Rival groups square off at Kentucky Derby as summer of protests grinds on

In the afternoon, hundreds of protesters marched toward the Churchill Downs track chanting "No Justice, No Derby" - a nod to activist's calls to cancel the annual race, which was being held without spectators to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Separately, roughly 250 members of a Black militia group named NFAC that has protested against the police killings of Black people assembled outside Churchill Downs, all armed with long guns.

Armed supporters of the police clashed briefly with anti-racism protesters in Louisville ahead of the famed Kentucky Derby horse race on Saturday, as dueling demonstrations over racial justice and policing continued to grind across the United States. In the afternoon, hundreds of protesters marched toward the Churchill Downs track chanting "No Justice, No Derby" - a nod to activist's calls to cancel the annual race, which was being held without spectators to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Separately, roughly 250 members of a Black militia group named NFAC that has protested against the police killings of Black people assembled outside Churchill Downs, all armed with long guns. NFAC leader John "Grandmaster Jay" Johnson taunted the officers standing guard in front of the track, but the group later retreated without incident. Louisville has emerged as a key flashpoint in a summer of unrest because of outrage over the death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was killed in March when the city's police burst into her apartment using a so-called "no-knock" arrest warrant that did not require them to announce themselves.

Sadiqa Reynolds, president of the Louisville Urban League, said that while the protesters' goal of cancelling the race was not achieved she believes their demands, which include holding officers involved in Taylor's death accountable, were heard. "Today was a show of force from the community of Lousiville to say that enough is enough," she told Reuters. "We are tired of our lives not mattering."

Earlier on Saturday, a group of counterprotesters, brandishing pistols and long guns, squared off with Black Lives Matter protesters and got into shoving matches in a park downtown. People on both sides screamed, faces inches apart. After about 45 minutes, police cleared the people from the park, but the protests outside Churchill Downs continued. The counterprotesters included about 250 pro-police demonstrators, including Dylan Stevens, who goes by the nickname "The Angry Viking" and claims to lead a group of what he calls "Patriots." According to his website, Stevens supports Republican President Donald Trump, the police, the military and the right to bear arms.

Stevens, who was armed and dressed in tactical gear, told protesters he was not there to oppose them, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. He said his group had come because of a threat made by NFAC leader Johnson in July to "burn the city to the ground" if justice was not done in the Taylor case, the Courier-Journal reported. EPICENTER

Demonstrations against racism and police brutality have swept the United States since May 25 when George Floyd, a Black man, died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. In Rochester, New York, about 2,000 protesters marched toward the Public Safety Building on Saturday night chanting "Black Lives Matter" and "Daniel Prude" - a reference to the Black man who died after an encounter with police in March.

Rochester, a city of 200,000 people in the state's northwest corner, erupted with protests this week after the Prude family released body camera footage from his arrest showing he had been pinned to the pavement and restrained with a hood. In Portland, Oregon, where protests have been ongoing for three months, officials were bracing for another night of unrest. Police arrested 27 people on Friday, mostly on charges of interfering with law enforcement or disorderly conduct.

Police shot and killed a self-declared anti-fascist activist in Washington state on Thursday night as they moved in to arrest him on suspicion he fatally shot Aaron Danielson, a right-wing counterprotester, last weekend in Portland. On Saturday afternoon, hundreds of friends of Danielson gathered in a park in Vancouver, Washington, north of Portland, to memorialize his life, cut short at 39 years, according to a Reuters witness.

This week, both Trump and his Democratic challenger in the Nov. 3 presidential election, former Vice President Joe Biden, visited Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Midwestern city was the site of clashes among protesters, police and militia after a white policeman there shot Black man Jacob Blake in the back multiple times, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. In a video released by his lawyer on Saturday, Blake urged people to appreciate the sanctity of life.

"Please, I'm telling you, change our lives out there, we can stick together, make some money, make everything easier for our people out here man, because there is so much time that has been wasted," Blake said from his hospital bed.