Protests against police violence continue to spread nationwide

REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

BATON ROUGE, La./MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - Mostly peaceful protests against recent shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota by police officers spread to several U.S. cities on Saturday, though a protest in Baton Rouge saw scuffles between protesters and police. 

Undeterred by heightened concerns about safety at protests after a lone gunman killed five police officers in Dallas Thursday night, organizers went ahead with marches in the biggest metropolis, New York City, and Washington D.C., the nation's capital, among other cities. 

It was the third straight day of widespread protests after the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling, 37, by police in Baton Rouge on Tuesday and the death of Philando Castile, 32, on Wednesday night in a St. Paul, Minnesota suburb.

The most recent shooting deaths by police come after several years of contentious killings by law enforcement officers, including that of Michael Brown, a teenager whose death in the summer of 2014 caused riots and weeks of protests in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson. 

Hundreds of protesters marched through Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon without incident, though they were prevented by police from entering a music festival underway in the city.

A march in Baton Rouge saw scuffles between riot police and Black Panther activists, several of whom were carrying shotguns as Louisiana law allows for weapons to be carried openly. A police spokesman said several arrests were made and two weapons recovered during the confrontation. 

After a short standoff, protesters carried on with their march. A separate rally took place at the Louisiana state capitol.

Protests also took place Saturday in Nashville, where protesters briefly blocked a road, and in Indianapolis. 

Several hundred protesters marched from City Hall to Union Square in New York, carrying banners including "No Allegiance to Endless Bloodshed," and "No Allegiance to White Supremacy."

Some in the crowd chanted "No racist police, no justice, no peace" as rain fell in New York.

"I'm feeling very haunted very sad," said Lorena Ambrosio, 27, a Peruvian American and freelance artist, "and just angry that black bodies just keep piling and piling up."

(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Barber in New York; Writing by Nick Carey; Editing by Mary Milliken)

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