POLICE in Portland, Oregon, used “flash bang” devices to disperse hundreds of right-wing and anti-fascist protesters this weekend.
There were four arrests during Saturday’s protest as officers seized “multiple weapons”.
The rally was the third in Portland this summer. Two previous events ended in bloody fistfights and riots, and one counter-protester suffered a skull fracture.
This time organisers from the Patriot Prayer group changed the venue from a federal plaza to a park so that supporters could carry concealed weapons.
Hundreds of anti-fascist activists gathered across the street, holding signs with messages such as: “Alt-right scum not welcome in Portland” and “Nazis go home”.
At around 2pm, riot police ordered people to disperse, saying rocks and bottles had been thrown at officers.
The events come after a Patriot Prayer sympathiser was charged with fatally stabbing two men who came to the defence of two young black women whom the attacker was accused of harassing on a light-rail train in May 2017.
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