Maryland Sheriff: Baltimore Police ‘Were Told To Retreat’

Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis was in Baltimore when the riots got violent on Monday, and he says he personally heard Baltimore officers being “told to retreat” over police radio.

Lewis said he spoke to “hundreds” of officers about it while he was in Baltimore, and they were “upset” and shocked over the orders they received.

WBOC 16 reported Lewis’s exact words:

We heard this from not dozens, but hundreds of police officers that I personally talked to in the last two days while we were up there. We all heard it, from their mouths first hand, how upset they were that they were told not to arrest, that they were told to let them loot, that they were told to allow them to destroy property, that they were told to retreat.

Lewis explained that standing back to watch property being damaged and goods being stolen “goes against the grain of every law enforcement officer’s body.”

Adding insult to injury, Lewis pointed out that the officers were not only helplessly watching criminals, but were “being pelted with large bricks and bottles.”

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