For the most part, Metro says, protesters largely have remained peaceful

A Metro Police SUV was set on fire late Saturday. Two other patrol cars were also damaged.

A downtown Las Vegas pawn shop was looted by more than 50 protesters. The store front of other business and government buildings were spray-painted, some with messages calling for police reform after a black man was brutalized to death last week at the hands of white police officer in Minnesota.

Other messages were more aggressive toward police, exposing the divide between the demonstrators: Most were there for a peaceful protest to bring change to policing; a small percentage of the others were there for destruction.

The death of George Floyd has sparked demonstrations nationwide, including in some capacity the past four days in Las Vegas. The conflict between police and protester has been partially heated with nearly 200 local arrests and a few dozen officer injuries — everything from broken bones to abrasions, and one protester throwing a cider block into an officer, according to police.

“I have 25 officers alone that had to be treated medically because of rocks, bottles and fires,” Clark County Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said Sunday. “Let me just say very clearly, that fires are not OK, throwing rocks is not OK. Throwing frozen water bottles is not OK.”

While the much-documented violence has received most of the attention, Metro officials say it is far from the entire story. In fact, the mayhem has come from a few bad actors not representative of a majority of the demonstrators, McMahill said.

Most have attended the protests to help bring about reform.

“It’s time,” said Jamaryis Geston, a black man who was demonstrating Sunday on the Strip. “If you want change you have to be a part of the change.”

McMahill said demonstrators have been seen doing crowd control and urging protesters to remain on the sidewalks and places designated for the rallies. When someone would become aggressive toward police, such as verbally shouting profanities, others would act quick to diffuse the situation. Some were also there to distribute water to protesters.

For the most part, officials stressed each night, an overwhelming majority of protesters have remained peaceful in exercising their constitutional right to assemble.

Police say their intent is to honor that right, but that right doesn’t extend to vandals and those who would do harm to others.

“We remain prepared, not only in the past couple of days, but in the days to come, to go out and to ensure that those who are disrupting your ability to peacefully assemble and protest, that we will take them away and we will arrest them so that you can continue along with your peaceful protest,” McMahill said.

Protests took place Friday on the Strip, Saturday in downtown Las Vegas, and Sunday on the Strip and in Summerlin. Each started off as peaceful demonstrations of a few hundred attendees, many of whom were carrying signs demanding justice for blacks and with chants of “Black Lives Matter” or “I can’t breathe” — Floyd’s dying words in Minneapolis.

And many shared the mentality of one protester, who when seeing graffiti of “Blues Lives Splatter” Sunday at the Strip, remarked in disgust to another demonstrator.

Metro estimates 3,000-4,000 demonstrators were in downtown on Saturday, 103 of whom were arrested. Eighty were arrested Friday on the Strip. Numbers from Sunday haven’t been released, although the demonstration in Summerlin lasted about two hours and was peaceful.

In Summerlin, Metro officers built a human barricade in front of Downtown Summerlin, the private outdoor mall that closed early when word spread of a demonstration. Metro has been consistent in the message that officers are there to help the rallies continue peacefully.

In some cities — including Reno ­— there have been reports of out-of-state instigators embedding themselves in the demonstrations. McMahill said that Metro received “intelligence” that “Antifa-like” protesters on Sunday were arriving in Las Vegas. It’s unknown if they were part of local protests.

Saturday in Reno, City Hall was ransacked, officials said, by mostly out-of-town protesters, forcing Gov. Steve Sisolak to call in the Nevada National Guard. The Guard has been activated in more than 20 states since the protests began.

Sisolak told the visitors who rioted to “get the hell out of town.” At a news conference Sunday at the Reno Police Department, Mayor Hillary Schieve said rioters would be prosecuted. “If you were rioting in our streets and doing things that were harmful to our city … we will not tolerate that,” she said.

Reno also instituted a 12-hour curfew for residents on Sunday, a move yet not taken in Southern Nevada.

Protesters are rallying to demand justice for black Americans like Floyd.

After a series of officer involved shootings in 2011, the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada filed a petition with the U.S. Department of Justice claiming Metro “engaged in a pattern or practice of conduct by law enforcement officers . . . that deprives persons of rights, privileges or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”

The DOJ produced 75 recommendations to Metro on training, investigation and external review, such as officers wearing body cams and complete reports within 72 hours after an officer involved shooting.

“These changes have led to a steady downward trend in officer use-of-force incidents. To get better at what we do, we had to identify our mistakes and make changes,” Sheriff Joe Lombardo wrote in a 2016 column for the Sun.

But in 2016 Keith Childress Jr., 23, was killed by Metro, who mistakenly thought he was holding a gun. It was a cellphone. Footage shows officers issuing Childress more than 20 commands to surrender. When he walked toward officers, they shot him five times.

“I know the heart of men and women in Metro also and know the heart of this community,” McMahill said. “We’ve worked really long and hard to increase our relationships with our communities, but particularly communities of color and we’ve had great success all across our valley over the last 15 years.”

Another Black Lives Matters peaceful protest is expected 7 p.m. Wednesday at Las Vegas City Hall. Nevada’s casinos, after being shuttered for more than two months out of coronavirus concerns, are scheduled to reopen five hours later.

Organizers are stressing a peaceful gathering with “no arson, tagging, looting or vandalism of any kind.” The demonstration will be limited to City Hall, the organizers stressed.

“We will only be at City Hall having open dialogue and discussion for our people to be heard on positive solutions to bring everyone together peacefully,” the group posted on Facebook.

Sun reporters Ricardo Torres-Cortez, John Sadler, and the Associated Press contributed to this story.