Travis Miller raises a flag in front of Illinois State Police officers during an anti-police brutality protest.
About 200 anti-police brutality protesters march in the neighborhood of Bronzeville, in Chicago.
Police officers stand beside a mural for George Floyd in the neighborhood of Bronzeville.
Rabbi Michael Ben Yosef comforts Xavier Smith during an anti-police brutality protest.
Police officers stand beside a mural for George Floyd in the neighborhood of Bronzeville
More than two dozen protesters were arrested over clashes with cops in Chicago and Seattle Saturday as civil unrest over police brutality continued across the country.
Heated protests were reported in Chicago, where 24 demonstrators were arrested, according to WGN9.
Youth activist groups organized in downtown Chicago, where they were peppered sprayed as they demanded the defunding of the city’s police department and the abolishment of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
One of the groups, Good Kids, Mad City, posted to Twitter that two of their organizers were “beaten and arrested.” A video from the group appears to show officers kettling protesters on the street.
“Cops are separating & surrounding protesters! They won’t let people leave!” the group wrote on Twitter.
Four of the 24 arrests in the city were for felony battery of cops, David Brown, the superintendent of the CPD, said during a news briefing Saturday night.
Two protesters and 17 officers were treated for injuries, according to the department.
“An officer was beaten in the head several times with a skateboard,” Brown said.
The violence started later Saturday afternoon when “multiple agitators hijacked” what were until then peaceful protests, Brown said as he defended the response from cops.
“To protect the peaceful protesters, as well as their fellow officers, our officers responded proportionately to get the situation under control,” he said.
In Seattle, three people were arrested Friday night after a group of 100 or so protesters broke windows and graffitied storefronts in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, which has been the epicenter of the city’s demonstrations, the Seattle Times reported.
Windows were broken at T-Mobile and UPS stores along the city’s Broadway. Graffiti on the UPS reportedly read “Support the USPS,” a reference to the beleaguered postal service.
Democrats have accused President Trump of working to handicap the agency to prevent mail-in ballots during the November election.
“This is not the way to support the USPS,” one UPS employee told the Times. “We take USPS packages. We ship for the USPS.”
