Police move in after fights break out during Georgia protest

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. (AP) — After several hours of mostly peaceful demonstrations Saturday in an Atlanta suburb that’s home to a giant Confederate memorial, large numbers of police moved in to disperse the crowds when fights broke out.

Several dozen right-wing demonstrators, some waving the Confederate battle flag and many wearing military gear, gathered in downtown Stone Mountain where they faced off against a few hundred counterprotesters, many of whom wore shirts or carried signs expressing support for the Black Lives Matter movement. People in both groups carried rifles. For several hours, there was little visible police presence and things were largely peaceful, aside from some shoving and pushing and spirited arguments.

But just before 1 p.m., fights broke out, with people punching and kicking each other and throwing rocks. That’s when police officers in riot gear moved in to disperse the crowds.

By 2 p.m., almost all of the protesters had left the area.



A man falls after being hit by counter demonstrators during a protest , Saturday, Aug. 15, 2020, in Stone Mountain Village, Ga. Several dozen people waving Confederate flags, many of them wearing military gear, gathered in downtown Stone Mountain where they faced off against a few hundred counterprotesters, many of whom wore shirts or carried signs expressing support for the Black Lives Matter movement. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)


Read more: https://apnews.com/cc42ee6ff8cb1c05278a1e2d7f045a2e

[marble falls]

1. I don't think knocking down amputees, crazy or not, is a good look for us.

[regnaD kciN]

3. We only have the caption's word...

...that this person was knocked down by "counterprotesters," and the automatic assumption that this means the leftist group. Not sure the image itself supports that -- the person on the ground seems to be surrounded by a bunch of white guys in khaki shorts (khakis have become part of the unofficial "uniform" of white nationalists, much to the annoyance of people like myself who have been wearing them for decades) and toting semiautomatic weapons, which doesn't suggest BLM to me.

[Polybius]

5. Here's a video of other fighting

Link to tweet

?s=20

[JohnnyRingo]

6. By all appearances of the pic..

..the old man got his licks in first. Can't ignore the shattered club in his hand and he could have been knocked down in self defense. Indeed, he's not the only one on the ground.

He didn't show up there to play some cricket.

[regnaD kciN]

2. "By 2 p.m., almost all of the protesters had left the area."

Do they mean all the protesters, or just the BLM side?

[Igel]

4. A variety of reports say "all."

They all given 3 minutes to clear out. Any left would be arrested.

They cleared out.