Officers stared down hundreds of shouting protesters near a ramp onto Interstate 110 in Louisiana’s capital Sunday night before another squad in riot gear arrived to make arrests.
Earlier Sunday, some 2,000 people rallied outside the Capitol building to protest police killings of black people, State Police Maj. Doug Cain said.
“They didn’t have any problems out there. They seemed to be very organized and peaceful,” Cain said.
But as night began to fall, a few hundred people aimed for an on-ramp, trying a tactic protesters were using this weekend in multiple cities.
And after a lengthy standoff, more police in full riot gear moved in, pinning some of the protesters as others fled. Some 30 to 40 people were jailed for trying to block a highway, sheriff’s spokeswoman Casey Rayborn Hicks said.
That could push Baton Rouge’s weekend arrest total above 160, with just one reported injury to a police officer.
Gov. John Bel Edwards said he’s “very proud” of the Louisiana law enforcement response to protests over the fatal shooting of a black man by white police officers in the city.
Flanked by law enforcement leaders, Edwards said he doesn’t believe officers have been overly aggressive by using riot gear to push protesters off a highway.
“The police tactics in response have been very moderate. I’m very proud of that,” said the Democratic governor, who comes from a family of sheriffs.
Tensions between black citizens and police have 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.
“I remain disappointed in the Baton Rouge police, who continue to provoke protesters for peacefully protesting. 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 the night in jail.
The Baton Rouge police spokesman, Sgt. Don Coppola, blamed some violence and the large number of arrests on outside agitators. One officer lost teeth to a projectile thrown outside police headquarters, and police also confiscated three rifles, three shotguns and two pistols during that protest, he wrote in an email.
“It appears the protest at Baton Rouge Police Headquarters have become more violent as out of town protesters are arriving,” he said.
But most of those detained live in Louisiana and faced a single charge of obstructing a highway, sheriff’s spokeswoman Hicks told The Associated Press.
The tumult reached well beyond Louisiana. In Minnesota, authorities said 21 law enforcement officers were hurt and about 100 people were arrested late Saturday and early Sunday during clashes in the state capital over the police killing of Philando Castile.
There was very little violence by comparison in Baton Rouge.
“I can assure everyone we are hearing the protesters,” the governor said. “We are listening to their voices. But I’m especially gratified that our citizens here in Louisiana, to a very large degree, have decided to protest in a constructive and peaceful manner.”
Edwards said hundreds have marched around the city, with only one injury to an officer and mostly misdemeanor arrests. Protesting peacefully is the best way to honor those killed, he said, adding that authorities won’t allow people “to incite hate and violence.”
“I want to be clear that will not be tolerated. We don’t operate like that in Louisiana,” he said.
The list of those arrested released by the sheriff’s office included two homeless people, and 18 are from out of state, including Mckesson. The vast majority of the Louisiana residents were from the Baton Rouge and New Orleans areas.
Kira Marrero, 21, of New Orleans, also charged with obstructing a highway, said she did nothing of the sort. “I have no doubt in my mind that I did nothing wrong,” said Marrero, a 2015 graduate of Williams College in Massachusetts
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.
“During the protest, the defendant entered the roadway and was provided another verbal order to exit the lanes of travel. Moments later, the defendant entered the roadway again and was taken into custody by officers on scene without incident,” the affidavit said.
Activist Brittany Packett, who was with Mckesson, wrote in an email that he was on the highway shoulder when “multiple police crossed onto the shoulder, tackling Deray and arresting him.”
Associated Press photos show police apprehending Mckesson and pulling him to his feet before leading him away with his hands secured behind his back.
Darren Bowers, 26, of Baton Rouge, said his girlfriend, 26-year-old Ariel Bates, called him from the jail early Sunday. “She told me that they jumped all on her and her cousin on the grass. They weren’t on the street or anything,” Bowers said.
He said he believes police are “antagonizing” protesters.
“People are peacefully protesting. Why are (police) in riot gear?” he said.
In Louisiana, Saturday’s demonstration began at the convenience store where 37-year-old Alton Sterling was killed by police, then fanned out through the state Capitol.
Members of the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense called for the arrest and indictment of the officers involved in Sterling’s death, shouting “Black Power” and raising their fists. The U.S. Justice Department has launched a civil rights investigation.
“These are human rights violations,” Krystal Muhammad shouted to the crowd at the convenience store before heading over to the police department. “They are not operating as human beings. They are being predators on our communities across America.”
In Minnesota, police used smoke bombs to clear more than 200 people blocking Interstate 94, the main highway in and out of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Protesters pelted police in riot gear with rocks, bottles, firecrackers and other objects, and they refused to get off the highway, prompting officers in riot gear to move in just after midnight.
Roughly half of the arrests happened during that standoff. Most of the others happened early Sunday in another part of St. Paul.
Police Chief Todd Axtell called the violence against officers “a disgrace.”
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. He said he was trying to move the crowd along and keep the peace.
“I guess I wasn’t moving fast enough for him,” said Martin, who said the officer was six feet away when he sprayed him without warning. “He just got it out and bam, I saw a cloud. It’s burning pretty bad.”
A leader on a loudspeaker urged the group to march to the governor’s mansion, where protesters have been gathering since the fatal police shooting Wednesday of a black driver, Philando Castile, in the suburb of Falcon Heights. The 32-year-old school cafeteria supervisor told officers during a traffic stop that he had a gun in the car and a permit to use it, and one of them shot him when he reached for his wallet, according to his girlfriend, who live-streamed video of the immediate aftermath on Facebook.
Tyree Johnson, a protester who said he was Castile’s cousin, said officers on the highway fired pellets and gas in his direction.
Misty Macon, 20, of St. Paul, said the protest was mostly peaceful, though at least one protester aimed a firework at an officer. She said she saw about 30 people being peacefully taken away by officers, who said they warned protesters they would be subject to arrest if they didn’t leave the interstate, which reopened early Sunday.
The protest was among several demonstrations nationwide, including New York.
Hundreds of demonstrators marched through the streets of New York on Saturday in a third night of protests against shootings of black men by police officers.
The protesters marched up Broadway from lower Manhattan, paused for speeches in Union Square, then marched to Times Square and around midtown.
As many as 1,000 people joined the protest, but many left when it started raining late Saturday night.
Police officers marched alongside the protesters and tried to keep them on the sidewalk by playing a recorded announcement warning them that they risked arrest if they stayed in the street. A police spokesman said there were at least 20 arrests.
Zayanahla Vines, a nephew of Delrawn Small, who was shot to death by an off-duty officer in Brooklyn during a road-rage incident Monday, choked back tears before kicking off the march.
“My uncle was killed in cold blood by somebody who was wearing a badge, and that man’s still walking free today,” Vines said.
He added, “This is about black people in America, this is not about me. This is not about any of us as an individual.”
New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that he will investigate the death of Small, who was black, as were the men fatally shot by police officers in Baton Rouge and a suburb of Minneapolis.
Protester Cynthia Howell said she wants to see accountability for police misconduct.
“We are not against the police, but we want accountability and we want justice,” said Howell, a niece of Alberta Spruill, who died of a heart attack in 2003 after police threw a concussion grenade into her Harlem apartment during a mistaken raid. “We want those who do reckless, dangerous things held accountable.”
Danny Salk, a filmmaker from Brooklyn, brought his two young daughters, Indigo Hubbard-Salk, 10, and Cypris Hubbard-Salk, 14, to the protest.
“I came out to protest the killing of black people by cops and racism in general,” Salk said. “I think it’s time we stopped racism.”
He said his daughters were the ones who inspired him to come.
“They’re the activists. They said it’s very important that we go,” he said. “It’s very empowering to stand in the street and chant and practice democracy. This is the only way we’re going to wake people up.”
Associated Press
