100 arrested, 2 dozen officers hurt in Minnesota

Police detained some 102 people while 21cops were injured at a violent rally that saw Interstate 94 blocked in in Saint Paul, Minnesota, amid nationwide protests following the deadly shooting of policemen in Dallas last week over recent police killings of black men.

St. Paul Police Department officers started using glass balls with smoke and marking rounds on aggressors.

Authorities said 21 St. Paul officers and six state troopers were hurt during the fracas late Saturday and early Sunday.

The violence perpetrated by some of the protesters against the police prompted denouncement in the strongest terms by St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Police Chief Todd Axtell, who called the pelting of officers with rocks, bottles and other items “a disgrace”. Until then, the protests of the last few days have been lawful and peaceful. The protesters were rallying in response to the death of Philando Castile, who wa…

According to Fox 9, protesters also hurled bricks, glad bottles, construction rebar and liquids at the officers.

St. Paul police said on the department’s official Twitter account that an officer was injured by a firework thrown by protesters.

Something similar happened during the Jamar Clark protests in Minneapolis last December, when the demonstration was joined by a number of “anarchists” who came from outside the Twin Cities and threw molotov cocktails over police walls.

Officers arrested 50 people for 3rd degree riot on I-94 and another 52 during an incident at approximately 4 a.m.at Grand and Dale.

In Minnesota, Mike Martin, who wore a guitar on his back and said he was trying to promote peace, was pepper sprayed by a police officer on a pedestrian bridge overlooking the interstate.

A almost all-white congregation of about 170 filled Falcon Heights United Church of Christ for an evening service of “prayer and lament”, a half-mile from where Castile was killed.

KARE 11 reported that the group marched from the governor’s mansion in St. Paul around 7 p.m. The Minnesota State Patrol failed to stop them from entering the freeway around 7:30 p.m.

Eugene Puryear, the march organizer, said the shooting of five police officers in Dallas on Thursday was tragic but inevitable because of police violence against African-Americans. Swenson said the meeting was “very cordial”, but Dayton would not comment further. “The next march in Dallas, I guarantee they’re going to have sniper teams all along the march, cops with high-powered rifles, to see if anyone is going to be a copycat”, Lally said.

Tensions flared up in Minnesota as dozens of people took to the street in another night of protests.