A counter-protester denies inciting a crowd protesting against American military action in Syria during a demonstration Friday that erupted in violence, resulting in the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office arresting six people including one of whom was hospitalized.

Gary Snow of Chicago acknowledge being a supporter of President Donald Trump but denied being a provocateur. He said he was exercising his right of free speech by protesting Friday's demonstration organized by the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition.

"They can call me a provocateur all they want, but I'm exercising my freedom of speech," Snow told the Times-Union by telephone Saturday afternoon.

Family members of those arrested as well as coaltion members Saturday called for Snow to be arrested on charges of inciting a riot. They also called for an independent transparent investigation into why the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office didn't arrest Snow, and why officers didn't keep him and other counter-protesters separated during the demonstration.

They made the accusations during a protest on the steps of the Duval County Courthouse, where they also called for all the charges to be dropped against the five members of their group who were arrested Friday.

Snow said he simply was exercising his right to free speech. He denied provoking any violence. Snow also denied accusations made by some in the crowd that being a racist or white supremacist.

Slideshow: Scenes from Saturday's protest at Duval County Courthouse

"This is what some of the people on the Left do. They want to try to incriminate me and make me look as if I'm a racist," said Snow, who added he has a group in Jacksonville called the Florida Coalition for President Trump. He said he volunteered with the Trump campaign during the election.

"They hold protests and I come out and support the president," he said. Snow said when he read a description of the Friday protest against the American airstrikes in Syria, "it was to me sounding really misinformed.

"They wanted to portray it as the U.S. is declaring war on Syria and they're dropping these death bombs which was just drunk. It was 59 Tomahawk missiles strategically set. This is a group that is looking to delegitimize our president," Snow said.

Snow said those protesting the airstrikes are responsible for the violence at Hemming Park on Friday night.

"If you go out here, and you exercise your freedom of speech, and it doesn't fit their narrative, they're either going to try and get violent or they're going to limit your freedom of speech. But yesterday, they initiated the conflict," Snow said.

It began when one of the protesters tried to snatch a megaphone, he said.

"I said, 'Hey, you can protest, I'm just letting you know, we're going to still be here until 2018. You resist, we're going to revolt'," he said.

He said at that point a man in a mask walked up and grabbed the megaphone cord, which Snow said pulled him.

"He tried to grab the megaphone cord and rip it out of my hand and rip it out of the guy I was with, his hand," said Snow, adding that when that happened to one of the protesters, who he identified as Connell Crooms, turned around and initially grabbed Snow's buddy.

"I unwrapped the cord that they took and walked away," said Snow, adding he "flipped them off" but never threw a punch.

"Flipping someone off does not constitute them to react that way. And when police told them to stop, they didn't, and they continued to resist. They're going to portray this as they're innocent," Snow said.

Snow also said he complied with police when they told him to stop and go sit on the hood of a patrol car. The protesters have no one to blame but themselves for being arrested, he said.

In addition, Snow said he broke his foot.

"They took my Trump flag and my backpack," he said.

Snow said he's told the protesters previously that he will counter-protest against them.

"I'm not going to let you go uncontested in Jacksonville. You want to attack my president, our president, that's your right to show dissent. But I also have the right to show support for my president … As we've seen, they've chosen to use violence in order to stop my freedom of speech," he said.

Snow said he supports police, the president, freedom of speech. And in the past, it's been civil. But Friday that civility disintergrated.

Teresa Stepzinski: (904) 359-4075

Ben Conarck: (904) 359-4103