Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock and other officials spoke out Sunday afternoon condemning the “violence, vandalism and destruction” that continued to rock the capital city Saturday night.

The latest in a series of uprisings roiled downtown Saturday evening, as a dozen people were arrested, businesses were burned or vandalized and one officer suffered a concussion and third-degree burns, according to 9News.

The events unfolded after a group of more than 50 people protested outside the Denver Police Headquarters before things escalated.

“What we experienced last night wasn’t a protest,” Murphy Robinson, the city’s director of safety, said at an afternoon press conference. “It was anarchy. The people who showed up last night — the anarchists who showed up last night — were not protesters. They brought weapons to the table.”

He said police saw firearms, a machete, an ax and explosives.

“They had intended one purpose, and that was to harm our officers in the line of duty,” Robinson said.

He called out those using the violence in the name of Black Lives Matter.

“You do not represent us,” said Robinson, who is Black. “Stop using the color of my skin as an excuse to tear up my city. These countless acts are not helpful.”

The most prominent activist organization pushing to demilitarize the police has been the Afro Liberation Front, that at one point had intended to protest a Denver City Council member Friday night, before striking a truce.

Sunday the organization retweeted a declaration from past Denver protest organizer Iris Butler, “Just to be clear @AfroFrontCo and I were not there last night We stand with our comrades who are are fighting black liberation”

Sunday, state Rep. James Coleman, a Democrat from Denver, led a coalition of Black leaders denouncing the violence.

The group included the Colorado Black Round Table, Denver NAACP, Colorado Black Leadership Caucus, the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance, Northeast Denver Islamic Center and Denver Public Schools board member Jennifer Bacon.

They said they share the concerns of Black Lives Matter and Black Minds Matter, they do not condone the destruction of property or dismissing other’s right to protest peacefully.

“We are asking any Black citizen or youth wanting to protest to please seek out your community organizations engaged in positive forms of protest and civil disobedience,” according to the statement forwarded by the mayor’s office Sunday evening.

The group hopes to hold a meeting and establish a regular dialogue between Black community leaders and Denver public safety officials.

Hancock issued a formal statement Sunday afternoon.

“Working for change in our democracy comes from peaceful protest and the ballot box,” the mayor said in an afternoon statement. “Inciting violence and vandalism is not about making change, it is about anarchy, chaos and mindless destruction. We will not tolerate it in Denver.”

Hancock spoke of this time of recovery is being overtaken by a “toxic combination of organized efforts on the extreme left and organized efforts on the extreme right” that is counterproductive to progress.

“What happened in Denver and across many other cities last night was not protest in the tradition of Martin Luther King, Jr. or John Lewis, and it does not reflect who we are as a community,” the mayor’s statement continued. “I am encouraging every elected official in our city – legislators, city council and school board – and our clergy and civic leaders to make clear in statements today that anarchy and vandalism dressed up as a protest will not be tolerated in Denver.”