A far-right activist shakeing hands with a Black Lives Matter activist during opposing rallies on the day of the Kentucky Derbyn Louisville — Reuters NEW YORK, Sept 06 (Reuters): Armed supporters of the police and anti-racism protesters squared off near the famed Kentucky Derby horse race on Saturday, as duelling demonstrations over racial justice and policing continued to grind on across US cities.
As the afternoon wore on, a large group of protesters marched toward the Churchill Downs track chanting "No Justice, No Derby" - a nod to an earlier call by activists for the historic race in Louisville, Kentucky, to be cancelled. The race was being held without spectators to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, a group of about 200 members of NFAC - a Black militia group which has protested against police killings of Black people - had gathered at a park just outside Churchill Downs and were inspecting their weapons, with the Derby preliminaries well underway inside.
Louisville has emerged as one flashpoint in a summer of unrest due to the death of Breonna Taylor, a Black 26-year-old woman who was killed when the city's police burst into her apartment with a "no-knock" arrest warrant in March.
Earlier on Saturday, some of the counterprotesters outside Churchill Downs, brandishing pistols and long guns, squared off with a group of Black Lives Matter protesters and got into shoving matches. 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, the leader of a group who goes by the nickname "The Angry Viking." According to his website, Stevens supports Republican President Donald Trump, the police, the military and the right to bear arms.
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