Police arrest 59 at Portland protest, Trump demands law and order

Washington, Sep 6 (efe-epa).- Protests against police violence and racism in Portland, Oregon, resulted in police arresting 59 people between Saturday night and Sunday, while President Donald Trump publicly defended law and order.

Day 100 of the demonstrations in Portland were marked by new clashes between police and protesters, who threw Molotov cocktails against security forces, who replied to the attacks with tear gas, according to images broadcast via the social networks and to reports from local authorities.

In addition, demonstrations were staged in Rochester, New York; Louisbille, Kentucky; and Washington DC.

The protests in Oregon’s largest city have not let up, despite the fact that Trump ordered the National Guard and federal agents deployed in the city.

Portland police confirmed the arrests of 59 people, of whom 43 have already been processed.

“Multiple fire bombs, mortars, rocks and other items” were thrown at security forces during the Saturday night disturbances in southeastern Portland, local police said in a statement issued on Sunday.

The report said that several uniformed officers were hit by stones hurled by protesters and that a sergeant was struck by some kind of commercial firework that set a portion of his glove aflame.

There were no reports, however, about protesters injured or otherwise adversely affected – such as by tear gas – during the clashes.

Another demonstration took place in Louisville, where the Kentucky Derby was run on Saturday.

The race was overshadowed this year by the coronavirus pandemic and the protests over the police killing of Breonna Taylor, a young African American woman who died last March when officers opened fire as they burst into her apartment on a drug raid, although it later proved that they had evidently gone to the wrong apartment. No drugs were found on the premises.

The protest against police brutality was not free of tension, given the presence of a self-described group of “patriots” comprising mostly white people carrying assorted weaponry who also gathered in downtown Louisville.

The “patriots” got into verbal altercations with some of the protesters but no further clashes developed and later they withdrew, according to local media.

Meanwhile, members of the so-called NFAC militia, consisting of armed African Americans, gathered in front of the Churchill Downs hippodrome, where the Derby had been held, but they later left that location.

On Sunday, Lovely Warren, the mayor of Rochester, New York – where on Saturday there were new protests over the fatal police shooting of African American Daniel Prude – said at a press conference that “credible” information exists that people coming from other locations have been participating in the protests.

Local police chief La’Ron Singletary, at the same press conference, also said that there had been outside agitators at the protests, citing information that had come into local law enforcement offices.

The chief said that local police arrested people who said they reside in “Alaska, Massachusetts and other parts of the country.”

The nation’s capital was also the scene of marches, vigils and gatherings on Saturday night to protest the death of Deon Kay, the 18-year-old African American who was fatally shot by a local police officer.

The overnight activity in the well-known Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington DC was further augmented when a large group of demonstrators who had marched from Dupont Circle joined the crowd.

The capital’s 7th District police department and those of other parts of southeastern Washington were also confronted by demonstrators.

Meanwhile, Trump posted on Twitter a video in which can be seen a person – apparently a protester – who is trying to put out the flames on his body during a street demonstration, the scene accompanied by music.