'Black Lives Matter' protesters take to streets in US

EghtesadOnline: Black Lives Matter' protests have resumed across the US with protesters demonstrating over the recent police killings of two African Americans.

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11 July 2016

According to ISNA, On Tuesday, 37-year-old Alton Sterling was fatally shot by police in the southeastern city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana and 32-year-old Philando Castile was shot dead Wednesday by a police officer near St. Paul, Minnesota.

On Saturday, protesters held demonstrations in Baton Rouge and some of them were arrested by police in riot gear.

The protesters marched along the right lane of Airline Highway until police blocked all six lanes of traffic and began walking toward the demonstrators.

They were chanting, "black power" and "no justice, no peace, no racist police."

Some protesters were wearing T-shirts that read, "I can't keep calm I have a black son" or "Black Lives Matter."

In Minnesota, demonstrators took over a highway and a crowd marched onto Interstate 94, where they clashed with police after they refused to leave.

Some were chanting, "we ain't scared" and some others were repeating Philando Castile.

People were "throwing objects at officers, dumping liquid on officers," police said on Twitter, adding three officers were injured.

Police told the crowd, "leave the interstate now or you'll be subject to a use of force."

Similar rallies were held in Washington, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Minneapolis, New York and Miami.

Protesters gather in front of LAPD headquarters in response to the police shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castille.

In Washington, people marched through the city chanting, "We young. We strong. We marching all night on."

In San Francisco, New York and Minneapolis, hundreds of demonstrators blocked highways. In Miami, protesters blocked a major thoroughfare, presstv reported.

Saturday’s protests followed demonstrations on Friday and similar ones on Thursday night in Dallas, Texas, where an armed US army reservist shot dead five white police officers and wounded seven others in an apparent retaliation for repeated police killings of unarmed African Americans across the country.

The shooter, identified as Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, had served as an Army reservist from March 2009 until April 2015.

According to Dallas Police Chief David O. Brown, Johnson “was upset about Black Lives Matter. He said he was upset about the recent police shootings."