Salem protest: Multiple arrests after right-wing and anti-fascist rallies on Friday Connor Radnovich and Bill Poehler, Salem Statesman Journal
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Police declared an unlawful assembly and arrested three people Friday afternoon after people affiliated with Proud Boys and anti-fascists clashed in downtown Salem following concurrent peaceful protests earlier in the day.
Non-lethal munitions, including flash-bang grenades, were used to disperse the crowd, while Salem Police reported that smoke canisters and lit fireworks were thrown at them. At least one fight between counter-protesters also occurred before the groups were separated.
Credit Sergio Olmos / OPB
Demonstrations in Salem that devolved into tense confrontations downtown on New Year’s Day led to three arrests, the Salem Police Department said on Saturday.
“I’ve been doing crowd control with the Salem Police Department now about 15 years,” Salem Police Lt. Treven Upkes said of the Friday events. “For strictly just a Salem event, that was one of the largest we’d seen.”
Around 2 p.m. protesters marched from the Capitol to Mahonia Hall, the governor’s official residence. Police said many walked in the street, blocked intersections and splintered into different groups.
A group of Proud Boys, a far-right group that has attracted white supremacists and engaged in violence at other demonstrations, broke off toward Bush’s Pasture Park, where antifascist activists had staged a counter-protest. In an official statement Saturday, Salem police said both groups were armed.