Sixteen people were arrested Thursday when a group of activists held a sit-in at Baltimore City Hall.
At least 30 protesters, organized by the Baltimore Uprising coalition, were demonstrating against the council’s vote in favor of permanently hiring the city’s interim police commissioner, Kevin Davis.
The 8-hour sit-in was an attempt to meet with Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Davis to discuss First Amendment rights for demonstrators, the housing commissioner’s firing and city school investments, protesters said.
The group previously asked to speak with interim Police Commissioner Davis, who agreed to meet on Friday and gave the group his phone number.
“Instead of using that as an opportunity for communication, they tweeted his phone number to the world,'' Mayor Rawlings-Blake said.
Rawlings-Blake said Baltimore Uprising’s goals for the protest were not clear to her.
Protesters’ ages range from 16-38.
