Seattle police said protesters threw large rocks, bottles, fireworks and other explosives at officers during the protests. Others set fire to a portable trailer and a construction site, police said in a series of tweets.
At least 45 people were arrested on charges of assault on officers, obstruction and lack of dispersal, police said.
According to the police, 21 officers were wounded by the firing of shells at them. Most officers were able to return to the service, the department’s Twitter said. An officer was hospitalized with a leg injury caused by an explosive.
The protests were held in solidarity with the protests in Portland, Oregon, where federal law enforcement officers and protesters violently clashed in a small area near federal court. In Portland, state and local officials have said that federal officials, who wear camouflage uniforms and have used tear gas to disperse crowds, are exacerbating the protests.
Seattle has been the scene of protests over police brutality and systemic racism, including in a six-block area controlled by protesters after police left their compound: the Capitol Hill organized protest or the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.
The area known as CHOP was started by protesters demanding justice in the death of George Floyd. But the demonstration unfolded over time, and after a series of shootings, police cleared the area on July 1. As CNN wrote at the time, CHOP’s failure was a case study of human nature, violence, mental illness, homelessness, and the difficulty in imagining a world without police.
On July 4, a 24-year-old protester was killed during a demonstration when a man drove his vehicle against a group of protesters.
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