State authorities are ready to help Baltimore deal with any recurrence of the violence that broke out Saturday evening after a day of peaceful protests, Gov. Larry Hogan said Monday.
Hogan, appearing on WBAL's "C4 Show" with former state Sen. Clarence Mitchell IV, said that he is monitoring the situation "on an hourly basis" and that the state has its emergency operations center up and running.
"We'll be prepared if in fact we have some situation that gets out of hand," Hogan said.
Mitchell had asked the governor what the state would do if the public reacts negatively to the results of a police investigation ordered by Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts. The investigation follows the death of Freddie Gray from injuries he received while in police custody
Funeral services were held for Gray, 25, on Monday -- eight days after he died at Shock Trauma as a result of spinal injuries sustainted after he was arrested by Baltimore police in an April 12 incident.
Like Baltimore officials including Batts, Hogan emphasized the role of outside agitators in spite of the fact that all but three of the 34 arrested in Saturday's rioting were Maryland residents.
"There were agitator groups from all over the country that came in and some of them are really radical anarchist groups and communist organizations," the governor said. He said many local residents tried to stop them but that "some young folks" were incited to violence.
"It was just folks trying to take advantage of the situation," he said.
Hogan said he has been communicating regularly with Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and sees the state's role as to support city officials without interfering with their decisions. He said the state had provided about 100 law enforcement officers to back up the city's efforts to prevent violence.
"We were in constant contact with the city and provided all the assistance that they asked for," he said.
Hogan noted that on Tuesday he will sign several bills related to issues of police conduct, including one lifting the liability limit for lawsuits against local governments and another creating a legal framework for the use of body cameras by police agencies to record interactions with the public.
The governor said the bills aren't a panacea for the problems of conflicts between police and the public.
"It isn't going to solve the entire problem, but it at least chips away at parts of the situation," he said.