Video: Violent Brazil protests continue in Confederations Cup host cities Protesters said police used rubber bullets and even tossed tear gas canisters from a helicopter hovering overhead. Anger over political corruption emerged as the unifying issue for the demonstrators, who vowed to stay in the streets until concrete steps are taken to reform the political system. In total, more than 250,000 anti-government demonstrators took to streets in over 100 Brazilian cities on Saturday, according to a police count published on the website of the Globo TV network, Brazil's largest. The protests continued despite a prime-time speech the night before from Rousseff, who tried to appease demonstrators by reiterating that peaceful protests were a welcome, democratic action and emphasising that she would not condone corruption in her government. The wave of protests began over a week ago as opposition to transportation fare hikes, then became a laundry list of causes including anger at high taxes, poor services and high World Cup spending, before coalescing around the issue of rampant government corruption. They have become the largest public demonstrations Latin America's biggest nation has seen in two decades.