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Protesters pepper-sprayed during 'Black Lives Matter' demonstration in Austin

The rally against police brutality escalated into violence as protesters broke past  police cordon's and attempted to block a motorway in Texas

Megan Townsend
Tuesday 22 September 2015 05:35 EDT
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USA: Pepper spray and arrests dog Black Lives Matter demo in Austin

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At least six arrests were made following a Black Lives Matter rally in Austin, the rally was held in conjunction to a "Police Lives Matter" rally occurring in the same area.

Many of the arrests took place due to protesters attempting to block the road according to Austin Police, "Unfortunately, a handful of people decided to go onto the freeway — shut down the freeway — which is absolutely against the law, something we cannot tolerate and we will not tolerate that,”

However many of the Black Lives Matter demonstrators have insisted that their protest had been completely peaceful until the police began aggravating attendees.

Police appeared to use pepper spray against peaceful protesters whilst attempting to apprehend participants in the demonstration, in the video above Black Lives Matter supporter Enakai Devereaux is asked what happened to him and he states "I got pepper sprayed by the police."

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