VIDEO: Protesters smash windshield of police car, attack officers in street — but these cops aren't about to retreat

Some police forces around the country have responded to George Floyd rioting by letting violence and destruction go unchallenged. In Portsmouth, Virginia, the police chief said an elected official told officers to let vandalism continue. In Seattle, police abandoned a precinct building, after which radical leftists established their own "autonomous zone" in several city blocks.

But in Miami on Wednesday, protesters suffering from seriously inflated egos thought they could intimidate and defeat police with their fists and skateboards and endless F-bombs — but they bit off a bit more than they could chew.

What happened?

It all started when protesters vandalized the Bayside Marketplace statues of Christopher Columbus and Juan Ponce de León, the Miami Herald reported, adding that the structures were tagged with "BLM" for Black Lives Matter and "George Floyd," as well as a Soviet hammer and sickle.

The paper said the hammer and sickle graffiti is "likely to inflame passions in a city full of Cubans fiercely opposed to communism."

Seven people were arrested for vandalizing the statue, Miami police told the Herald.

But soon after the arrests, the Miami News Times said some protesters tried to block the paths of police cars carrying arrestees, and one used his skateboard to smash the window of a squad car.

Then it turned into a street brawl.

Cellphone video shows police officers going after the attacking protesters, tackling some to the ground and pushing the crowd back.

Image source: Twitter video screenshot

The Herald said the melee took place in the middle of the northbound lanes of Biscayne Boulevard near the Ponce de León statue.

One officer appeared to openly challenge protesters to come at him. No one took him up on it.

Image source: Twitter video screenshot

Content warning: Language:

Police called the seven arrested "violent protesters" and added that no peaceful protesters were arrested, the Herald reported.

"In the City of Miami, we support peaceful protests but there will be zero tolerance for those who hide behind the peaceful protesters to incite riots, damage property, and hurt members of the public or our officers," Miami police said in a release, the paper noted.