Lincoln City, Oregon police said this weekend that 7 men were arrested on various charges after a group of white people they were part of harassed a black family on Independence Day with racial slurs and Nazi salutes. .
The local police department said Sunday that the men had been arrested after their group mocked a black family the night before “yelling racial slurs at them, insulting them and using Nazi salutes towards them” on a nearby beach.
The office said police officers had been called to the beach initially after receiving a report about the same group firing illegal fireworks and causing riots. Upon arrival, the office said the “highly intoxicated group” had also begun to surround responding officers.
Amid the chaos, the agency said agents at the scene were able to form “a line between the group of white people and the black family that allows the black family to safely leave the beach and return to their room.”
During this time, several members of the white group continued to mock the officers, trying to challenge them to fight. Other members of the white people group began firing multiple large illegal aerial fireworks in front of officers, ”the department continued.
“After several more officers arrived on the scene, they moved to the troubled and highly intoxicated group and began arresting them on a variety of criminal charges,” the office added.
The department said the 7 men, who ranged in age from 22 to 45, were arrested and charged with riot, interfering with police, disorderly conduct II, harassment, possession of illegal fireworks, and throwing offensive trash.
As of Sunday, however, six of those men were released and subpoenas issued due to local coronavirus restrictions due to the ongoing pandemic, the office said.
But one of the men has been “transported and searched the Lincoln County Jail for fingerprint identification and charged with the crimes listed above,” the department added, after he refused to reveal his identity.
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