Tensions Rise During Rally Against White Supremacy In Dallas
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - An estimated 2,500 people, according to Dallas police, attended a planned rally against white supremacy in downtown Dallas at City Hall on Saturday evening. Tensions grew towards the end of the rally as protesters moved to a Confederate monument at Pioneer Park.
There was a heavy police presence in the area for extra precaution. Police responded to Pioneer Plaza to separate protesters and counter-protesters as part of the large crowd at City Hall split off towards the Confederate monument.
Some demonstrators have made their way over to the Confederate Monument where there's a large police presence surrounding the mounument. pic.twitter.com/gKxyM0ZmRR
— Brian New (@BrianNewCBS) August 20, 2017
Mounted patrol also responded to stand between demonstrators and the Confederate monument and push them away from the cemetery.
Wall of mounted @DallasPD officers on horses pushing the crowd back @CBSDFW pic.twitter.com/hdr4BTBhUV
— Yona Gavino (@YonaGavinoTV) August 20, 2017
Dallas police said just before 9:30 p.m. that the crowd at City Hall dwindled down to the hundreds with no disturbances.
Streets around City Hall reopened through the late evening as the rally came to an, overall, peaceful end.
Dallas police tweeted that five people were detained but then released without charges.
The rally aimed to bring a community together to denounce white supremacy, neo-Nazism, the alt-right and other similar groups.
Crowds gathered in response to the violence that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia where a woman was killed after a car plowed through a crowd during a white nationalist rally.