PROTESTERS against police brutality were arrested in Portland, Oregon, in the United States on Sunday evening, hours after demonstrations ended with few reports of violence. 

The protests, which began on Saturday night with hundreds of people gathering in a park near the Hatfield US courthouse, where there have been regular protests over the summer, were declared unlawful. A protester was seen burning a US flag. 

Police said that they began forcing demonstrators out after objects were thrown at officers. Several arrests were made, though police did not immediately specify a number. 

Video footage showed police grabbing a news photographer and pushing him to the ground as he was trying to document them tackling and detaining a demonstrator on a sidewalk. 

Freelance photographer John Rudoff, who was wearing a helmet with a “press” sticker on, told local media later that he was “physically OK, but quite annoyed.”

Another online video showed an officer apparently deploying a chemical spray in the face of a man who was yelling at police and waving a sign at them. 

Portland has seen protests almost nightly since the police killing of George Floyd in May. 

Far-right demonstrators have also been mobilising in the city in counterprotests, several in military-style body armour, and in support of President Donald Trump and his “law and order” re-election campaign.

Police said that they were investigating an assault at the far-right protest on Saturday when one person documenting the event was pushed to the ground and kicked in the face. 

Separately, police said that a criminal citation was issued after officers confiscated firearms, paintball guns, baseball bats and shields from a pick-up truck that was initially stopped for having obscured licence plates as it left the rally.