Police said early on Sunday they had begun clearing the highway of debris in preparation for re-opening it. Several journalists and a national Black Lives Matters advocate were among those arrested Saturday at a protest outside Baton Rouge Police Headquarters.
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Louisiana ACLU Executive Director Marjorie Esman says the use of violent, militarized tactics during a peaceful gathering was not necessary. “She didn’t resist, and the police didn’t drag her off”, said Bachman.
“I knew it was a good frame and it was something that would tell a story”, Bachman said about the moment his lens captured the image of Ieshia Evans, a nurse from Pennsylvania, before she was arrested. “They are rocked back on their heels, knocked off balance, and appear about to fall over backward, just from the power of her”.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said late Sunday he was “very proud” of his state’s law enforcement response.
The cops were essentially attempting to prohibit the protesters’ First Amendment right to assemble, and their absurd justification in no way rationalizes their behavior.
A Baton Rouge police spokesman, Sgt. Don Coppola, had blamed the large number of arrests on outside agitators.
Moore said he has a long-standing professional relationship with the parents of one of the officers involved in the shooting, Blane Salamoni. He said this is a time when the people of Baton Rouge need to come together.
Sterling was shot and killed by police on Tuesday, July 5, while he was selling homemade CDs and DVDs outside a convenience store.
Ms Evans, the mother of a five-year-old son, travelled to Baton Rouge “because she wanted to look her son in the eyes to tell him she fought for his freedom and rights”, according to R Alex Haynes, who said on Facebook he had known Ms Evans since childhood.
Alton Sterling’s family will hold his funeral at the Southern University F.G. Clark Activity Center.
Moore said that, even though the U.S. Department of Justice has taken over the investigation, they still would refer all violations of state law to his office or that of the state Attorney General.
Police protests were calm and lightly attended in Denver on Monday, when a group of about 50 waved signs decrying police killings while a smaller group entered a fourth day of quietly mourning blacks killed by police in the previous year. “Baton Rouge is my home”. A viewing is scheduled from 8 a.m.to 10:30 a.m., with the service to follow at 11 a.m.
Two officers, guns holstered at their waists, fast approached with zip ties.
After a lengthy standoff, helmeted police in riot gear moved in, pinning some of the protesters as others fled.
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The group then marched to a downtown plaza where they joined several hundred more protesters for a rally.
