Trump groups clash with counter protesters in ugly scenes in US capital
Supporters of US President Donald Trump have once again taken to the streets with unfounded claims the 2020 US election was rigged.
Organisers of Stop The Steal, linked to pro-Trump operative Roger Stone, and church groups urged supporters to participate in "Jericho Marches" and prayer rallies.
But groups of pro-Trump "Proud Boys" protesters and "Antifa" counter-protesters brawled in downtown Washington on Saturday night (local time) with ugly scenes unfolding in the street as night fell.
Police moved in quickly to separate them, using pepper spray on members of both sides, witnesses told Reuters.
Around 200 members of the Proud Boys, a violent far-right group, had joined the marches earlier on Saturday near the Trump hotel. Many wore combat fatigues, black and yellow shirts and ballistic vests, carried helmets and flashed hand signals used by white nationalists.
Earlier, police in riot gear and on bicycles kept the opposing demonstrators apart by blocking streets.
After dark fell, the protesters – including members of the aggressive far-left anti-facism movement – splintered into smaller groups to roam the streets in search of their rivals.
Protests were also held in other communities around the country, including Atlanta, Georgia, another state where Trump's campaign has sought to overturn Joe Biden's election victory, and Mobile, Alabama, according to local news coverage.
Local media in the Washington state capital of Olympia reported that one person was shot and three arrested after clashes between pro and anti-Trump protest groups.
This was first of a few arrests at BLMPlaza. No one knows reason #DCProtests #DefendDC pic.twitter.com/wrYDz5NI9O
— ChuckModi (@ChuckModi1) December 12, 2020
Trump's supporters carrying his campaign flags and signs marched between the Supreme Court, the Capitol and downtown Washington, which was closed to traffic by police vehicles and dump trucks.
Few of the marchers wore masks, despite soaring Covid-19 deaths and cases, defying a mayoral directive for them to be worn outside. Several thousand people rallied in Washington, fewer than during a similar protest last month.
As some in the crowd echoed far right conspiracy theories about the election, a truck-pulled trailer flew Trump 2020 flags and a sign reading "Trump Unity" while blaring the country song "God Bless the USA."
"It's clear the election has been stolen," said Mark Paul Jones of Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania, who sported a tricorn Revolutionary War hat as he walked toward the Supreme Court with his wife.
Trump "is being railroaded out of office," he said, adding that Biden won with the complicity of the Supreme Court, FBI, Department of Justice and CIA.
The Supreme Court "didn't even take the time to hear the case," Mr Jones said.
Eddy Miller of Philadelphia, who was selling Trump campaign T-shirts, said he was sure "there was fraud despite what I see on the news" about court rulings striking down fraud allegations.
Some protesters referenced the Biblical miracle of the battle of Jericho, in which the walls of the city crumbled after soldiers and priests blowing horns marched around it.
Ron Hazard of Morristown, New Jersey, was one of five people who stopped at the Justice Department to blow shofars - a ram's horn used in Jewish religious ceremonies - to bring down "the spiritual" walls "of corruption."
"We believe what is going on in this county is an important thing. It's a balance between biblical values and anti-biblical values," Mr Hazard said.
His small group, including one member who wore a Jewish prayer shawl known as a tallit, are Christians "who love the Jewish people. We love Israel," he said.
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