Far-right groups clash with anti-racism protesters in U.S. cities

Far-right demonstrators clashed with anti-racism protesters in several U.S. cities on Saturday, per USA Today.

Driving the news: In Portland, counter-protesters at a pro-police rally were “aiming pepper spray and firing some kind of pellet gun at people” as Black Lives Matter demonstrators marked an 80th straight day of protests, the Oregonian reports.

• At least one person was wounded after being “hit with a paintball fired from a paintball gun,” KGWB notes.
• There were reports of far-right groups “shooting blanks” and Portland police said one person allegedly fired a gun, but no one was injured, the news outlet added.

At the Oregon Capitol in Salem, “several people with the Black Lives Matter movement were shoved down steps and into a crowd of BLM protesters,” according to USA Today.

In Michigan, Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety “made multiple arrests” after several people were wounded during fights between the far-right Proud Boys group and anti-racism protesters in the city, WWMT reports.

• Michigan Rep. Fred Upton tweeted, “The Proud Boys are a hateful group with a hateful mission. They need to crawl back under whatever rock they came from. They have no place in Kalamazoo and no place in America.”
• MLive said one of its journalists was arrested while covering the clashes in Kalamazoo.

In Georgia, white nationalists scuffled with anti-racism protesters after being denied entry to Stone Mountain Park, which houses the largest Confederate monument in the U.S., per the New York Times.

• The City of Stone Mountain said Friday it would close the park in anticipation of the pro-Confederacy rally at the site — which is considered to be “a launching pad” for the 1915 “rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan,” according the Smithsonian.
• The city said while “minor altercations” did occur outside the park, the gatherings ended “with no injury, no arrests and no property damage.”

Go deeper: Dozens of Confederate symbols removed in wake of George Floyd’s death