BALTIMORE
Black residents to Baltimore, the U.S. city rocked by protests following the death in police custody of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, have told Anadolu Agency they are treated unfairly and the state and media ignore the real problems in their neighborhood.
They spoke out as protests continue to sweep the largest city in the U.S. state of Maryland following the death of Gray, who died on April 19 after suffering injuries.
Baltimore resident Fenyanga Muhammad said: "There are hundreds of people who share the same story as Freddie Gray.
"The U.S. government and media ignore the real problems of people living in Baltimore."
Baltimore’s chief prosecutor Marilyn Mosby charged six police officers on Friday with a range of crimes, including murder and manslaughter, after a medical examiner’s report declared Gray’s death a homicide.
Mosby also said Gray, 25, had been unlawfully arrested and the officers involved had repeatedly ignored his pleas for medical help as he lay handcuffed and with his legs shackled in the rear of the van.
Barber and Baltimore resident Jeff Grayson, 56, told Anadolu Agency African Americans where present in just two of the city's streets in the 1970s and were surrounded by whites.
He said that, in order to pass through the streets between white people, African Americans had to walk in groups and many black children were afraid of going to school because they had to go through white neighborhoods.
Resident Floid Irvin, who has lived in Baltimore - a city only one hour from the US capital, Washington D.C., and with 60 percent of its population made up of African Americans - for more than 20 years.
He told AA "the people living here are not that bad".
He said most people living in the neighborhood were elderly and most parents with children had moved their families to other cities in search of a better live.
"Despite all of all this, if I go 20 years backwards, I'd still want to settle in this same neighborhood,” said Irvin, a widower, who lives alone after all his children left for other cities in search for jobs.
Referring to housing conditions in the city, he said: "I wished the state was able to offer more suitable homes for people like us."
Duiwin Stewart, 24, whose younger brother was shot dead in the street in 2014, said it is very difficult for young people to find a job in the city.
"We are just trying to stay alive," he said.
During the protests in Baltimore following Gray's death, a Muslim group took the streets to mediate between the police and protesters.
