Read David Simon’s powerful plea for peace in Baltimore

David Simon, creator of The Wire, a fictional drama following the Baltimore Police Department, asked for calm in the city as violent protests broke out over the death of Freddie Gray, a 25 year-old black man who was rushed to the hospital with a fatal spinal cord injury while under the custody of Baltimore police.

Simon, who was a beat reporter in Baltimore, wrote on his blog:

But now — in this moment — the anger and the selfishness and the brutality of those claiming the right to violence in Freddie Gray’s name needs to cease. There was real power and potential in the peaceful protests that spoke in Mr. Gray’s name initially, and there was real unity at his homegoing today. But this, now, in the streets, is an affront to that man’s memory and a dimunition of the absolute moral lesson that underlies his unnecessary death.

The protests turned violent on Monday after Gray’s funeral, when a group of protesters hurled bricks, stones, bottles, and other objects at police, injuring several officers. As the day developed, more violence and looting broke out across the city.