Trump lambastes violence at Labor Day weekend BLM demonstrations AGAIN

President Donald Trump lambasted Black Lives Matter demonstrations that were held in several US cities over Labor Day weekend by tweeting a two-month-old compilation video of protesters attacking police. 

On Monday morning Trump retweeted a post from July 11 which showed a handful of different scenes from various protests that have taken place over America’s turbulent summer.  

‘A so-called peaceful protest!’ the president wrote. 

In one of the clips, a crowd of people are seen hurling bricks at a police patrol car, while a second shows a man facing off with officers clad in riot gear and others show people fleeing from cans of tear gas. 

Trump’s latest tweet came hours after he panned ‘Democrats’ “peaceful protests”‘ when sharing a video of a protester who accidentally set himself on fire with his own Molotov cocktail on Saturday night in Portland. 

Over the course of the summer the president has repeatedly hit out at ‘anarchists and agitators’ taking to the streets to decry police brutality and racism. 

While the majority of the protests have been peaceful, some have descended into violence after nightfall as demonstrators clashed with law enforcement. 

Such was the case during Portland’s 100th night of protests on Saturday, which saw  demonstrators ignite Molotov cocktails during stand-offs with police firing tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper balls into the crowds. 

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Labor Day weekend protests: Portland 

Fifty-nine people people were arrested in Portland on Saturday after hundreds of people marched toward a police precinct and department officials declared a riot. 

Around midnight, the Portland Police Bureau noted that people were marching near Ventura Park as part of ‘unpermitted’ demonstration. 

But just minutes later, authorities said that some groups were engaging in ‘tumultuous and violent conduct’ and labeled the demonstration a ‘riot’.

In one video, officers implored residents to disperse from the area as Molotov cocktails crashed against the pavement and flames erupted. 

Seconds later, a Molotov cocktail dropped dangerously close to a protester standing in the roadway. 

Gasps rippled through the crowd as the man rushed out of the inferno with both of his feet on fire. He desperately tried to kick the fire away as other demonstrators rushed over to help him.  

Trump included a portion of that video in his tweet condemning the protests on Sunday. In the background of his version someone added the theme song from ‘Footloose’.

While the president placed the blame for the violence squarely on the protesters, other videos showed how it was escalated by aggressive police tactics. 

Footage showed lines of officers clad in riot gear moving in on the crowds. In a few cases, officers were seen sprinting after fleeing protesters, pinning to the ground and cuffing them as witnesses shouted taunts and insults.  

The Oregonian reported that traces of blood were visible on the ground where officers had pinned and detained residents. 

The unrest continued on Sunday as protesters blocked traffic outside the North Precinct and chanted ‘burn it down’ as they lit fires in the streets.  

The Portland Police Bureau issued a warning on Twitter shortly after 10pm, telling protesters not to go near the precinct.  

‘If you enter the property, you are trespassing and subject to arrest, citation, and/or the use of crowd control munitions,’ the bureau wrote. 

Firefighters were called to the scene a short time later to put out fires at the protest site, according to police, who urged protesters to move away from the blaze.

One video from the scene showed what appeared to be a mattress engulfed in flames as crowds chanted ‘burn it down’ in reference to the precinct.  

Earlier in the weekend, hundreds of people gathered in a park just north of Portland in Vancouver, Washington, for a memorial service for Aaron ‘Jay’ Danielson. 

Danielson, a supporter of a right-wing group called Patriot Prayer, was shot and killed August 29 after a pro-Trump caravan cruised through downtown Portland. 

The suspected killer, 48-year-old Michael Reinoel, was fatally shot by police as they moved in to arrest him last Thursday.  

Trump used the shooting of Danielson to support his efforts to shut down Black Lives Matter protests as he tweeted a tribute last week, writing: ‘Rest In Peace Jay!’ 

The president had retweeted Women for Trump co-founder Amy Kremer, who wrote: ‘This is Jay Bishop. He was a good American that loved his country and Backed the Blue. He was murdered in Portland by ANTIFA. Jay, we will never forget you. Rest In Peace my friend.’

Rochester 

Residents in Rochester, New York, gathered for the fourth night in a row on Saturday to protest the death of Daniel Prude, a 29-year-old black man who was shot seven times in the back by law enforcement.

Police used batons, pepper balls and tear gas to push back about 2,000 protesters who marched toward the Public Safety Building on Saturday night, chanting ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Daniel Prude’ – a reference to the Black man who died after an encounter with police in March.

The Rochester Police Department said in a statement that protesters had ignored their orders to disperse, and that some hurled bottles, rocks and fireworks at officers.

Fox News reports that 11 people and three officers were injured on Friday night as tensions flared the night before.

On Friday, a large group of Black Lives Matter protesters surrounded a restaurant diners were eating. 

Many look terrified as demonstrators smashed the customer’s glasses in front of their faces, broke plates, overturned chairs and chanted at them to get out.

‘We’re shutting your party down,’ one woman is seen shouting in the face of a diner, in footage taken by FreedomNewsTV.

One woman whose clothing got caught up as she tried to run from the incoming crowd.

‘No need to run,’ a protester told her. ‘Nobody is hurting you. Nobody’s going to touch you…we’re shutting the party down.’

The crowd chants, ‘If you don’t give us our s***,’ we shut s*** down.’       

Later, pepper balls were fired at demonstrators, a bus stop was set on fire and authorities declared the event an ‘unlawful assembly.’ 

Pittsburgh 

In Pittsburgh, officers were forced to stand guard outside Mayor Bill Peduto’s home on Saturday night as a group of demonstrators gathered outside with lights and bells and called for action against local law enforcement. 

Around 100 people met in the East Liberty neighborhood for ‘Civil Saturdays,’ the name given to their continued protests, they traveled through downtown.

The Post-Gazzette reports that Saturday’s demonstration was meant to disrupt restaurant diners and residents with a call for Black Lives Matter.

‘Out of the bars and into the streets,’ the group chanted. 

They eventually rounded to Peduto’s home after criminal charges were filed against four protest leaders.

People outside his home held signs reading ‘Defund the Police’ and flashed flashlights into windows.

At one point, protest leader Nique Craft stood in front of an apartment building to address residents watching the protest from their balconies.

‘Four people were arrested just for doing exactly this,’ she said. 

Tensions flared on the trek to Peduto’s home after one restaurant employee reportedly told members of the protest to ‘go back to their own country.’

Once outside Peduto’s home, demonstrators were met with a half-dozen Pittsburgh police officers standing in front of the mayor’s door.

After standing there for a short time, Post-Gazzette reports that officers began putting on their riot helmets.

‘I don’t see a riot here why are you in riot gear?’ protesters chanted in response.

The group eventually left Peduto’s home and the demonstration peacefully dispersed just after 10pm.

On Sunday video emerged of protesters screaming in the face of white elderly outdoor diners. 

Cellphone footage showed the crowd taking over the outdoor dining space with one person even approaching the older couple’s table before drinking their beer in front of them; another smashed a glass from a table. 

One protester tells the diners: ‘F**k the white people that built the system.’ He adds: ‘F*** 12′; a reference to police. Others eating at the restaurant pick up their belonging and leave after demonstrators call them an ’embarrassment’. 

A second video taken in Pittsburgh showed a demonstrator speaking with a megaphone while walking next to a cyclist. 

It’s unclear what is said, but the demonstrator nudges the cyclist with his megaphone. The cyclist swats the demonstrator in response, but a second protester hits the man from behind. 

Police in Pittsburgh are said to have launched an investigation into both clips.     

Tallahassee  

The Sunshine State’s capital saw officers clad in riot gear arrest 15 people on Saturday amid protests over three police-involved shootings on Saturday.

A Leon County Grand Jury this week determined that that shootings of Tony McDade, Mychael Johnson and Wilbon Woodard were justified, prompting outrage from local residents.

The Leon County Grand Jury, which is made up of 21 randomly selected residents, is tasked with using evidence like body camera footage and cell phone footage to determine if the killings were criminal. 

WXTL reports that the protest was fairly calm until officers pulled over a female driver in front of the Capitol Building for allegedly driving too slow.

Officers told the woman she would receive a ticket, but protesters who witnessed the exchange chanted ‘no,no,no!’

A shoving match reportedly broke out between officers and protesters. At least one officer was hit and some residents were treated for injuries at a local hospital.  

New York City 

Over two dozen protests were scheduled over Labor Day weekend, with large gatherings happening in Los Angeles and New York.

Holding aloft orange placards and banners reading ‘Trump/Pence out now’, they marched through cities across the US.

In New York City’s Union Square, one protester hoisted a giant image of Trump as a devil on his shoulders.

The New York City march then wove through Manhattan, heading up towards Times Square. 

Washington DC 

In Washington DC, protesters took to the streets on skateboards, on bicycles and on foot, heading for Lafayette Square and the White House.

President Donald Trump spent Saturday playing golf at his course in Sterling, Virginia, and so was not home for their noisy demonstration.

The crowd held aloft the orange placards, and posed for photos in front of the White House.

Some had hand-made signs demanding the defunding of police, and an end to police brutality.

Outside Trump’s golf course, meanwhile, rival pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators waved their flags.

Some brandished Biden-Harris banners, while others held flags in support of the president. 

Louisville 

In Kentucky, armed supporters of the police and anti-racism protesters squared off near the famed Kentucky Derby horse race on Saturday. 

As the afternoon wore on, a large group of protesters marched toward the Churchill Downs track chanting ‘No Justice, No Derby’ – a nod to an earlier call by activists for the historic race in Louisville, Kentucky, to be canceled. 

The race was being held without spectators to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Earlier on Saturday, some of the counter-protesters outside Churchill Downs, brandishing pistols and long guns, squared off with a group of Black Lives Matter protesters and got into shoving matches. 

People on both sides screamed, faces inches apart. After about 45 minutes, police cleared the people from the park, but the protests outside Churchill Downs continued.

The counter-protesters included about 250 pro-police demonstrators called ‘The Angry Vikings,’ who were armed and dressed in tactical gear.

Demonstrations against racism and police brutality have swept the United States since May 25 when George Floyd, a Black man, died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. 

Meanwhile, a group of about 200 members of NFAC — a black militia group which has protested against police killings of black people — had gathered at a park just outside Churchill Downs and were inspecting their weapons, with the Derby preliminaries well underway inside. 

Most of the NFAC militia members came from Georgia, according to a local reporter, Travis Ragsdale 

NFAC, which stands for ‘Not F***ing Around Coalition,’ was in the city in July protesting injustice in the Breonna Taylor case.

Organizers said they would return if Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron didn’t complete the investigation into Breonna Taylor’s death. 

Louisville has emerged as one flashpoint in a summer of unrest due to the death of Taylor, a black 26-year-old woman who was killed when the city’s police burst into her apartment with a ‘no-knock’ arrest warrant in March.  

‘When they start the race, ain’t nobody going to be enjoying themselves,’ NFAC leader John ‘Grandmaster Jay’ Johnson said. 

‘You see, they’re looking at us right now. They really don’t give a damn about no race. 

‘Louisville, y’all brought this on yourself.’

Johnson then led the group back to G.G. Moore Park, where the NFAC’s march began, shortly before the running of the Derby. 

As the NFAC did a ‘weapons check’ before the start of the march at G.G. Moore Park, WDRB reported that one of the leaders only wanted people with long weapons.

‘If you’re only carrying a pistol, you will not be allowed in this formation,’ he reportedly said.