ST. PAUL, MINN. — Police efforts to thwart large protests outside the Republican National Convention on Thursday night led to a clash less than a mile from the arena that resulted in "a couple of hundred" arrests, authorities said.
The confrontation capped four days of demonstrations here; in the previous three days, nearly 400 people were arrested.
Cmdr. Doug Holtz of the St. Paul Police Department said he thought "a couple of hundred" people had been arrested Thursday night, but the exact numbers wouldn't be known until today. As of 10:30 p.m. local time, the Ramsey County jail reported that about 90 demonstrators had been booked on charges stemming from the protests.
The trouble began in the early evening after an afternoon demonstration. Several hundred people had rallied at the state Capitol, about a mile from the Xcel Energy Center, where Sen. John McCain would accept his party's presidential nomination.
About 5 p.m., when their protest permit expired, they tried to march to the convention center. Apparently anticipating that move, authorities had blocked at least two of the bridges that demonstrators needed to cross with snowplows, gravel trucks and hundreds of police officers in riot gear.
Police repeatedly ordered demonstrators to get off the street. Many moved to the sidewalk and some dispersed, but a few dozen did not.
About two hours later, around 7:30 p.m., police began to arrest those who remained in the street. That seemed to energize the crowd, which began to move back toward the Capitol, witnesses said. Police followed.
Two groups of demonstrators merged at a line of police who were blocking another bridge over Interstate 94, which separated the area from downtown. Part of the group began to move down side streets, trailed by police.
Police fired the first tear gas canisters near a McDonald's adjacent to the Capitol. It was unclear what triggered that action.
An estimated 150 to 200 people started running toward another bridge, farther away from the Xcel Energy Center, hoping to get across. Police pursued them on horseback, all-terrain vehicles and bicycles. A handful of people who ran toward the bridge were pepper-sprayed.
"The police confronted them," said Steve Bristow, 58, who drove in from a suburb to watch the activity around the conventions. "They stopped them, and then they backed them into the corner."
