Judge groups and opponents clashed in several states during demonstrations on Saturday, prompting police to get involved.
Confrontations erupted between right-wing groups and anti-fascist and Black Lives Matter protesters in Georgia, Michigan and Oregon, following growing tensions arising from months of protests over racial injustice and police brutality, Reuters reported.
In Kalamazoo, Mich., The all-right organization Proud Boys held a rally in support of police and confronted the anti-fascist Michigan People’s Defense League and others.
When the collisions collided, police worked to disperse the public, and Kalamazoo Public Safety said in a statement obtained by Reuters that officers made several arrests. CNN affiliate station WOOD said the protesters “punched, kicked and even sprayed each other.”
“Once the incident turned violent, the officers responded quickly and restored order,” Kalamazoo Public Safety said in a statement. obtained by CNN. The statement said police “declared a police zone and dispersed the crowd.”
Police said several groups were “visibly armed with a variety of weapons, including rifles,” and police took a 3-foot wooden club.
The Southern Poverty Law Center identifies Proud Boys as a hate group, and Facebook has banned the organization.
Judge-Protestants also gathered in Portland, Ore., Where protests over police brutality have continued since George Floyd’s death as a police officer in Minneapolis in May. Members of the Patriot Prayer, the anti-government patriot group, some of them armed, are gathering to counter anti-fascists and support police, according to Reuters.
Black Lives Matter activists and members of Patriot Prayer reportedly got into fights, including some who sprayed pepper spray and a paintball gun.
In a statement, the Portland Police Bureau encouraged those who were victims of a crime during the incident to report it.
Members of a far right group and a progressive group in Stone Mountain, Ga. carried both guns when confrontations broke out. The farthest group had intended to visit Stone Mountain Park, the site of the country’s largest Confederate monument, before the city closed for the rally.
The scuffles included a burning of a Confederate flag and fist fights, prompting police officers to intervene with a backup from a SWAT team.
The high tensions of the protesters come because Trump has promoted a law-and-order response for protesters.
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