Obama On Baltimore: The Violent People ‘Need To Be Treated As Criminals’

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Addressing the unrest in Baltimore for the first time in public on Tuesday, President Obama told reporters that the violence was “counterproductive” and that the people responsible must be “treated as criminals.”

“There is no excuse for the kind of violence we saw that day. It is counterproductive,” he said at a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe the South Lawn of the White House.

“When individuals get crowbars and start prying open doors to loot, they’re not protesting. They’re not making a statement. They’re stealing,” he added.

“That’s not a protest. That is a handful of people taking advantage of the situation for their own purposes, and they need to be treated as criminals,” he said.

The President said he had spoken to the city’s mayor and the governor of Maryland.

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