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The protests took place in downtown Northampton around 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and involved hundreds of people primarily belonging to either a Trump/Back the Blue group or a pro-democracy/anti-police brutality group.
A lot of conflicting information has been reported about the incident. On Monday, a little before noon, Northampton Police released a statement and rundown of the events. Northampton Police did not label the political leanings of the people involved in any of the incidents.
One injury was reported.
The rallies resulted in two or three physical altercations, depending on how you count it. The rallies had been largely peaceful until around 2:30 p.m. All of the physical altercations reported by police happened around the same time.
“While working these events, our goal is to provide security and traffic control for individuals as they engage in their right to free speech,” Northampton Police said in a statement. “In these times of escalated political and social tension, this task can be challenging.”
The most serious incident involved a fight that broke out between protesters. Officers allegedly observed a man on the ground being punched by two other men, police said.
Northampton Police used pepper spray to break up the fight.
One of the men who had been punching the man on the ground fled. As people gathered around the incident, police deployed pepper spray again because “officers believed that a larger physical disturbance was about [to] break out,” police said.
Officers were then able to move the man who had been punched away from the area.
Protesters surrounded the officer escorting the man and allegedly pushed both the officer and the man to the ground. Protesters were allegedly on top of the officer, police said.
The officer deployed his pepper spray to disperse the crowd, police said.
The man who had been punched reported a left elbow injury, scrapes to his arm, and discomfort from the pepper spray, police said. He was transported to the hospital for treatment.
At around the same time as this was going on, police were investigating an initial report that a vehicle had driven through a group of people and a male pedestrian had been struck by the vehicle, police said.
The pedestrian told police that he was crossing Main Street when he saw a projectile thrown in his direction from the passenger side of a vehicle, police said. The pedestrian began to yell at the people in the vehicle and the crowd surrounded them. The driver then allegedly accelerated forward, police said.
It is unclear whether the pedestrian was struck by the vehicle, police said. Police stopped the vehicle on Pleasant Street, but it is not reported if anything came of it. The pedestrian did not report any injuries, police said.
In addition to these incidents, police also reported:
At 12:40 p.m. a caller reported a man driving a pick-up-truck shouted derogatory and threatening statements at the crowd.
1:19 p.m. Police saw a man remove flags from an RV and threw them on the ground. Another man came by and rehung the flags.
2:31 p.m. A caller reported that someone struck his vehicle with a fist. No damage was observed.
2:40 p.m. Officers received a report that some protesters were pouring a “toxic substance" into smaller bottles.
In addition to Northampton Police and Fire departments, the Massachusetts State Police, and Easthampton Police responded to incidents at the Sunday protests.
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