PHOENIX — “Shame! Shame! Shame!”

That’s was one of the chants that thousands of protesters used in Phoenix on Tuesday as they gathered near the Phoenix Convention Center to protest President Donald Trump possibly pardoning former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio, who a federal court convicted of criminal contempt in late July. In the ruling, Arpaio, who was the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, for 24 years and was known as “America’s toughest sheriff” before losing re-election last November, was found guilty of defying a court order that his agency stop detaining people on suspicion of undocumented immigrant status, amounting to racial profiling.

Trump, during his speech in Phoenix, didn’t say he would pardon the former sheriff. Arpaio’s first sentencing hearing is scheduled for October 5.

The day’s events were largely peaceful. But in the evening, after Trump’s speech had ended, protesters reported police deploying tear gas and pepper spray, according to the The Arizona Republic. Police said objects were thrown at them, including rocks, bottles, and an object that started smoking, according to news reports. Four people were arrested over the course of the day.

Organizers and local law enforcement hoped to avoid the same violence that transpired at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where 32-year-old Heather Heyer died and 19 other were injured when a car was driven into a group of counterprotesters. In Phoenix, the streets surrounding the convention center were blocked off and barricaded, separating protesters and Trump supporters.

Trump told Fox News last week that he was “seriously considering” a pardon for Arpaio. Protesters, as well as half of Arizonans, do not want Arpaio pardoned. “We here in Maricopa County have worked very hard to kick Joe Arpaio out of office,” Taylor Cifuentez, 23, told Teen Vogue. “It’s taken several election cycles for us to remove him. And we feel that his pardoning would be a pardoning of white supremacy, pardoning of human rights violations.”

“We’re here to tell him we’re not going to stand for it. That’s not the kind of country we want and that’s not the kind of Arizona we want,” Cifuentez said.

In Phoenix, activists expressed their frustration with Trump and Arpaio with signs, chants, and solidarity. Teen Vogue asked 10 young activists why they marched, even in the sweltering triple-digit heat.

“I think it’s important to be out here because you just want to remind people that you’re not going to go away. We don’t agree. You don’t need to sit there and be silent about things and just say like, ‘Oh, this is the way it is.’ You have to go there and make a change that you want to see.” — Kayla Livingston, 16