Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan believes Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake failed miserably in trying to control rioters who looted stores, torched cars and injured dozens to protest the death of Freddie Gray.
"She's shown no leadership at all," Riordan said Friday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV.
"Just get in and run the city well and get these rioters out of there because most of them I don't think even live in Baltimore."
Story continues below video.
Watch Newsmax TV on DirecTV Ch. 349, DISH Ch. 223 and Verizon FiOS Ch. 115. Get Newsmax TV on your cable system — Click Here Now
Critics say Rawlings-Blake essentially gave permission to rioters to engage in violence by saying the city gave "those who wished to destroy space to do that...." Those words, in effect, told police to stand down, some believe.
Riordan, who led Los Angeles from 1993-2001, is author of
"The Mayor: How I Turned Around Los Angeles after Riots, an Earthquake and the O.J. Simpson Murder Trial," written with Patrick Range McDonald and published by Post Hill Press.
Riordan said the criminal charges announced Friday against the six police officers involved in the arrest of Gray by Maryland State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby is the result of "weak" leadership.
Instead, government leaders should provide young people with a good education, where they are "held accountable and they grow up to be the kind of people that people want to hire for jobs and as a result they'll be successful."
The way Riordan achieved that in Los Angeles, which for years had simmering racial problems?
"What I did was get the various people, leaders in the city, the African American pastors of churches together, the heads of businesses in Los Angeles, civic activists. I formed a committee of 100 where we wanted everybody to mix with each other and to discuss the problems," he said.
"It doesn't do the black area any good to make blacks look bad and it doesn't do the whites good to constantly be harassing the blacks. They have to get together and they have to have common grounds.
"Washington … wasted trillions on the war on poverty, did not give people in the inner city the education they needed to be successful, and most of all did not hold them accountable. If people are not held accountable, they can get through school without good grades, and they can break laws and know they're not going to end up in jail more than a few hours."
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.