fans. Later, just before intermission, Lawler, still built like a keg of beer, enters the ring to battle “The Pinnacle” Shawn Patrick. 

Despite his age and a 2012 heart attack, which occurred announcing a show, Lawler trades body slam after body slam with Patrick, an Ocean City hotel manager by day, before finishing him off with his signature pile driver.

“Phat Blues” Kelly Bell, a 290-pound MCW wrestler, retiring because of vertebrae issues, notes that being a good wrestling heel isn’t easy. “I always started with a bad joke, but you walk a line,” says Bell, who fronts the popular Kelly Bell Band in another life. “Years ago, I grabbed the mic and asked a good ol’ boy crowd what Pink Floyd and Dale Earnhardt had in common. The punch line? ‘The last hit for both of them was ‘The Wall.’

“Too soon [after Earnhardt’s death]. My tag-team partner and I needed a state police escort out of the building.”

Carnal Knowledge

February 14, 2014
North Avenue

Billed as a “nerd date,” an eclectic mix of straight and gay couples, gray-haired and young alike—as well as curious singles—pack Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse for a Valentine’s Day science lecture from Harvard professor Sarah Richardson, author of Sex Itself: The Search for Male & Female in the Human Genome. Not a traditional Valentine’s date perhaps, but romantic nonetheless. “I studied biology as an undergrad, and my boyfriend is a neuroscientist at NIH,” says Will Abshier, 22. “This is a shared interest for us.”

Naturally, there’s a photo of Bill Clinton in the presentation. Not, however, because of the former president’s infamous hormones; rather to highlight that researchers now believe there are greater genetic differences between men and women—Bill and Hillary, for example—than previously understood. According to biologist David Page, whose TED Talk Richardson uses in her lecture, men and women are about as similar, in terms of the percentage difference of their human genomes, as they are to chimpanzees.

Richardson stresses that gender descriptions as more complex than “binary” “X” and “Y” labels—and that scientific “facts” remain influenced by culture and politics. She jokes that the mapping of the human genome did not include the discovery of the “Jane Austen appreciation locus” or “channel-flipping trait”.
During the Q & A, one man asks about the human male Y chromosome, which diverged 300 million years ago in mammals, but is getting smaller. “It’s an interesting subject, especially when you consider it alongside the expanding role of women and the ways some men are reacting to that,” Richardson tells another male questioner. “But yes,” she adds with a wry smile. “There’s shrinkage.”

Monumental City

February 22, 2014
North Gay Street

Inside the marbled War Memorial Building, about 200 people, including current Maryland National Guard soldiers and a dozen and a half surviving members of the Maryland 231st Transportation Truck Battalion are celebrating that historic, all-black unit’s 135th anniversary. Later, there will be a wreath laying at the Negro Heroes of the Unites States statue at City Hall.

Also on hand, a descendant of “Buffalo Soldier” 1st Sgt. Augustus Wiley, who served in the 9th Calvary Regiment after being born into slavery in Reisterstown.

Dubbed the “Monumental City Guards” when the unit received recognition as an all-black independent militia in 1879, the truck battalion was called to active duty during the Spanish-American War, both World Wars, and the Korean War. “The 231st Battalion was the first U.S. National Guard unit to land in Pusan—Dec. 31, 1950,” retired Sgt. 1st Class Louis S. Diggs, the keynote speaker, tells the audience.

A member of the 231st, Diggs recalls waking up in Korea after integration came to his unit’s camp literally overnight—when troop losses and the arrival of new soldiers put black and white soldiers in the same barracks for the first time—albeit two years after President Truman’s order abolishing racial discrimination in the Armed Forces.

After Korea, Diggs spent years in Japan and Germany, not realizing how little things had changed at home. “I’ll never forget visiting my mother in Sandtown before leaving for Philadelphia where I was stationed next,” Diggs recalls. “She made me a big bag lunch for the drive—didn’t have to look inside—whatever she’d cooked, I knew would be good. But after a ways, I open it and with my food, I pull out an empty jug.

“I thought, ‘What’s this?’ And then it hit me—she knew, even if I’d forgotten—there wouldn’t be a bathroom on Pulaski Highway or Route 40 that I could use.”

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