Riots Roil Loretta Lynch's First Week as Attorney General By Halimah Abdullah and Perry
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| Source: IBTimes.com |
It was supposed to be a celebratory day. Loretta Lynch stood beaming next to Vice President Joe Biden as he declared "it's about time" and swore her in as attorney general on Monday. The audience laughed. The frustration of a months-long delay in Lynch's confirmation as Congress bickered over policy matters was now behind them.
But the good cheer was cut short.
By nightfall, Baltimore erupted in violence as protestors burned buildings and cars, clashed with law enforcement, broke windows and looted. The events unfolded mere hours after the funeral of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who sustained a spinal injury while in police custody and later died.
On her first day on the job, Lynch was immediately pressed into dealing with the aftermath — she dispatched Justice Department officials to help calm the chaos and speak with community leaders and local officials. On her second day of the job, the Department of Justice announced it launched an investigation into the nature of Gray's death.
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