BALTIMORE — As the third night of Baltimore’s curfew set in on Thursday, the Maryland National Guard stood watch over an empty City Hall. Their real action, however, took place 31 miles away at the Joint Operations Command in Adelphi, Maryland.

There, Joint Task Force Maryland had gone online to guide all National Guard operations in the state.

At 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, the makeshift operations center was activated in a converted gymnasium at the Maryland National Guard Center to coordinate the approximately 2,000 soldiers streaming into the city from across Maryland, explained Capt. Patrick Elliot, who oversees day operations at the JOC.

In an interview Thursday evening, Elliot described JTF Maryland’s role in responding to the civil unrest in Baltimore.

“Anytime civilian assets are unable to address a problem, they call us in,” Elliot said. “Our job is to respond to and direct all Army assets in the state of Maryland.”

On Monday evening, the Maryland National Guard received Gov. Larry Hogan’s call to assist city and state police in responding to the violent protests that engulfed Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray.

“We rehearse this every year, if not every couple months, on top of all the other Army [training] requirements” Elliott said. “I think it shows in the quick response that we were able to put on the ground to support the governor.”

The JOC, staffed by the 58th Troop Command, receives missions from the Maryland State Police through liaison officers to provide resources the police lack, logistical or transportation support and requests for extra forces to bolster security throughout Baltimore.

“In this type of sustained operations, there’s a lot that happens behind the scenes in order to support the troops that are out there,” Elliot said.

The mission has thus far proved successful, according to Elliot. The JOC has been able to provide continuous guidance on how to respond to conflict, how and when to use force, and what are appropriate escalation and de-escalation tactics.

“As a troop on the ground, it’s good to know that at the end of the day, you’re helping to protect the community,” Elliot said.

“The soldiers know that they’re protecting lives and property in Baltimore.”

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Reporters, photographers and other journalists rarely receive formal training on how to cover urban protests and demonstrations.  Usually they rely on the collected wisdom of colleagues who have had earlier experiences, some as recent as last year’s tension and violence in Ferguson, Missouri.

Now with the current demonstrations and violent protests in Baltimore following the death in police custody of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, another collection of journalists, young and old, is witnessing and learning what it means to cover unrest in one of the nation’s larger cities.

The lessons can be hard, the anxiety high and the consequences fearsome, so I went cautiously into the fray of Baltimore neighborhoods Tuesday to get a feel for the situation awaiting journalists on the ground and to gather reporting advice from veteran journalists, along with cautionary tips from military and community leaders. I was joined by Medill reporters Matt Schehl, Beth Lawrence and Zachary Vasile, who were also covering the tensions.

Here are some thoughts based on our observations and interviews that will help navigate reporting on often-violent street protests that can be as confusing as they are dangerous.

1. Don’t go it alone.

While flaming police cars and flying bricks tend to be the exception rather than the rule when it comes to covering protests, the whole “safety in numbers” maxim still applies.

The ability to operate across a variety of media is all well and good, but when time is of the essence and deadline is nearing, picking a niche at which you can excel can make the difference between a good story and a great one.

If you are a print journalist, it helps to be paired with a photographer. If you work in video, it helps to have a sound person. Regardless of how you mix-and-match your group’s components, having two (or more) players on your reporting team will increase your level of safety, help you fact-check details observed on the ground and allow you to focus wholly on your work within a single reporting medium versus trying to be a one-man band.

It’s also vital to set a rallying point before the start of an event – and especially a demonstration – where your reporting team can meet if anything goes awry. That way, even if your phone chargers die and you get separated in a large crowd, you can use that landmark as a point of reference for the sake of safety.

“Have a buddy and know where you parked your car,” says Reuters News Agency video producer Zachary Goelman.

2. Realize that the media is not a welcomed guest by everyone in the Baltimore community.

Two negative schools of thought regarding the media are gaining traction there.

The first is that the media has no place at peaceful demonstrations because it is sensationalism-obsessed, and, so, citizens assume that we’ll be disappointed unless we have a riot to show for our attendance and, therefore, we tend to tell unbalanced stories.

The second is that the media’s mere presence at demonstrations exacerbates tensions between civilians and law enforcement and essentially eggs the latter on, so an absence of media would result in increased peace between cops and the community.

While both of these points are worth considering, they also put journalists at risk of bodily harm or other types of harassment. It’s important to realize that clear communication can help build the missing trust.

Introduce yourself and your organization. Be open to hearing out subjects’ perspectives and building a story around them vs. trying to illicit responses that fit within a predetermined angle. Above all, treat your story subjects with respect and courtesy, and treat each introduction and interview as a human – rather than a business – transaction.

3. Understand preexisting biases.

Recognize that racial tension is high and many people may be reluctant to speak with reporters of any color.  In the eyes of many local citizens, the Freddie Gray case is as much about race as it is about law-enforcement accountability.

4. Bring (or rent) a car.

You cannot rely on just Baltimore’s public transit system, the geography of the Freddie Gray story is wide and its major flash points may change quickly.   Hopping in a car is much more time-efficient on deadline. If you’re car-less or can’t afford a rental, Uber is the next best thing. Wait times on Tuesday tended to be in the 3-5 minute range, and we didn’t pay more than $10 to get anywhere.

5. Pack the right equipment.

On Tuesday evening, the police-press dynamic at the protest around the intersection of West North and Pennsylvania avenues in Baltimore became very hostile, very quickly. Tear gas and smoke both came into play, in addition to projectiles being tossed by protestors at cops.

I didn’t bring a helmet, but I did bring a painter’s respirator (~$30 at Home Depot) just in case. I thought I was being paranoid, but soon as smoke appeared at Tuesday night’s protest and then saw other journalists donning gas masks and respirators of their own, I was glad I did.

Jeff Abell, a journalist with Baltimore Fox affiliate WBFF TV, advises journalists to keep a safe, reasonable distance from tear gas when it is deployed because the wind can carry the chemical your way even if you aren’t the intended target.

“If you’re out of sight, you’re gonna be out of mind,” he says.

Goelman, the video producer from Reuters,  suggested packing “a bicycle helmet if you have it, a respirator if you can find one, some sort of eye protection” and “clothes you don’t mind donating” in addition to your normal reporting equipment.

And on a tech note, bring backup power for your backup power. Portable power sources run from about $5 (~one full smartphone charge, but not necessarily as powerful after the first go round) to $40 (~3 full smartphone charges and a bit sturdier), and are necessary investments for anyone heading out to Baltimore.

Unless your news organization gives you a generator to bring with you, there are zero places to plug in on the street. While coffee shops can be good options under regular circumstances, nearly every single local business we came across was closing before sunset in order to ensure the safety of its employees in the midst of the demonstrations.

“I would pack as many chargers as you have as possible because you will go through all of them,” Abell says. “Be sure you have some power supply because it doesn’t matter, you know, how much you think you have — everybody’s been running out and trying to plug in wherever you can see a plug.”

Portable wi-fi is also a must, since the citywide curfew means that all businesses have to be shuttered by 10 p.m. and cellular signals have been markedly slow within Baltimore.

6. Don’t assume that rules automatically will apply to you.

The Baltimore Police Department tweeted out a clarification message for journalists about the citywide curfew that took effect Tuesday.

Credentialed members of the MEDIA are exempt from the emergency curfew. Please use caution in the area of police enforcement.

— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) April 29, 2015

According to the message, anyone with credentials was exempt from the curfew.

However, during Tuesday’s protest, police in helicopters above the crowd and surrounding buildings repeatedly instructed members of the media to disperse or else risk arrest. Additionally, the Baltimore mayor showed up to personally urge journalists and protestors, alike, to go home prior to the curfew.

These warnings, combined with the threat of arrest against journalists who remained after the 10 p.m. cutoff, suggests that the curfew’s implementation is dynamic in practice. For this reason, we’d suggest any journalists covering demonstrations with a police presence to exercise an abundance of caution.

7. If you’re traveling with a camera, don’t stick it in anyone’s face without permission.

This should go without saying, but increasing tensions have resulted in increasing assaults on journalists within city limits – including equipment theft and physical assault – so no interview is worth testing the limits of the community’s patience.

8. Show up early and leave late.

Reporting days in Baltimore go by fast, so getting local by late morning or early afternoon will give you more time to scope out interviews with locals, arrange meetings with community leaders and more.

On the flipside, leaving late – especially from protests – can give you a feel for the police-civilian dynamics at play in communities or just give you an opportunity to follow up with someone whose perspective piqued your interest during an event.

“I would treat this as a story that moves on its own rather than one you can move in,” says Reuters’s Goelman. “I would rely on the media and the press relations office of the law enforcement institutions. Follow them on Twitter.”

9. Talk to the people in uniform.

On Tuesday, the Maryland National Guard, Maryland state troopers and Baltimore city police were scattered throughout the city in an attempt to maintain order. The average cop was carrying a gun, zip ties, a nightstick and a Taser gun, while military members were fully suited up and armed. While the equipment may look forbidding, it’s important to understand how law enforcement communication systems work.

Individual police officers usually are discouraged from speaking to the press, but members of the media can direct press requests for everything from interviews to ride-alongs to the department’s Public Information Officer, or PIO. From there, the PIO can route your request down the proper parts of the bureaucratic pipeline, and no one risks getting fired for talking to you.

Maryland National Guard Staff Sergeant Michael Davis, a Public Affairs Officer (PAO), said soldiers are generally briefed on what they are and aren’t allowed to discuss, so any soldier should, theoretically, be approachable by the public. However, he said, the standard practice is first to make a request of a military division’s PAO, but there won’t necessarily be a PAO with every group of National Guard soldiers.

“Most soldiers know what to say, what not to say,” Davis explained. “We’re not gonna give specifics about our mission [or] put ourselves in harm.”

According to Maryland National Guard Sergeant Adam Safley, soldiers are trained to know where to direct journalists to get the information they need.  “If we can’t give you the answer, we’ll help you find the person that can give you the answer,” Safley says.

10. Realize that there is life (and news) after protests.

Media briefings with the mayor and police, prayer vigils and civic-action meetings are just a handful of entry points journalists could cover to expand the Baltimore dialogue past protests. The current controversy began with an arrest,  injury and loss of life, so examining the systems at play in these respective stages of the Freddie Gray story – as well as the long-term impact of his death on his neighborhood and the greater Baltimore area – is crucial to telling it responsibly.

Hear what Deacon Kevin Underdue Sr., a Baltimore preacher, has to say on the subject:

WASHINGTON — The Philadelphia branch of the Department of Veterans Affairs has already fixed some of the problems noted by federal inspectors who said the office altered quality reviews, violated claim policies and had stacks of unopened mail, a top VA official said Monday.

Last week’s report by the VA inspector general’s office is the latest blow to an organization routinely accused of chronic mismanagement, cooked books and retaliation against whistleblowers. The investigation began in June when the inspector general’s hotline received numerous complaints about the Philadelphia VA regional office. According to the report, many of those callers were VA staff concerned with reprisals against employees who raised problematic issues with management.

VA Under Secretary of Benefits Allison Hickey told reporters in a conference call that while she agrees with the findings in the VA inspector general’s report, recent restructuring has already solved most of the regional office’s problems.

“The report that was released by the IG, from my perspective, reflects conditions as they were over a year ago, and we knew that,” Hickey said.

The VA inspector general’s report was released last Wednesday. It documents numerous problems in the way the office operates. They include confirmed cases in which the Philadelphia VA violated claim processing protocol and, in at least one instance, concealed bins of unprocessed mail. The report also expressed concern for employees at a VA call center, who routinely complained about a lack of bathrooms, leaking roofs and insect and vermin infestations.

Hickey claims that the report does not reflect changes made last summer, including improved claim dating procedures, new call center facilities and mass retraining of VA staff. She also noted that the VA encourages employees to report problems without fearing reprisal.

“We are inviting our employees to tell us when they see something that causes them concern,” said Hickey when asked what will happen to those employees who reported the Philadelphia and National Call Center problems.

“The majority of [problems raised by the report] have already been fixed,” she said.

Hickey is overseeing a parallel internal investigation of the Philadelphia VA that will be completed at the end of June.

Many veterans’ groups were unimpressed with Hickey’s assurances.

Joe Davis, director of public affairs for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, viewed the Philadelphia VA’s story with skepticism.

“When the VA says they’ve fixed everything, you better make sure somebody goes in there and does fix everything. And that’s a trust problem that the VA has,” Davis said.

Davis also pointed to the culture of the VA, which he believes is out of sync with the military it serves.

“The problem with the VA is they forgot who they work for,” said Davis. “They don’t work for the next line supervisor, director, hospital manager or regional office director. They work for the veterans.”

WASHINGTON — Under clear skies, President Obama blasted an air horn Thursday to start the Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Ride from the White House’s South Lawn.

Speaking before the bikes rolled out, Obama said the event was “a chance to say to all the returning heroes that you’re not alone. That we’ve got your back. We’re going to be with you every step of the way.”

The nationwide, annual ride offers wounded service members and veterans the chance to salve the physical, mental and emotional wounds they may have suffered through cycling and the common bond of military service.

Over 50 riders from all branches of the armed forces signed up for the three-day, 60 mile challenge, many riding on adaptive bicycles.

Obama was joined by Vice President Joe Biden and Veterans Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald. This year marked the sixth time that the event was welcomed to the White House.

The first Soldier Ride was in 2004 when Chris Carney, a Long Island, New York, bartender, biked across the country to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project, an organization that supports injured troops.

The WWP claims over 68,000 alumni and more than 10,500 family members involved, as of April 1.

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“The military can’t do anything other than provide manpower to clean beaches or string up nets, and that manpower can come from anywhere,” said Dakota Wood, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington.

Wood said Americans are eager to call in the troops in times of domestic crisis, relying on the military to offer security or resources that aren’t readily available. Because the oil spill hasn’t created problems with looting or power outages, for example, he said there is no particular need for military support — other than as a ready source of manpower.

“Folks just want it fixed, and when you wanted something fixed, there’s a knee-jerk reaction to call in the military,” he said.

In June, CBS News reported that Jindal had deployed a little more than 1,000 of the 6,000 National Guardsmen made available by the Defense Department with costs covered by BP.

“We spend more time fighting red tape and bureaucracy than we ever should have to if the federal government understood this oil spill as the war that it is,” Jindal said in a statement.

Looking at the four Gulf states, Louisiana’s number of deployed Guardsmen was relatively high. Mississippi had deployed just 58 of its 6,000, according to CBS.

Without a clear need for the National Guard’s capabilities, Wood said cleaning up BP’s mess in the Gulf is better left to private labor with specialized training.

“It’s an extremely technically challenging problem, and the companies that can actually do this are BP, Shell and maybe just a handful of others,” he said.

Michael O’Hanlon, who is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the federal government overestimated BP’s ability to manage the spill.

“That judgment that the private sector should be expected to take the lead on this is the primary problem,” O’Hanlon said.

Accusations about underutilization of the National Guard struck a nerve with Jindal five years after the response to Hurricane Katrina sparked similar questions.

In 2005, the Department of Defense approved about 50,000 members of the National Guard to respond to Hurricane Katrina, but there were gaps between the responsibilities of the states and the federal government. Some states initially delayed requesting troops, likely contributing to the state of chaos in which New Orleans was looted and residents died waiting for medical attention.

Among other problems, the government did not consider past crises in shaping its military response plans before Katrina, according to a 2006 report from the Government Accountability Office, the congressional investigatory agency.

“Without detailed plans to address these factors, [Defense] and the federal government risk being unprepared for the next catastrophe,” the GAO reported.

But Wood said the latest Gulf crisis would not have been alleviated by following the GAO’s recommendations to improve military planning and training for domestic crises after Hurricane Katrina.

“The thing is, looking at the Gulf spill, what is it that you would want the military to do under those circumstances?” he said. “The problem is 5,000 feet under the surface of the ocean. The military does not have the capability to deal with that problem.”

The biggest change the special units will bring about is the speed with which guard members will be able to respond, a Defense Department spokesman wrote in an e-mail. Military leaders expect the Homeland Response Forces to be able to respond to 90 percent of the country within 12 hours, according to DoD.

The units will specialize in responding to situations including domestic attacks using explosives, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons; providing emergency medical care and crisis management functions. The members will also provide emergency medical help, specializing in decontamination, rescue and evacuation and fill communication and logistics roles.

About a fourth of the members of every homeland response guard unit will be full-time, in comparison with about 9 percent of existing guard members, according to the DoD. The majority of National Guard members train two days a month along with a two-week annual training, but most guard units have a few full-time staff. Homeland response units will also have more training time allotted and access to more vehicles, including aircraft.

The military has been asked to intervene in the fallout following Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005; the earthquake in Haiti, response to the ongoing oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico – Chicago Alderman have even floated the idea of using National Guard troops to keep order in the city’s crime-ridden neighborhoods.

The Department of Defense established the U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, in 2002 as a home for homeland defense operations after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.