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AFP
Portland
Police arrested dozens of people and used tear gas against hundreds of demonstrators in Portland late Saturday as the western US city marked 100 days since Black Lives Matter protests erupted against racism and police brutality.
Police quickly declared the rally a “riot” after protesters hurled Molotov cocktails at them, and they responded with a barrage of tear gas to disperse the crowd. At least one person was injured by the fire bombs, police said.
Officers arrested dozens of protesters in an ensuing game of cat-and-mouse through a residential district of east Portland.
“It was Day 100 for Black Lives Matter protests in Portland since George Floyd’s murder and they wanted to prevent us from marching,” said 20-year-old protestor Jay, her eyes red from the tear gas.
“It’s our constitutional right to be here and to express ourselves.”
Police said people were “engaging in tumultuous and violent conduct thereby intentionally or recklessly creating a grave risk of causing public alarm.”
“This is a riot. Police are giving announcements to disperse. People are throwing Molotov cocktails,” Portland Police said on Twitter.
The nightly protests were sparked by the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis in May.
Floyd’s death triggered similar protests nationwide, but it is in Portland -- a city of 650,000 that is more than 70 percent white -- that activists have remained on the streets practically every night, demanding racial justice and police accountability.
President Donald Trump has cast the city as being under siege by “thugs” engaged in “domestic terrorism,” though the demonstrations have been peaceful for the most part.
Portland
Police arrested dozens of people and used tear gas against hundreds of demonstrators in Portland late Saturday as the western US city marked 100 days since Black Lives Matter protests erupted against racism and police brutality.
Police quickly declared the rally a “riot” after protesters hurled Molotov cocktails at them, and they responded with a barrage of tear gas to disperse the crowd. At least one person was injured by the fire bombs, police said.
Officers arrested dozens of protesters in an ensuing game of cat-and-mouse through a residential district of east Portland.
“It was Day 100 for Black Lives Matter protests in Portland since George Floyd’s murder and they wanted to prevent us from marching,” said 20-year-old protestor Jay, her eyes red from the tear gas.
“It’s our constitutional right to be here and to express ourselves.”
Police said people were “engaging in tumultuous and violent conduct thereby intentionally or recklessly creating a grave risk of causing public alarm.”
“This is a riot. Police are giving announcements to disperse. People are throwing Molotov cocktails,” Portland Police said on Twitter.
The nightly protests were sparked by the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis in May.
Floyd’s death triggered similar protests nationwide, but it is in Portland -- a city of 650,000 that is more than 70 percent white -- that activists have remained on the streets practically every night, demanding racial justice and police accountability.
President Donald Trump has cast the city as being under siege by “thugs” engaged in “domestic terrorism,” though the demonstrations have been peaceful for the most part.
