Watch this Baltimore resident explain why he's standing between rioters and police

On the streets of Baltimore Monday night, several people — including Vietnam veteran Robert Valentine — stood between rioters and police officers, urging those who took to the streets to go home and not take part in the violence.

In an interview with CNN, Valentine said that he felt it was his duty to defend his neighborhood, and that he wasn't afraid of being hit by bottles and rocks. He spent 30 years in the military, he said, leaving as a master sergeant, and has seen "more than all this. I've been through the riots already. This here is not relevant." Noting that many of the rioters he saw were young people, he added: "They need to have their butts at home. They need to be in their home units with their families studying and doing something with their life. Not out here protesting about something that is not really about nothing. They do not respect this young man's death."

Valentine said he never thought twice about standing up against the rioters. "I love my country, I love my Charm City, and I'm an American," he said. "I'm not black, white, red, yellow, or nothing. I am American." Watch the video below. —Catherine Garcia

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