FILE - In this April 29, 2017, file photo provided by John Rudoff, Jeremy Joseph Christian, right, attends a Patriot Prayer organized by a pro-Trump group in Portland, Ore. Christian, the man accused... (Associated Press) 
 
 PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Thousands of demonstrators and counter protesters converged in downtown Portland, Oregon, on Sunday, a day marked by multiple arrests and clashes between police and protesters. 
 
 A pro-President Donald Trump free speech rally drew several hundred to a plaza near City Hall more than a week after two Portland men were fatally stabbed trying to stop a man from shouting anti-Muslim insults at two teenage girls on a light-rail train. 
 
 That rally was met across the street by hundreds of counter-protesters organized by immigrant rights, religious and labor groups. They said they wanted to make a stand against hate and racism. 
 
 Portland police said Sunday evening that 14 people were arrested, and several dozen knives, bricks, sticks and other weapons were seized. 
 
 By late afternoon, police closed nearby Chapman Square where a separate group of protesters — many wearing masks and black clothing and identified as anti-fascists — also demonstrated. Police used flash-bang grenades and pepper balls to disperse that crowd after saying protesters were hurling bricks and other objects at officers. 
 
 The people gathered at the free speech rally organized by the conservative group Patriot Prayer and counter-protesters at City Hall were not involved in those clashes, police said. 
 
 After several dozen demonstrators began marching north of the initial rally locations, police officers moved in and blocked them. They detained a large crowd in the street, including several journalists. 
 
 People identified as participating in criminal activity would be arrested, police said. Everyone else was eventually released after officers took photographs of their identification. 
 
 Sunday's event was organized by the group Patriot Prayer and billed as Trump Free Speech Rally in "one of the most liberal areas of the West Coast." 
 
 Rally organizer Joey Gibson held a moment of silence for the two men who were stabbed to death and pleaded with the crowd to refrain from violence. He later told them that goal is to wake up the liberty movement. "It's OK to be a conservative in Portland," he said. 
 
 Last week Mayor Ted Wheeler unsuccessfully tried to have the permit for the free speech rally revoked, saying it could further enflame tensions following the May 26 stabbings. 
 
 The suspect in the light-rail stabbings, Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, attended a similar rally in late April wearing an American flag around his neck and carrying a baseball bat. Police confiscated the bat, and he was then caught on camera clashing with counter-protesters. 
 
 In a video posted on Facebook, Gibson condemned Christian and acknowledged that some rallies have attracted "legitimate Nazis." He described Christian as "all crazy" and "not a good guy." 
 
 Matthew Eggiman, 19, who lives in Corvallis, said he showed up Sunday to oppose bigotry and racism. He worried that that hateful rhetoric would embolden others. But he also condemned protesters who show up hoping to provoke violence. 
 
 The Rev. Diane Dulin of the United Church of Christ said in a statement ahead of the day's events that any act of violence in the community should be met by non-violence. 
 
 "We build our hope and our stamina for justice by showing up," said Dulin, part of a coalition of groups that organized rally to oppose hate. 
 
 Authorities say that on May 26 Christian killed two men and injured another on the light-rail train when they tried to help after he verbally abused two young women, one wearing a hijab. Christian is charged with aggravated murder and other counts. 
 
 The concerns over the Portland rally come amid a wider debate in the U.S. about the First Amendment, often in liberal cities like Portland and Berkeley, California, and on college campuses, where violent protests between far-right and far-left protesters have derailed appearances by contentious figures. 
 
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 Associated Press Writers Phuong Le in Seattle and Manuel Valdes in Portland contributed to this report. ||||| Far-right and ‘anti-fascist’ groups face off with each other and law enforcement, a little over a week after two men died in a racially charged stabbing 
 
 A much-anticipated “alt-right” rally in Portland, Oregon has ended in police using stun grenades and teargas against the most militant segment of a counter-protest. 
 
 Is there a neo-Nazi storm brewing in Trump country? Read more 
 
 At 3.30pm, police began pushing antifascist, or “antifa”, activists out of Chapman square, just across from the rally in Terry Schrunk plaza, in downtown Portland. Officers discharged grenades and gas as missiles were thrown. Portland police said on Twitter that they had closed the park due to “criminal behavior” including the use of “bricks, mortar and other projectiles”. 
 
 As the antifascists were pushed out, “alt-right” activists interrupted their schedule of speakers to rush to the edge of Schrunk plaza and taunt them. Police said they had confiscated makeshift weapons and shields from protesters in Chapman square, and said that at around 2pm protesters there launched marbles and other projectiles towards Schrunk plaza. 
 
 Hours before, as the opposing activists gathered, tensions in the city were high, a little over a week after two men were killed and one wounded in a stabbing on city transportation. 
 
 Jeremy Christian, 35, was charged in the attack, in which Rick Best, 53, and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche, 23, were killed after they intervened to help two young women who were the target of racial abuse. Christian was found to have expressed far-right views and to have attended a similar “free speech” rally in the city in April. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Pro-Trump demonstrators in Portland, Oregon. Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty Images 
 
 Portland mayor Ted Wheeler sought to block Sunday’s event, while on Saturday the leader of the Oath Keepers militia organisation told the Guardian that members of his group were on their way to the city, to support and if necessary defend the rightwing protesters. 
 
 
 
 In the event, the “alt-right” rally was surrounded on three sides by separate counter-protests. Antifa activists occupied Chapman square, to the south of the plaza. Portland United Against Hate, organized by 70 community and political groups, occupied the forecourt and sidewalk outside city hall to the west. To the east, a protest organized by labor groups occupied the street outside a federal building. 
 
 At the city hall rally, Seemab Hussein of the Oregon Council on Islamic Relations, a rally sponsor, said he wasn’t surprised to see an “alt-right” gathering in the city. 
 
 “It’s part of Portland,” he said, “it’s part of Oregon, it’s part of society.” He added that he didn’t take seriously disavowals of the racist politics of older far-right movements. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘These guys are mostly not interested in free speech, they’re interested in fighting us,’ said an antifa activist. Photograph: Jason Wilson for the Guardian 
 
 “I don’t think they actually moved away from that,” he said. “It’s the same ball of yarn – the hate, the prejudice, the violence. It just finds a new victim. If it’s not Muslims, it’s immigrants.” He was heartened, he said, to see so many Portlanders show up to oppose the rally. 
 
 All told, there were some 3,000 counter-protesters and only a few hundred at the “free speech” rally, where Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman, who became a movement hero after physically attacking antifascists in Berkeley, California, addressed the crowd. So did Joey Gibson, the organizer of the event. On the fringes, Pat “Based Spartan” Washington, a so-called “alt-right” celebrity, held an impromptu press conference. 
 
 “I believe in freedom of speech,” he said. “Our speakers have a right to say what they want, and not be exposed to this shit across the street. I am definitely willing to use violence to make sure my family is safe and my patriot family is safe. But do I want it? Not necessarily. Until antifa learns not to use violence … God, I hate them. I look over there and I just want to smash.” 
 
 Members of the Oath Keepers and another “patriot” militia group, the Three Percenters, were present, identifiable by their insignia. Also present were members of the Proud Boys, associated with Vice founder Gavin McInnes and identifiable by their uniform Fred Perry T-shirts, and members of Warriors for Freedom, a group led by Gibson. 
 
 
 
 Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes gave a late afternoon speech, referring to growing links between established rightwing groups and internet subcultures. 
 
 “We just went to Boston not too long ago,” Rhodes said, “and it was run by 4chan kids who put the rally on. They were standing there with pale skin, ’cause they don’t go outside too much, but they had homemade shields in their hands … and they were there. It’s my job as a paratrooper veteran to teach those kids everything I know.” 
 
 Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, a member of Warriors for Freedom, told the Guardian he was present to “stand for free speech”. 
 
 “If you look all around America,” he said, “they’re trying to take away free speech silently.” He also said that the group had ejected Jeremy Christian from the 29 April Portland rally. “We heard what he was doing,” he said, “we heard he was doing [Nazi] salutes, and we said we don’t like that, so we told him, you gotta leave.” 
 
 Earlier in the day, as protesters gathered, two members of the Rose City Antifa group, wearing masks, spoke to the Guardian. “We’ve got hopes for what we want to happen and we’re preparing for the worst,” one said, adding that their goals were “being here, being a visible opposition”. 
 
 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest An activist makes a far-right hand signal. Photograph: Jason Wilson for the Guardian 
 
 “These guys are mostly not interested in free speech, they’re interested in fighting us,” the activist said. “If they come over here, we’re going to respond in self-defense, but our plan is not to take that path. Our main goal is the defense of the community, and to reveal their actions for what they are: fascist street violence.” 
 
 At one point Brian Fife, an “alt-right” protester, walked up to Chapman square in an attempt to speak. He was surrounded and drowned out with air horns. Earlier, on the grass at Schrunk plaza, Fife, who said he ran a small business in Salem, Oregon, said Jeremy Christian “did everything right up until the point he started killing people”. 
 
 “I do not support killing people,” he said, “I don’t think anyone does. But calling out the changing elements of our culture, I think that’s something I wish more of us would do.” 
 
 As police and DHS officers dressed in riot gear kept the groups apart, the rally passed without full-blooded confrontation between protesters. Police also announced that any movement between Chapman Square and Schrunk Plaza would be considered a criminal act. The plaza was cordoned off with yellow tape and police SUVs partially blocked traffic. Before the decision to clear Chapman Square, a small number of arrests were made.
– An alt-right "free speech" rally went ahead in Portland, Ore. Sunday despite the mayor's objections—and was met with three separate counter-protests on three sides. Around 3,000 counter-protesters, including labor groups and black-clad antifascist activists, gathered while a few hundred people, many with pro-President Trump signs, converged on Terry D. Schrunk Plaza for the rally organized by the "Patriot Prayer" group, the Guardian reports. Alt-right celebrity Pat "Spartan" Washington told reporters that he was "willing to use violence to make sure my family is safe and my patriot family is safe." "God, I hate them," he said of the counter-protesters across the street. "I look over there and I just want to smash." A wall of police officers separated the protesters and counter-protesters, though there were isolated clashes and police made at least 14 arrests, CNN reports. Police ended up using pepper balls and flash-bang grenades to disperse anti-fascist protesters, reports the AP. Mayor Ted Wheeler had urged organizers to call off the pro-Trump rally after the fatal stabbing of two men on a train last month. The suspect, Jeremy Christian, had attended a similar rally in the city in April. At the free-speech rally, speakers distanced themselves from Christian and called the train victims heroes, the Oregonian reports. "Mayor Wheeler says I spit out hate speech," organizer Joey Gibson told the crowd. "We've got to prove them wrong."