After a fierce week of police violence, protests erupted in several U.S. cities on Friday, which sometimes became tense.
In the wake of the murders of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old who was shot by police after being pulled over, and the unarmed 13-year-old Adam Toledo, thousands took to the streets to demonstrate, sometimes into the night.
In Chicago, where Adam was killed, thousands marched in Logan Square after the video of the 13-year-old being lifted with his arms was shot. The protesters planned to act after Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s house, and some of them asked her to resign.
The rally was largely peaceful, although some police and protesters struggled as the night came to an end.
In Minnesota, protests continued their sixth night of protests in Brooklyn Center, where Wright was killed, as nearby Minneapolis also prepared for protests during the Derek Chauvin trial over George Floyd’s death last year.
Police arrested on Friday about 100 people in Brooklyn Center when they claimed that the protests had become an illegal meeting when the fence around a police building momentarily broken. The city also issued a final curfew from 11pm to 6pm.
Earlier in the evening, a U.S. district court judge ruled that Minnesota State Patrol could not arrest, threaten or target journalists following an ACLU complaint that unfairly cracked down on law enforcement.
Meanwhile, a protest that began peacefully in California ended in multiple fires, damaging several cars and breaking numerous windows.
Demonstrations against police brutality in Oakland began calmly on Friday night, newspapers reported. A subsequent march drew about 300 people.
People in the crowd threw bottles and other objects at officers during the march, Oakland police said in a statement. One officer sustained an injury because he was hit in the head. A community member was also assaulted, police said.
But later authorities declared an illegal assembly and ordered protesters to leave. Police said the demonstrators set out peacefully. No arrests or quotes have been issued.
In Portland, Oregon, police on Friday night declared a riot after protests that followed after police fatally shot a local man while responding to reports of a person with a gun.
Some witnesses said the man was mentally ill, but the new Portland response team, which was formed after protests last year to respond to mental crises without armed police, was not called.
Deputy Chief of Police Chris Davis told reporters earlier in the day that a white man in his thirties had been shot dead by police, who opened fire with a rifle and weapons that fired non-lethal projectiles. The man was pronounced dead at the scene in Lents Park, who died in a tree-lined, suburb of the city.
Two officers fired a 40mm device that fired non-lethal projectiles, and one officer – an eight-year veteran – fired a gun, police said in a statement. The officer has a paid administrative leave and his or her name will be released on Saturday, authorities said.
While investigators searched the scene and documented evidence, nearly 100 meters (91 meters) away, a crowd of more than 150 people – many dressed in black and some with helmets, goggles and gas masks – gathered behind the crime scene and chanted and shouted. . at the officers standing before them.
When police began conducting the investigation at the scene around 3 p.m., the crowd marched through the park, tore off police tape and stood face-to-face with officers dressed in riots. Police left the park around 3:30 p.m., and the crowd remained and eventually stood in a nearby intersection, blocking traffic and rumbling.
Police later said on Friday they had used pepper spray on protesters to disconnect. Some people beat officers with sticks and chased officers as they left, police said in a news release. Officers deployed smoke containers and then used a rubber ball diversion device, police said.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has dismissed what he described as part of violent riots that undermine the message of police liability and should be punished more severely.
‘We had to summon almost every police officer in Multnomah County to keep this group far enough away to preserve what we call in our business as the integrity of the scene so that no one who should not be there enters. there, ”Davis said, adding that deputies also help with the sheriff in the country.