While thousands of demonstrators flooded the streets of major US cities again Saturday night – protesting the recent killings by police of black men Philando Castile in suburban St. Paul, Minnesota, and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana – a demonstration in St. Paul took a particularly violent turn, with participants hurling Molotov cocktails, fireworks, rocks, glass bottles, concrete slabs, and bricks at riot gear-wearing police officers.
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A photo of an unnamed protester at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has become a powerful image of the ongoing struggle between law enforcement and black Americans.
Officers in riot gear arrest dozens in Louisiana’s capital near the close of a long hot weekend of protests over the killings of black people by police, with demonstrations around the country punctuated by activist attempts to block some key interstates.
On the West Coast, hundreds of people poured into the streets of in Southern California late Sunday night, shutting down a major intersection and blocking traffic on the 405 Freeway for several minutes while peacefully protesting the recent fatal police shootings of black men.
Activist DeRay Mckesson, who ran unsuccessfully to become Baltimore’s mayor previous year, was live streaming on Periscope during the protest against last week’s police shooting of Alton Sterling when he was arrested along a Louisiana highway. She said Mckesson, who was wearing bright red shoes, was taken away after an officer said, “you with the loud shoes if you step back into the street you’ll be arrested”. “Don’t fight me.” And then Mckesson shouts: “I’m under arrest, y’al!”
A protester yells at police officers in riot gear after being forced off the motor way in front of the the Baton Rouge Police Department Headquarters in Baton Rouge, La., Saturday, July 9, 2016.
WAFB News Director Robb Hays said Slaughter was sent to the scene to assist reporter Kiran Chawla and photographer Rick Portier as they covered the protests. “That’s what we’re here to do, to make sure they’re safe and they’re able to do that”.
Police and protesters clashed for several hours in St. Paul, Minnesota, where officers arrested 50 people who blocked roads and refused to obey orders to move. Police said no one was injured.
About 500 people marched from City Hall through downtown Baton Rouge on Saturday. Protesters said police officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters. Only one person from outside the Baton Rouge area faced a charge other than obstructing a highway.
Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie Jr. said Sterling was armed at the time he was killed and one witness said the officer removed a gun from Sterling’s pocket.
At one point, she gestured to her 12-year-old son and said they were there to protect men like him. You’re under arrest. Don’t fight me. But Montgomery said he also doesn’t want anyone to get hurt in the protests.
Three other shootings, in Tennessee, Missouri and Georgia, endangered police around the same time.
Members of the New Black Panther Party for Self Defence called for the arrest of the officers involved in Mr Sterling’s death.
At least 48 people had been taken into custody by midnight Sunday, said Casey Rayborn Hicks, a spokeswoman for the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office. “They are being predators on our communities across America”.
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Earlier Sunday, some 2,000 people rallied outside the Capitol building to protest police killings of black people, State Police Maj.
