The tumult over police killings reached well beyond Louisiana.
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Most of the protests Saturday into Sunday passed off peacefully with hundreds of rights activists taking to the streets in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Less than half listed addresses as either homeless or outside Baton Rouge. Mckesson says the charges against him have not been dropped.
“I’m under arrest, y’all”, McKesson can be heard saying as he falls to the ground. Many were equally upset that I had not spelled out that the protestor was violating the law by obstructing a highway and refusing to comply with instructions to move to the side of the road.
McKesson was walking alongside Airline Highway when he was arrested.
DeRay Mckesson was among those arrested Saturday night, according to an Associated Press reporter who was at the scene.
Breitbart News reported that Lee Stranahan, one of its reporters, was arrested.
Despite the fact that five police officers were killed in Dallas on Thursday, protests over the deaths of 37-year-old Alton Sterling, and 32-year-old Philando Castile, two black men killed by police in the last week, continued across the nation throughout the weekend. Some 30 to 40 people were jailed for trying to block a highway, sheriff’s spokeswoman Casey Rayborn Hicks said. No details were immediately available on the conditions of his release. They included prominent Black Lives Matter movement leader DeRay McKesson and two members of the media.
Mckesson was in the Louisiana capital protesting the shooting death of a black man by police last week.
At least 48 people were arrested on Sunday in Baton Rouge, local media said, hours after Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said that 102 protesters had been arrested in late Saturday demonstrations.
Mckesson then taught sixth grade in Brooklyn through Teach for America, which places college graduates in poor districts for two-year commitments.
Protests and rallies continue in the Capitol City in the days following the officer-involved shooting death of Alton Sterling. The former educator built a national following after he left his then-home and job in Minneapolis in August 2014 for Ferguson, Missouri, to document the rising anger over race relations after the police shooting of Michael Brown.
In a text message from police custody, Mckesson had said he and 33 others were in custody together, wrists tied, and being taken to a police precinct.
Johnson, who was apparently injured in a shoot-out with police, wrote the letters “RB” and other markings.
Police said those arrested ignored repeated orders to stay out of the street, while demonstrators said officers charged into the crowds seemingly without any obvious provocation.
The Black Live Matter activist and about 100 protesters were arrested by the police for defying traffic regulations. Bowers wasn’t present when Bates was arrested near police headquarters.
Baton Rouge resident Marie Flowers came to the protest in with her three children.
He also said he wants the community to work with law enforcement.
Protesters waved homemade signs while drivers honked their support and some stopped by with bottles of water.
An affidavit of probable cause filed by police says Mckesson “intentionally” placed himself in the road after protesters were repeatedly warned via police loud speaker to remain on private property or the curb.
“We know there’s a lot of tension right now, we know there’s a lot of emotion”, Gautreaux said.
About a block away, dozens of law enforcement officers and almost 30 police vehicles assembled near an underpass, shutting down Government Street.
Baton Rouge police blamed violence and out-of-town agitators for the large number of arrests, noting that an earlier march the same evening was peaceful and nobody was arrested. Others waited for a scheduled evening march starting at City Hall.
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They marched from Point State Park on Saturday afternoon to the county courthouse.
