Clashes between police and protesters Friday night near the Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, Virginia, where officers were hit with paintballs and other objects, resulting in six arrests, police said. .
The Civil War general monument, in the city that served as the Confederation’s capital, has been the scene of frequent clashes in recent weeks, after George Floyd was in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.
A crowd of about 75 to 100 people who gathered near the monument began to disperse around 10 p.m., police declared an illegal assembly when officers began to be hit with paintball balls, a police statement said.
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General Robert E. Lee statue on Monument Ave in Richmond, Virginia.
(Barnini Chakraborty / Fox News)
Other objects were also directed at officers, prompting police to arrest five adults and a minor.
Police had at least five trucks parked in the area to transport detainees, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
The charges included illegal assembly, trespassing, and obstruction of justice.
Most of the people were gone at 11:35 pm, police said.
Police said no tear gas was used, but pepper spray was briefly deployed when objects were thrown at officers.
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The illegal meeting statement was the fifth this week, the Times-Dispatch reported. The statements were in accordance with the regulations implemented by the then Government. Terry McAuliffe after the Charlottesville, Virginia riots in 2017, according to the newspaper.
Protesters in Richmond have been calling the area near Lee’s monument the “Marcus-David Peters Circle,” referring to a black biology professor who was shot dead by police while experiencing a “mental health crisis” in 2018. , the Times-Dispatch reported.
