Violent protests continued on Labor Day, as police dispersed riots in several cities and clashes between left- and right-wing groups erupted in Salem, Oregon.
In Los Angeles, police dispersed a crowd with peppers balls and flash bangs, as demonstrations continued over the shooting death last Monday of Dijon Kizzee by L.A. County sheriff’s deputies. Kizzee was armed during the confrontation, police said.
In Seattle, Washington, there were 22 arrests during violent confrontations between left-wing activists and members of the Seattle Police Department. The activists had marched on the headquarters of the police union, the Seattle Police Officers Guild.
The Seattle Times reported:
Protesters arrived at the SPOG office in Sodo shortly after 6 p.m. Most wore black and some carried shields, umbrellas and gas masks.
…
Officers ordered people to back up, rode into the crowd and grabbed umbrellas from protesters. A protester deployed a fire extinguisher; police pushed their bikes into the crowd and used pepper spray and blast balls or flash-bang grenades. After officers began pushing the crowd out of the area, some in the group threw fireworks at police. As officers tried to make arrests, scuffles broke out.
From the front of the crowd of protesters, it was not immediately clear what prompted the police response. The Seattle Police Department later said that as police made arrests, members of the crowd threw rocks, bottles and explosives.
The department said it found Molotov cocktails at the SPOG building and posted a photo of three unbroken beer bottles containing fluid and bandanas. A body camera video posted by the department showed an object thrown from the crowd land in the street between protesters and police and start a fire, which the department said was a Molotov cocktail.
In Rochester, New York, the scene of violent Black Lives Matter protests last week, demonstrators dispersed peacefully after police declared an unlawful assembly.
In Portland, a caravan of Trump supporters drove through town — as they had last weekend — and a smaller group split off to go to Salem, Oregon. There, right-wing Proud Boys fought with Black Lives Matter demonstrators.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.