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PORTLAND: Portland police declared a riot, arrested 11 people, and seized fireworks, hammers, and a rifle after the demonstrations on Wednesday (November 4), the night after the vote in the US presidential election.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown activated the National Guard in response to the protests.
In New York, police said they made about 50 arrests in protests that swept through the city late Wednesday.
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The demonstrations, mostly small and peaceful, were held in cities across the United States by supporters of Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
President Donald Trump had claimed victory and called for the counting of votes to be halted in the states that will determine the outcome of Tuesday’s election. Biden has said he thinks he is on track to win once the votes are counted.
Four arrests were made in Denver when protesters clashed with police, the Denver Police Department said. Arrests were also made during demonstrations in Minneapolis after protesters blocked traffic, local police said.
The activists also organized demonstrations in Atlanta, Detroit and Oakland demanding that the vote count be carried out without hindrance.
In Portland, a heavy police presence flooded the streets after a handful of protesters broke away from the anti-Trump protests of hundreds of people to break shop windows, and a man believed to have thrown a Molotov cocktail was arrested.
The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office cited “widespread violence” in the city center, including glass bottles thrown at police advancing on protesters.
An AFP journalist at the scene witnessed two arrests during a street corner skirmish that left protester Michael Ream with a bloody face.
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“It’s the same old thing: the horrible behavior of the police and the terrible legacy they carry every day,” the 38-year-old doctoral student told AFP while the police handcuffed him.
When asked if this week’s contested election had brought him to the streets, he replied: “More or less. I mean, I haven’t come out (protesting) in a while.”
Portland has seen months of clashes between police and protesters, angered by the repeated killings of black Americans by law enforcement officers across the country.
Protesters involved in Wednesday’s clashes had previously attended a 300-person peaceful rally in a downtown park organized by a coalition of anti-capitalist groups with lectures, music and slogans that included “The vote is over. The fight continues.”
The organizer of the rally, Evan Burchfield, told AFP that the city has been using the police as a “tool of political repression” for years and that “nothing will really change” if Joe Biden is elected.
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Police officers are seen after a protest march the day after Election Day in Manhattan, New York, New York, USA, November 4, 2020. (REUTERS / Michelle Nichols)
Another group of protesters who had gathered along the Portland river on Wednesday vowed to “protect the results” of Tuesday’s tight election and held banners proclaiming “Count Every Vote.”
“We want Trump out of office, that’s the main focus,” a rally leader told the crowd to loud applause.
All of the gatherings that were declared unrest were in downtown areas, a Portland police spokesman told Reuters in an emailed statement. “There have been 11 arrests tonight and we have not received any reports of injuries.”
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Local Protect the Results partners, a coalition of more than 165 grassroots organizations, advocacy groups and unions, have organized more than 100 planned events across the country between Wednesday and Saturday.
Heading into the Nov. 3 election, the United States had witnessed months of protests following the May death of George Floyd, an African-American who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
The protests gained momentum once again after the police shooting later in the year of an African American named Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin and more recently of 27-year-old Walter Wallace Jr, who was shot to death by two officers in Philadelphia.
