Armed protesters square off outside Houston City Hall over SB4

Anti-Senate Bill 4 groups telling SB4 supporters to "Go Home" as their groups are gathering at Houston City Hall for a rally Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, in Houston. Groups of SB4 supporters also gathered across Walker Street to speak their mind and exchange chants with the anti-SB4 supporters. less Anti-Senate Bill 4 groups telling SB4 supporters to "Go Home" as their groups are gathering at Houston City Hall for a rally Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, in Houston. Groups of SB4 supporters also gathered across ... more Photo: Yi-Chin Lee, Houston Chronicle Photo: Yi-Chin Lee, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 20 Caption Close Armed protesters square off outside Houston City Hall over SB4 1 / 20 Back to Gallery

Dueling groups of armed protesters chanted and gave speeches Saturday outside Houston City Hall, sparring over immigration and police brutality even as the nation reeled from violence at a white nationalist rally in Virginia hours earlier.

Around 50 protesters from a left-leaning coalition read poems near Hermann Square and sang to voice their opposition to Senate Bill 4, while across the street about 15 counter-protesters from the Texas Patriot Network and Proud Boys chanted and waved a Texas flag.

"This is a protest against SB4, against police brutality and against the threat of fascism," said Houston Socialist Movement organizer David Michael Smith, who showed up armed and wearing a red hammer-and-sickle shirt emblazoned with an outline of Texas.

"Both of these things today are growing in significance and take on additional weight because of the threat from the far right, something that you see with open Nazis in the streets in Charlottesville, Virginia today," he said.

Across the street, conservative counter-protesters, some wearing camouflage, and others wearing Make America Great Again hats, offered a smattering of dissenting opinions, affirming their support for police and for SB4, the so-called "sanctuary cities" legislation. The law, signed by the governor in May, gives police officers new authority to question a detained person's immigration status and blocks local governments from passing laws that would prohibit such question.

"We're here to show our congressmen, our Senate and all of our police that we stand behind them enforcing the laws," said Jeremy Brooks of the Texas Patriot Network.

When asked if he'd still support Houston police Chief Art Acevedo in light of his opposition to SB4, Brooks said he supported the chief's right to his own opinion.

"It's his job to enforce the law. Whether or not he agrees with them, guess what, he has to enforce the law," he added.

"How would you feel if he said, 'You know what? I drink, I like alcohol so I'm going to allow people to take to the streets drinking and driving because I choose not to enforce that law."

Fellow counter-protester Laura Lee echoed Brooks' concerns.

"We don't support racism or inequality, but we want our laws followed," she said. "Illegals are not immigrants. They're breaking the law to be here."

For much of the protest, left-leaning groups ignored their opponents across the street.

"We always come here peacefully and they always come hard," Leobardo Santillan said in Spanish. "We are tired of that intimidation. We are tired of the border watch and the rednecks and now some of ours had to come armed because we are responding in the same form. So they can see we are not afraid."

At times, the protesters converged at a police barrier along Walker, briefly trading barbs before police calmed the crowd.

As the afternoon wore on, the situation degenerated to juvenile taunts, with one anti-immigration activist hurling fat-shaming insults while those on the left stared back in stony silence.