Dueling stories of protests ended with tear gas
PHOENIX >> Protests outside the Arizona Capitol over the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade that ended with a volley of tear gas were variously described Saturday as either peaceful or driven by anarchists intent on destruction.
Republican Senate President Karen Fann issued a news release describing it as a thwarted insurrection, and protesters called it a violent overreaction by police who they said acted without warning or justification.
Arizona Department of Public Safety statements said state troopers launched the gas as some in a group of 7,000 to 8,000 people that rallied at the Capitol on Friday night were trying to break into the state Senate. Lawmakers were working to finish their yearly session.
The vast majority of people were peaceful and state police said there were no arrests or injuries. Though both abortion opponents and abortion rights backers were there, most there opposed the high court's decision.
Police fired tear gas about 8:30 p.m. as dozens of people pressed up against the glass wall at the front of the Senate building, chanting and waving signs backing the right to abortion.
Though most were peaceful, a handful of people were banging on the windows, and one person forcefully tried to kick in a sliding glass door.
That's when SWAT team members with the Department of Public Safety stationed on the second floor of the old Capitol building fired the tear gas.
Video taken from inside the Senate lobby by Republican Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita showed the scene. Another she took moments later showed state police in riot gear forming a line inside the building, facing protesters on the other side of the glass.
She said in an interview with The Associated Press on Saturday morning that the protesters clearly were trying to enter the locked building.
Democratic state Rep. Athena Salman of Tempe, however, said those gassed were peaceful.
“A bunch of House and Senate Democrats voted to give these cops a huge pay raise,” said said on Twitter in a post showing police firing tear gas. “Some even called it historic. Remember that every time the cops gas peaceful protesters.”
State police said in a statement that what “began as a peaceful protest evolved into anarchical and criminal actions by masses of splinter group.” And they said they had issued multiple warnings for people to leave.