Demonstrators protest during May Day marches across the world
2 May 2016 3:41 PM IST2 May 2016 3:41 PM IST
Demonstrators in cities across the United States use the May Day occasion to rally against police violence.
Five Seattle police officers were injured and at least nine people arrested on Sunday night, after unruly demonstrators hurled projectiles and Molotov cocktails and broke windows, authorities said.- The rally in Los Angeles remained peaceful and drew smaller crowds than some past May Day demonstrations in the city, with several hundred people marching through downtown at one point but largely dispersing by midafternoon.
- The demonstration in America's second most populous city, which has a large immigrant population, came just days after protesters smashed the window of a police car and blocked traffic outside a Trump campaign event in Costa Mesa, California, 40 miles (64 km) southeast of Los Angeles.
- In Los Angeles, hundreds of people marched in a May Day rally that took aim at Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump for his anti-illegal immigration platform that includes building a wall along the US border with Mexico.
- Ten people were arrested, while one demonstrator and one officer were lightly injured in the scuffles, police said.
- Police estimated some 17,000 protesters marched throughout the French capital for a rally riding a wave of anger against planned labour reforms set to come before parliament on Tuesday.
- Thick clouds of tear gas hung above the Place de la Nation square in Paris where youths in balaclavas and ski masks lobbed cobblestones and bottles at black-clad riot troops shouting: 'Everyone hates the police.'
- From Moscow to Madrid, workers chanted demands for higher wages, better conditions and more job security as many countries battle economic uncertainty and high unemployment.
- Not only in the United States, the May Day protests continued at other places in the world as well. In France as well as Turkey, police fired tear gas at protesters as tensions erupted during May Day rallies Sunday, while thousands marched across the globe for the annual celebration of worker's rights.
- Authorities used 'blast balls' to disperse a crowd throwing rocks and bottles and breaking windows in a downtown neighbourhood, the Seattle Times newspaper reported, after they used pepper spray several times to break up throngs of demonstrators.
- They charged three people with assault, one with destruction of property and five with obstruction of justice.
- Police said they made arrests in several places and restrained one group in a parking lot, before allowing some groups to disperse, but would maintain a presence in the area.
- In posts on social media website Twitter, the Seattle police department said one officer had suffered a cut to the head as protesters hurled Molotov cocktails.
- It was 'deeply regrettable that in a city that goes to incredible lengths to respect First Amendment rights, there are some who disregard our values and engage in senseless acts of violence and property destruction,' he said later, referring to free speech protected by the US Constitution.
- Mayor Ed Murray blamed the 'senseless violence' in Seattle on a 'different crowd' from those who had attended an earlier peaceful May Day immigration march, however.
- Protesters gather every year on May 1 to focus attention on labour and immigration issues, but demonstrators in cities across the United States also used the occasion to rally against police violence.
Five Seattle police officers were injured and at least nine people arrested on Sunday night, after unruly demonstrators hurled projectiles and Molotov cocktails and broke windows, authorities said.
Demonstrators in cities across the United States use the May Day occasion to rally against police violence.
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