Police made several hundred arrests this past weekend during tense and occasionally violent protests across the country in the wake of the killings of two black men by white officers last week. The largest demonstrations took place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where Alton Sterling was shot and killed by police last Tuesday and where roughly 200 protesters were arrested over the weekend, and in St. Paul, Minnesota, near where Philando Castile was shot and killed by police last Wednesday and where another 100 people were arrested in recent days. The demonstrations and arrests came only days after a black sniper murdered five white cops in Dallas.
The staggering number of arrests has Black Lives Matter activists and their like-minded allies complaining that the official response in Baton Rouge and St. Paul was heavy handed and further evidence that local authorities are unable or unwilling to take seriously the complaints of the Black Lives Matter movement. Local officials, meanwhile, have largely praised their officers for what they say was an appropriate response to the demonstrations.
Here’s a quick look at what happened according to reporters who were on the ground in those cities as well as a few others where activists took to the streets.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
The Louisiana capital served as the main stage for the weekend’s demonstrations, arrests, and allegations of excessiveness by police. The initial protests that followed Sterling’s death early last week were largely peaceful, in no small part because police officers gave the community time and space to voice their frustrations. On Friday in the wake of the Dallas shooting, though, the protests moved from the convenience store outside of which Sterling was killed closer to the city’s police headquarters. The official response that followed had echoes of the militarized response two year ago in Ferguson, Missouri, after the death of Michael Brown. Here’s the Washington Post with more on the scene on the ground in Baton Rouge:
Riot police appeared, their faces covered with plastic masks. Protesters couldn’t understand a word of what they were supposed to do, or where police wanted them to go, they said in interviews. … Police had no megaphone or bullhorn as they ordered protesters to stay on the grass and out of the street. Police arrested 31 people that night, nearly all of them after they stepped into the roadway and were rushed by police and dragged away to police wagons.
On Saturday night, the People’s New Black Panther Party, a radical black nationalist group, arrived, and police formed a human chain, pushing the crowd back but with little instruction. An officer standing in the turret of an armored vehicle clutched a rifle.
Among those arrested was well-known Black Lives Matters activist DeRay Mckesson, who live-streamed a portion of his arrest online. “The police want protesters to be too afraid to protest, which is why they intentionally created a context of conflict, and I’ll never be afraid to tell the truth,” Mckesson told the New York Times following his release. “What we saw in Baton Rouge was a police department that chose to provoke protesters to create, like, a context of conflict they could exploit.”
The demonstrations continued Sunday, with another 50 protesters being detained by police. According to the Baton Rouge Advocate, an otherwise peaceful march turned into a tense, multi-hour standoff when police showed up dressed for battle:
More than 100 officers circled the crowd. Many of the officers arrived holding assault rifles, and police used a high-pitched siren called an “LRAD,” a long-range acoustic device intended to disperse the crowd with its ear-splitting sound. Three armored vehicles accompanied officers decked out in riot gear. For the first time since the protests began last week, officers showed up with gas masks.
The more than 300 protesters of diverse races grew more vocal in face of the military-style tactics…. Police, following behind an armored car, marched slowly in a line toward demonstrators who had linked arms. The vehicle pushed against them, then officers rushed in to grab protesters and remove them from the streets.
Photos and video from the scene tell a similar story, including these two Reuters pics taken by Jonathan Bachman:
“I was pleased with what I saw,” State Police Col. Mike Edmonson said at the scene, according to the Advocate. “I didn’t see anyone getting hurt, I didn’t see any police getting hurt.”
St. Paul, Minnesota
The Minnesota city is getting second billing to Baton Rouge, but it was in St. Paul where clashes between protesters and police appear to have been the most violent. St. Paul police arrested roughly 50 people late Saturday night when the protesters walked onto Interstate 94, and another 50 on Sunday during a second protest on a city street. Here’s the Minneapolis Star Tribune with more on the I-94 demonstration, which was where the clashes were the most severe:
The arrests grew out of a demonstration by hundreds that blocked both directions of I-94 that started late Saturday near the Lexington Avenue exit and lasted several hours until police broke up the gathering. … [City Attorney Samuel] Clark was blunt in his description of the actions by some of the protesters, which left 21 law enforcement officers injured from concrete chunks and other items being thrown. “Rioters endangered others when they stormed Interstate 94, refused to follow more than two dozen orders from law enforcement officers to leave the freeway, and instead opted to participate in an incident that developed into a full-scale riot. …
Police said 21 officers were injured when people threw rocks and other projectiles. One had a 25-pound block of concrete dropped on his head from above and sustained a broken vertebrae, according to police. A Black Lives Matter St. Paul leader has said the people throwing objects were not from his community.
Those arrested in the second protest were cited for public nuisance and unlawful assembly (both misdemeanors) and later released. But as of Monday afternoon, prosecutors said they were still considering what charges to press against those detained in the I-94 demonstrations.
Rochester, New York
Police in the city of Rochester in upstate New York arrested 74 people during a demonstration of the Black Lives Matter movement on Friday …. Police in riot gear began taking demonstrators into custody at roughly 10 p.m. …. Rochester Police Chief Micheal Ciminelli said at a press conference the arrests were made because members of his police department and nearby law enforcement agencies did not have enough resources to answer other emergency calls.
Chicago, Illinois
More than 100 people marched throughout downtown Chicago on Saturday and Sunday… protesting fatal police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota last week. On Sunday, several groups marched from Daley Plaza to the Dirksen Federal Building to the Taste of Chicago festival. Two people were arrested. …
On Saturday, the gathering was slightly more tense as groups tried to get into the Taste of Chicago, then moved to the Water Tower Place before heading to the South Loop. At one point, several bottles were thrown at police officers on horses. Chicago police made 21 arrests on Saturday, nearly all of whom were charged with misdemeanors, CPD said. No Chicago police officers were injured this weekend.
New York City
More than 20 protesters were arrested Saturday as Black Lives Matter supporters angry over the police slayings in Louisiana and Minnesota marched through Manhattan. The march started off peacefully outside City Hall, with protesters walking up Broadway chanting “Black lives matter” and “no justice, no peace.” But smaller groups splintered off and stopped traffic in various parts of the city. “For the most part, the demonstrators were very peaceful,” said NYPD Sgt. Brendan Ryan.
Memphis, Tennessee:
A crowd of more than 1,000 shut down the Interstate 40 bridge for nearly four hours Sunday night as part of a protest over recent killings of black men by police officers. By 10:45 p.m., however, the situation had been resolved peacefully with no injuries and no arrests, police said. Officers in riot gear, backed up by a truck, herded the last few dozen protesters off the bridge. They continued pushing the crowd forward down Front Street as most of those gathered eventually dispersed.
Atlanta, Georgia
On Sunday, hundreds of demonstrators crowded the streets of downtown Atlanta again calling for an end to police brutality. And like the previous three nights, a splinter group of protesters roamed the streets of downtown, blocking traffic, chanting, dancing and sometimes confronting officers.
Inglewood, California
Hundreds of Black Lives Matter demonstrators poured into the streets of Inglewood late Sunday night, shutting down a major intersection and briefly blocking traffic on the 405 Freeway. Authorities said there were no arrests and no reports of violence. “There has been no reason for interference by us,” Inglewood Police Lt. Gregory Held said. “It’s all been peaceful.”
