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| Police arrest activist DeRay McKesson during a protest along Airline Highway, a major road that passes in front of the Baton Rouge Police Department headquarters Saturday, July 9, 2016, in Baton Rouge, La. Protesters angry over the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling by two white Baton Rouge police officers rallied Saturday at the convenience store where he was shot, in front of the city's police department and at the state Capitol for another day of demonstrations. |
BATON ROUGE,
La. (AP) -- A prominent Black Lives Matter activist, three
journalists and more than 120 other people were taken into custody in
Louisiana over the weekend, authorities said Sunday, in connection with
protests over the fatal shooting of an African-American man by two white
police officers in Baton Rouge.
Spokeswoman
Casey Rayborn Hicks of the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office told The
Associated Press that nearly 100 people were taken to the parish jail
over protests that began late Saturday. Most of those arrested were from
Louisiana and faced a single charge of obstructing a highway.
A first wave of arrests took place on Friday and early Saturday, with 30 people taken into custody.
Police
began releasing those who were arrested on Sunday afternoon. Kira
Marrero, 21, of New Orleans, who faces a charge of obstructing a
highway, was the first to leave the jail. She says she was not standing
on the road.
"I did the right thing," said
Marrero, a 2015 graduate of Williams College in Massachusetts. "I have
no doubt in my mind that I did nothing wrong."
Tensions
between black citizens and police have risen palpably over the past
week or so amid police shootings of African-American men in Minnesota
and Louisiana and the gunning down of five white police officers by a
black suspect in Dallas in apparent retaliation.
Among
those arrested was DeRay Mckesson, a leading figure in the Black Lives
Matter movement that blossomed in recent years in the wake of numerous
deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police. Mckesson smiled and
embraced supporters upon his release from jail Sunday afternoon.
"I
remain disappointed in the Baton Rouge police, who continue to provoke
protesters for peacefully protesting. There's a lot of work to be done,
with this police department specifically," he said.
Authorities
had just arrested a couple on a motorcycle driving by on the street
when attention turned toward Mckesson, who had traveled from Baltimore
for the protest and happened to be wearing bright red shoes. An officer
could be seen pointing to a man and heard saying that he'd arrest the
man with "loud shoes" if he could reach him.
Booking
documents provided by the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office said
Mckesson was arrested on a charge of obstructing a highway.
An
affidavit of probable cause filed by police says Mckesson
"intentionally" placed himself in the road after protesters were
repeatedly warned via police loud speaker to remain on private property
or the curb.
"During the protest, the
defendant entered the roadway and was provided another verbal order to
exit the lanes of travel. Moments later, the defendant entered the
roadway again and was taken into custody by officers on scene without
incident," the affidavit said.
Activist
Brittany Packett, who was with Mckesson, said in an email that he was on
the highway shoulder when "multiple police crossed onto the shoulder,
tackling Deray and arresting him."
Photo
images taken by The Associated Press show police apprehending Mckesson,
who at one point was on his knees before being pulled to his feet by
police and led away with his hands secured behind his back.
Baton
Rouge police blamed violence and out-of-town agitators for the large
number of arrests, noting that an earlier march the same evening was
peaceful and nobody was arrested.
One police
officer lost teeth to a projectile thrown from the protest Saturday
night outside police headquarters, and police also confiscated three
rifles, three shotguns and two pistols during that protest, Sgt. Don
Coppola, a police spokesman, said in an emailed statement.
"It
appears the protest at Baton Rouge Police Headquarters have become more
violent as out of town protesters are arriving," he wrote.
The
list released by the sheriff's office included two homeless people and
18 from out of state, including Mckesson. The vast majority of the
Louisiana residents were from the Baton Rouge and New Orleans areas.
It
was not clear just what police blamed on "out of town protesters." Only
one person from outside the Baton Rouge area faced a charge other than
obstructing a highway.
Three people - two from
Baton Rouge and one from Humble, Texas - face a charge of inciting to
riot, and four - all from the Baton Rouge area - face a charge of
resisting arrest.
Darren Bowers, 26, of Baton
Rouge, arrived at the jail around 9 a.m. Sunday to see if he could get
his girlfriend, 26-year-old Ariel Bates, released. Bowers wasn't present
when Bates was arrested near police headquarters. Bowers said she
called him from the jail early Sunday.
"She told me that they jumped all on her and her cousin on the grass. They weren't on the street or anything," Bowers said.
He said he believes police are "antagonizing" protesters.
"People are peacefully protesting. Why are (police) in riot gear?" he said.
The
tumult over police killings reached well beyond Louisiana. In
Minnesota, police arrested about 100 people in the capital of St. Paul
during protests. Authorities said 21 St. Paul officers and six state
troopers were hurt late Saturday and early Sunday during clashes
stemming from the police shooting and killing of Philando Castile, a
32-year-old black man, during a traffic stop in suburban St. Paul on
Wednesday.
The starting point of Saturday's
demonstration was the convenience store where 37-year-old Alton Sterling
was shot and killed last week. Protesters then fanned out to the Baton
Rouge police department and the state Capitol.
The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into Sterling's death.
Shouting
"No justice! No peace!" roughly 1,000 protesters gathered outside the
police department, waving homemade signs as passing cars honked their
support.
Police in riot gear came out numerous
times as the demonstration wore on into the evening, facing off against
the crowd that yelled slogans and waved signs.
Authorities said they pulled in officers from nearby parishes to buttress their numbers.
WAFB-TV
reporter Chris Slaughter was among those arrested, Hicks confirmed. Eve
Troeoh, news director for New Orleans public radio station WWNO, said
staff reporter Ryan Kailath was arrested.
Breitbart News reported that Lee Stranahan, one of its reporters, was arrested.
Members
of the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense called for the arrest
and indictment of the officers involved in Sterling's shooting, shouting
"Black Power" and raising their fists.
"These
are human rights violations," Krystal Muhammad shouted to the crowd at
the convenience store before heading over to the police department.
"They are not operating as human beings. They are being predators on our
communities across America."
