Since early April, the city of Baltimore, Maryland has been home to several protests and riots.

The Baltimore protests are in response to the death of Freddie Gray, who was illegally arrested after running from the police.

According to CBS News, Gray’s death was a result of a spine injury sustained after being improperly secured in the police van.

All six police officers involved in Gray’s death were arrested and charged with crimes that included second degree murder.

The protests were against police brutality and called for justice in the Freddie Gray case.

“While the police need to do what is necessary to get people to obey the law, sometimes they take it too far. When that happens, they should [be] punished like anyone else,” said sophomore Ryan Kain.

Citizens in Baltimore began protesting, and several protests turned into riots, with stores being looted and burned. Several of hundreds of protesters were arrested and put in jail.

In order to deal with the riots, the National Guard was called. A curfew was also placed over the city by the mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

The protests in Baltimore were not the first protests over police actions.

Earlier this year in 2014, there were riots and protests in Ferguson over the death of Michael Brown at the hands of officer Darren Wilson.

“When something happens like what happened in Ferguson and in Baltimore, people feel threatened. They riot to make sure that nothing like that happens again,” said sophomore Jason Khun.

The violence in Baltimore has started to clear up and according to CNN, the mayor is considering lifting the curfew. Many are also getting released from prison.

Despite the focus that all the violent riots have attracted, some of the protests were peaceful in nature.

“Peaceful protest is more effective than rioting because it shows that the protestors are not driven by anger and are behaving rationally,” said sophomore Julia Talgo.