Anti-Trump group Refuse Facism calls for nationwide protests on Saturday as chaotic summer grinds on

The anti-Trump group Refuse Fascism staged a series of protests across the United States on Saturday, as America’s chaotic and turbulent summer continued.

Over two dozen protests were scheduled, 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 U.S.

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. 

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. 

In Kentucky, armed supporters of the police and anti-racism protesters squared off near the famed Kentucky Derby horse race on Saturday, as dueling demonstrations over racial justice and policing continued to grind on across U.S. cities.

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.