Black Lives Matter protesters were kicked and pushed down the steps of the Oregon Capitol on Saturday ahead of rallies by anti-COVID-lockdown group Open Up Oregon and the religious group Ones Purpose.
The Statesman Journal reports: “The opposing sides of a few hundred protesters were clearly separated from each other early, with a Black Lives Matter group sitting on the steps on the west side of the Capitol’s steps and the other sides on the center and the top rung. Several people reported seeing state police officers looking out from the glass doors of the Capitol, but they did not interfere.”
William Jones of Black Lives Matter told the paper: “And why was the police not out there? Why did they allow these grown men with Bowie knives on the side of their pockets to do that? That’s the whole point, why did that happen that these people we voted in to protect us? Where are the police at? Now we have to police our own community. They showed us that today.”
