Updated 8.04am: Baltimore residents of neighbourhoods hit by rioting and arson have turned out to begin clearing their streets of debris.

Hundreds of rifle-toting National Guard members are deploying there, lining one of the city’s main thoroughfares and taking up posts around a police station that had been the scene of earlier protests.

A state of emergency remains in place, but CNN's Ryan Young says everything's calmed down now.

"They don't have the same sort of issues that we've seen before. There has been some back and forth in terms of people yelling at police, but it has stayed at a distance."

Residents with donated brooms are out in force at the scene where a pharmacy was looted and burnt.

State police troopers in riot gear lined up in a human barrier across the intersections.

Protest organisers in Baltimore are unrepentant over the damage riots have caused.

Community organiser Deray McKesson says it's a distraction to hear city officials on TV call black people in pain, thugs.

"People are grieving and people are mourning. I would advocate personally for people to do in ways that you would call peacefully. But I also know that Freddie Gray will never be back, and those windows will be."

Deray McKesson says the riots across the country are a cry for justice.

• Ian Duncan: Baltimore riots

The Baltimore Sun's Ian Duncan says residents are waking up to destruction and enforced authority.

"Smashed up windows, burned out buildings, and soldiers lining the streets in downtown areas, and areas affected by the riots."

He says there's definitely been tension and frustration at police in recent years, but nothing prepared them for what they saw yesterday.

WBAL Radio's John Patti says most of the rioters who sparked the state of emergency yesterday were teenagers.

He says it started with people who left school and went to a nearby mall.

They started looting and throwing rocks, which led to adults joining in, and once night fell, people of opportunity joined in as well.

The Orioles have postponed today's Major League Baseball game against the Chicago White Sox due to the recent violence in Baltimore.

Moving upcoming Orioles games to Nationals Park in Washington D.C. is an option but no decision had been made.