Photos show protests for racial justice that broke out in cities like Louisville, Chicago, and Portland over the weekend
Ellen Cranley  Â
- Several US cities saw racial justice protests and violent clashes over the weekend.
- Demonstrators in cities including Portland, Oregon, Louisville, Kentucky, and Aurora, Colorado, faced off with federal agents, teargas, and multiple shootings in some cases as protests descended into chaos.
- This weekend's protests signaled an uptick in tensions after President Donald Trump deployed federal agents to several cities.
Racial justice protests roiled in cities across the US as demonstrators carried out the latest in months of protests against police brutality.
This weekend's protests came days after President Donald Trump ordered federal agents to major US cities, saying last week he wanted curb what he described as "a shocking explosion of shootings, killings, murders and heinous crimes of violence," but did not immediately share plans with local lawmakers and authorities.
On Sunday night, Trump wrote on Twitter that the protesters who turned out over the weekend were "anarchists who hate our country," adding to the violent characterization of the demonstrations that follows clashes between police and protesters.
From plumes of tear gas in Portland, militia groups in Louisville, and violence in Aurora, Colorado, here are some of the biggest moments from this weekend's protests.
On Friday, protestors in Portland, Oregon, took to the streets hours after a US judge denied a state request to restrict federal agents' actions while arresting people in demonstrations.
Business Insider previously reported that federal agents have regularly deployed tear gas and other control techniques on protests in Portland.
US District Judge Michael Mosman on Friday rejected the state's request for a restraining order on behalf of its residents to prevent violent clashes in the future, according to The Associated Press.
Demonstrators largely gathered in front of the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in downtown Portland, where they confronted federal agents and faced plumes of tear gas.
Portland Police said one person was stabbed amid the demonstrations late Friday and taken to the hospital.
Demonstrators turned out in distinct groups for the protest, including a 'Wall of Vets' who lined up on Friday near the fence around the courthouse.
After President Donald Trump dismissed protesters in Portland as "violent anarchists," several groups teamed up to form distinct lines in front of other protesters, including a "Wall of Moms" and "Wall of Dads," The New York Times reported.
The statement by the group of veterans came nearly a week after federal officers beat and doused with pepper spray a US Navy veteran who said he approached them to ask if arresting dozens of protesters each night was in line with their oaths to defend the Constitution.
Tensions seemed to reach a fever pitch this weekend over unidentified federal agents arrived in the city earlier this month.
After nearly two months of protests since George Floyd's death in police custody, the Oregon District Attorney's office announced on Friday that 18 protesters are facing federal charges related to the protests, including creating a disturbance, assaulting a federal officer, and failing to comply with a lawful order.
Days after a Justice Department press release said Chicago would receive 100 new federal investigators, the city saw several protests take over downtown on Saturday.
CBS Chicago reported that a few hundred pro-police demonstrators attending a "Back the Blue" march faced off with "Black Lives Matter" protesters across a line of police in just a few of several rallies that attracted demonstrators in the city that day.
Both groups aired their concerns over two recently removed Christopher Columbus statues and criticized Mayor Lori Lightfoot's handling of their demands, the outlet reported. After the pro-police rally, a "Black Lives Matter" demonstration began, but the two groups remained peaceful.
Two armed militia groups clashed in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, on Saturday.
More than 300 members of the all-Black NFAC, or the "Not F------Around Coalition" faced off with around 50 members of the far-right "Three Percenter" militia.
The Louisville Courier-Journal reported that police stood by while the militias approached each other, with some members yelling for others to not "fire unless you're fired upon!"
Three members of the NAFC were injured after someone discharged a gun at the protest, but none were facing life-threatening injuries, the Courier-Journal reported.
The protest was the latest in two months of demonstrations over Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was killed in a Louisville home by police.
The office of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron is investigating Taylor's death, but activists have demanded that the officers involved in the no-knock raid are charged in her killing. Members of the NAFC were seeking to ramp up the pressure on Cameron to deliver justice for Taylor, local outlets reported.
Cameron responded to the demands voiced by the protests on Twitter the same day.
"We understand the desire for truth & ask that to be the focus of demonstrations, not violence," Cameron wrote. "We continue to work diligently in pursuit of the truth by conducting an independent investigation into the death of Ms. Taylor."
In the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado, protesters marched to demand attention for the death of Elijah McClain, a Black 23-year-old who was killed by police in August 2019. A crowd of protesters shut down the city's I-225 highway.
Insider previously reported that McClain was walking home from a convenience store when he was confronted by police. Officers placed McClain in a chokehold and a medic sedated him with ketamine before he entered cardiac arrest and later died in hospital.
The demonstration took a violent turn when a car drove into the crowd protesters and at least one person was shot in the chaos.
Aurora Police Department said they're investigating the incident as protesters were guided to the side of the road and the highway later reopened.
The Denver Post reported that later that evening, a crowd assembled at the city's Municipal Center and police said late Saturday protesters had broken windows and tried to set off fires from the inside of the Aurora courthouse.
In Seattle, police declared the protests as riots, saying they witnessed rocks, bottles, and fireworks being launched among the crowds.
Police sought shelter in a precinct early Sunday in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood after the protests descended into violence, according to the Associated Press.
Police in Oakland, California said a peaceful protest devolved into chaos as protesters set fire to a courthouse, damaged a police station, and assaulted officers.
Approximately 700 demonstrators attended what began as a peaceful march Saturday night before some began hurling objects at the city's courthouse in a violent turn on the city's previously civil demonstrations, according to the Associated Press.
Police in Richmond, Virginia, declared assemblies unlawful after trucks and restaurants were set ablaze and officers said they were pelted with rocks.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Sunday that six people were arrested in connection to the violence that followed protests late Saturday, including fires and vandalism at several businesses downtown and more than $100,000 of damage to Virginia Commonwealth University campus property.
After officers faced off with protesters late into Saturday night in downtown Richmond, the police department posted a photo on Twitter of rocks and batteries they wrote demonstrators had thrown at officers.
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