Kansas City police used pepper spray on a crowd of protesters outside of a Donald Trump rally on Saturday, after protesters had allegedly thrown objects and moved onto the streets against police orders.
The police said that the protesters had surrounded the police and were pushing out onto the streets, and that one officer had his horse attacked by a protester, the Kansas City Star reports.
“When you look at the video, it looks bad,” Police Chief Darryl Forté told the Kansas City Star. “But the officers were in danger on both sides.”
A photographer for the Star saw a protester hit a police horse in the face, then disappear into the crowd after they police called out for her arrest.
“They showed great restraint,” Forté said. “You get to the point where you take control or you let the mob take control.”
@kcpolice As you can see, we were far from what happened and peaceful and lawful and he still walked up to spray us pic.twitter.com/9EECz8167Z
— Chris (@stokith) March 13, 2016
The protests of the Trump rally in Chicago inaugurated a new stage in the Trump campaign, where organized protesters regularly try to disrupt his events.
A day after the Trump rally in Chicago was cancelled due to violence among the protesters, a Bernie Sanders supporter leapt past the barricades at a Trump campaign stop in Dayton, Ohio, and almost made it to the stage Trump was standing on.
The protests in Kansas occurred outside of the Arvest Bank Theatre, where Trump had a speaking event at 6 P.M.
Ultimately, four protesters were arrested that night in connection with other incidents.
