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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Tension between black residents and police has risen palpably over the past week or so amid police shootings of African-American men in Minnesota and Louisiana and the gunning down of five white police officers by a black suspect in Dallas in apparent retaliation.
“There’s a lot of work to be done, with this police department specifically”, said DeRay Mckesson, a prominent Black Lives Matter activist who embraced supporters Sunday after spending a night in jail. “A Baton Rouge Police Officer had several of his teeth knocked out as a projectile was thrown from the protest”, the police department said in a statement. Jenkins said the journal was a key piece of evidence leading police to believe that Johnson was the only shooter.
In Baton Rouge, officers stared down hundreds of shouting protesters near a ramp onto Interstate 110 on Sunday night before another squad in riot gear arrived to make arrests.
Schools CEO Santelises said she saw Mckesson Friday afternoon and learned Sunday morning of his arrest.
A police officer on a microphone told the crowd that as long as they stayed on the grass and not on the road they could remain.
The assault left 21 police officers injured – one of them seriously.
Throughout all of this, Twitter has become an essential source for information and firsthand accounts of what, exactly, has been happening in Baton Rouge – and one video in particular has gone viral for showing just how scary it’s been.
Packett told The Associated Press that police “intentionally provoked” the protesters.
“I have a strong commitment to justice and equity across all sectors, namely police and state violence and education, and those commitments are not in conflict with each other”, Mckesson said after his release on Sunday.
Police used crowd control measures including smoke, police spokesman Steve Linders said, and fired marking rounds similar to paintball rounds. She said several officers then tackled him, even though he wasn’t in the street. The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into his death, which has angered many in the black community.
More than 200 demonstrators were arrested during protests against the unprovoked police killings of black men in the United States over the weekend. She said people in the north Baton Rouge neighborhood where the shooting happened are frustrated.
For the locals, this mass showing was a long time coming. In Minnesota, police arrested about 100 people in the capital of St. Paul during protests.
“I can assure everyone we are hearing the protesters”, the governor said. At one point numerous police cars, with their blue lights flashing, sped off down the street where a smaller group of protesters had walked.
Overall, he said, the department has allowed the state police and sheriff’s deputies to take the lead at protests “out of respect” to the community.
A police affidavit of probable cause says Mckesson “intentionally” placed himself in the road after protesters were repeatedly warned by loudspeaker not to step off the curb.
A few hours later, protesters had blocked the streets again, and police were forced to consider how to move them away from a public right-of-way, for the rest of the public. “They are not operating as human beings”.
Mike Martin, who wore a guitar on his back and said he was trying to promote peace, was pepper-sprayed by an officer on a pedestrian bridge overlooking the interstate.
New Orleans-based photographer Jonathan Bachman, while covering a protest, took a picture of a lone woman standing in front of a row of police.
“Because they took somebody’s father, somebody’s brother, somebody cousin, somebody uncle, I think death is the best solution”.
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Before he finished a distant sixth among 13 Democrats in the April primary, his agenda included establishing a network of community first-responders to de-escalate violence, and hiring people affected by police brutality to train officers on racism and community engagement.
