A solidarity protest in San Francisco turned violent

San Francisco: A protest in San Francisco that began Sunday evening as a calm gathering to show solidarity with immigration protests in Los Angeles quickly turned violent with protesters and police officers physically fighting on a downtown street.

The gathering began outside the offices of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office on Sansome Street in the shadow of the TransAmerica Pyramid. One protester was dressed as a flamboyant Statue of Liberty while others waved Pride flags and carried signs including "Softball Dad Against Tyranny."

But the peaceful, colorful atmosphere grew dark when some protesters led a march up Sansome Street to a line of San Francisco Police Department officers dressed in riot gear and holding batons.

At least one protester hurled an egg in the officers' direction. Another threw a glass bottle that shattered on the ground just behind the officers. The group chanted, "Fascist pigs, off our streets!" and "Why are you in riot gear? We don't see a riot here."

The protesters moved in closer, some coming within inches of the officers' masks. After a tense standoff, dozens more police officers in riot gear ran down the hill to join their colleagues, and others sped past on motorcycles.

Protesters picked up metal barricades and pushed them toward the officers who pushed them back, both sides grasping the same blockades and ramming them at each other. Soon, it appeared both sides were brawling.

The San Francisco Police Department did not respond to questions about the clash and how many arrests had been made.

Spear Mintech, 35, was carrying a cardboard sign reading, "This is what a police state looks like." He was near the front of the group of protesters and said several officers hit him in the chest with closed fists as they tried to push the crowd back.

"I think they were frustrated with us exercising our freedom of speech," he said. "It seemed like they were angry and just wanted to hit me. They were very eager to be violent."

He said he had been so disturbed by President Donald Trump sending National Guard troops into Los Angeles to quell protests that he searched online to see whether any protests of solidarity were happening in San Francisco -- and found this one.

Courtney Liss, a 31-year-old trial lawyer, said she joined the protest because she has been outraged by reports that families lacking permanent legal status who were obeying orders to check in at immigration court were being picked up by ICE agents after they arrived.

City Supervisor Jackie Fielder, who represents the heavily Latino Mission district, said last week that children, including one as young as 3, had been detained by ICE agents at the San Francisco courthouse.

Liss said she was standing to the side of the protest Sunday when police charged forward.

"They were shoving people back, and they shoved me into a fire hydrant," she said. "I got hit with a baton three times."

She said it was notable that when she attended a recent protest conducted by lawyers, all in suits, there was no response from the police department.

During Sunday's clash, an officer repeatedly called out instructions through a loudspeaker, but the sound was so garbled, the words were difficult to understand. It appeared to be a dispersal order.

As the clash went on, some protesters tried to lead others away to calm the tension, but others seemed ready to fight. A few threw garbage cans and traffic cones into the middle of the street and one was spotted smashing the glass window of Chase Bank.

Up and down Sansome Street there was graffiti, including "Death to ICE" and "Kill a Cop." Some protesters continued along Market Street as officers trailed them. At 9 p.m., the Bay Area Rapid Transit system shut down one of its downtown subway stations as a result of what it said was a "civil disturbance."