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By Reuters 
4h ago
Jim Urquhart and Brendan McDermid
Louisville – Armed police supporters and anti-racist protesters clashed in Louisville on Saturday before the Kentucky Derby horse race, as Rochester police used tear gas to disperse protesters, while discord in the cities of the America continued to boil.
In the afternoon, hundreds of protesters marched to the Churchill Downs track in Louisville chanting “No justice, no derby,” a nod to activists’ calls to cancel the annual race, which was being held without spectators due to the coronavirus. .
Separately, approximately 250 members of a black militia called the NFAC that have protested the police killings of black people gathered outside of Churchill Downs, all armed with long guns. NFAC leader John “Grandmaster Jay” Johnson mocked the officers standing guard in front of the runway, but the group later withdrew without incident.
Louisville has become a key focus in a summer of unrest due to outrage over the death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman who was murdered in March when city police stormed her apartment using a “no “. -knock “arrest warrant that did not require posting.
Sadiqa Reynolds, president of the Louisville Urban League, said that while the race was not called off as expected, she believes protesters’ demands were heard, including holding the officers involved in Taylor’s death accountable.
“Today was a show of force from the Lousiville community to say enough is enough,” he told Reuters. “We are tired that our lives don’t matter.”
Earlier on Saturday, a group of counter-protesters, brandishing pistols and long guns, engaged Black Lives Matter protesters and got into shoving fights in a downtown park. People on both sides screamed, faces inches apart. After about 45 minutes, the police expelled people from the park, but the protests in front of Churchill Downs continued.
The counter-protesters included some 250 pro-police protesters, including Dylan Stevens, who goes by the nickname “The Angry Viking” and claims to lead a group of what he calls “Patriots.” According to his website, Stevens supports Republican President Donald Trump, the police, the military and the right to bear arms.
Stevens, who was armed and dressed in tactical gear, told protesters that he was not there to oppose them, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. He said his group had arrived because of a threat made by NFAC leader Johnson in July to “burn the city to the ground” if justice was not served in the Taylor case, the Courier-Journal reported.
ROCHESTER POLICE USE TEAR GAS
Demonstrations against racism and police brutality have swept the United States since May 25, when George Floyd, a black man, died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
In Rochester, New York, police used batons, pepper balls and tear gas to push back about 2,000 protesters who marched into the Public Safety Building on Saturday night, chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “Daniel Prude.” a reference to the black man. who died after an encounter with the police in March.
The Rochester Police Department said in a statement that protesters had ignored their orders to disperse and that some threw bottles, rocks and fireworks at officers.
The protesters began their march at the site of Prude’s arrest. It was the fourth night of protests, which came after Prude’s family released body camera footage showing officers pinning Prude to the pavement and restraining him with a hood.
In Portland, Oregon, where protests have raged for three months, officials were bracing for another night of rioting. Police arrested 27 people on Friday, mostly on charges of interfering with law enforcement or disturbing public order.
Police shot and killed a self-proclaimed anti-fascist activist in Washington state on Thursday night when they moved to arrest him on suspicion of gunning down Aaron Danielson, a right-wing counter-protester, last weekend in Portland.
On Saturday afternoon, hundreds of Danielson’s friends gathered in a park in Vancouver, Washington, north of Portland, to commemorate his life, interrupted at age 39, according to a Reuters witness.
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