Over the weekend, authorities, protest leaders and the mother of one of the victims have appealed for calm as over 300 demonstrators, angry at the latest killings of black men by police officers, were arrested in a weekend of intense, sometimes violent nationwide protests.
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Officers with rifles were blocking the ramps to keep protesters off Interstate 10 in downtown Baton Rouge Sunday, and about 130 people have been taken into custody as marches continue over shootings by police.
The interstate was blocked following a march that started outside the governor’s mansion, where protesters have gathered since the fatal police shooting Wednesday night of Philando Castile. About 100 people were arrested – half during the highway standoff and the other half early Sunday in another part of St. Paul.
John Lozoya, the founder of the Minnesota Chapter of the National Latino Peace Officers Association, said Yanez has been an active volunteer through that organization as well. Other demonstrations took place in Chicago, Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Baton Rouge, La., where more than 30 protesters were arrested, NBC News reported.
St. Anthony Police interim police chief Jon Mangseth told reporters at a news conference that the incident began when an officer from his agency initiated a traffic stop around 9 p.m. Wednesday in Falcon Heights, a St. Paul suburb.
Now, after the shooting deaths of five officers at a Dallas protest decrying last week’s police killings of two more black men, some experts are suggesting it’s possible the pendulum could swing from hugs back to flash-bang grenades and mass arrests.
After a sniper killed five police officers during a demonstration in Dallas on Thursday, Black Lives Matter protesters condemned the attack, calling it a tragedy not just for those affected but also for the nation.
Union contracts, meanwhile, often allow the destruction of police misconduct records, require the withholding of names of officers involved in shootings and grant police steep discounts on punishment even when police chiefs try to fire them, notes Stephen Rushin, a law professor at the University of Alabama who specializes in policing. Police were called. Cell phone videos captured two officers wrestling Sterling to the ground and shooting him.
The Minnesota protest was among several sizable demonstrations across the country Saturday expressing outrage at the deaths of Castile and of Alton Sterling, another black man, who was killed by the police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
On Tuesday, Sterling, 37, was near a convenience store where he regularly sold CDs and DVDs.
Some of the protesters who were arrested overnight were released from jail on Sunday.
Police also say a Molotov cocktail was thrown at officers. Police said several officers have been injured by rocks, firecrackers and other debris thrown by protesters Saturday night.
Among those arrested was DeRay Mckesson, a leading figure in the Black Lives Matter movement that blossomed in the wake of the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. “I’m very proud of that”, said the Democratic governor, who comes from a family of sheriffs.
“Yeah, all lives do matter, but right now it’s the black lives that are getting terrorized”, Strickland said.
The smoke was used after about 200 protesters refused to leave the roadway just after midnight as police in riot gear slowly moved in.
The girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, said Castile was shot for no reason.
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He also said he wants the community to work with law enforcement.
