Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Thousands rally, march in nationwide anti-Trump protests
Tens of thousands of people marched in streets across the United States on Saturday, staging the fourth day of protests of Donald Trump’s surprise victory as president.
The protests — held in big cities like New York and Chicago as well as smaller ones, such as Worcester, Massachusetts, and Iowa City, Iowa — were largely peaceful Saturday.
Protesters rallied at New York’s Union Square before taking their cause up Fifth Avenue toward Trump Tower, where they were held back by police barricades.
The Republican president-elect was holed up inside his tower apartment, working with aides on the transition to the White House.
Among those railing against him was filmmaker Michael Moore, who tweeted a demand that Trump “step aside.”
Fashion designer Noemi Abad, 30, agreed.
“I just can’t have Donald Trump running this country and teaching our children racism, sexism and bigotry,” she said. “Out of his own mouth he made this division. He needs to go — there’s no place for racism in society in America.”
Trump’s comments — particularly a 2005 recording of him making lewd comments about women — sparked outrage during his campaign. That spilled over into a fourth day of demonstrations following an election that ended with half of U.S. voters choosing the other candidate, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
In Los Angeles, several thousand people marched through downtown streets Saturday to condemn what they saw as Trump’s hate speech about Muslims, pledge to deport people in the country illegally and crude comments about women.
Jennifer Cruz, 18, of Ventura, California, carried a sign that asked: “Legalize weed but not my Mom?” — a reference to Californians’ Tuesday passage of a measure legalizing recreational marijuana use.
Cruz said her parents have been in the United States illegally for 30 years, although her mother has spent years seeking citizenship. She called the possibility of their deportation terrifying.
“We talk about it almost every day,” she said. “My Mom wants to leave it in the hands of God but I’m not just going to sit back and not do anything. I’m going to fight for my parents, even if it kills me.”
“He doesn’t realize all the families he’s hurting,” she said of Trump.
Shawn Smith, 41, of Los Angeles, wore an American flag vest and held a glittery sign that said “Love Trumps Hate.”
“What he’s been able to do is make 50 percent of the nation look over their shoulder,” he said. “If you’re gay, if you’re LGBT, if you’re Muslim, if you’re Latin, if you’re special needs, if you’re female, it’s a much unsafer place now.”
“What is happening today is going to be the normal for a while,” he said of the demonstration, “because we’re not going to just sit back and watch our rights being taken away, our health care being taken away.”
Protests were mainly peaceful, but in Portland, Oregon, a man who was participating in a march early Saturday was shot after a confrontation with someone in a vehicle. Police expect the man to survive and detained four people in connection with the shooting. A motive for the shooting was unclear. The four people detained are believed to be gang members, but the victim is not.
The shooting followed rowdy Friday night protests, when police used tear gas in response to “burning projectiles” thrown at officers, police said on Twitter. Hundreds of people marched through the city, disrupting traffic and spraypainting graffiti.
Authorities reported instances of vandalism and assault during a rally that organizers had billed as peaceful earlier in the day.
In other parts of the country, spirited demonstrations on college campuses and peaceful marches along downtown streets have taken place since Wednesday.
Evening marches disrupted traffic in Miami and Atlanta.
Trump supporter Nicolas Quirico was traveling from South Beach to Miami. His car was among hundreds stopped when protesters blocked Interstate 395.
“Trump will be our president. There is no way around that, and the sooner people grasp that, the better off we will be,” he said. “There is a difference between a peaceful protest and standing in a major highway backing up traffic for 5 miles. This is wrong.”
Protests also were held in Detroit; Minneapolis; Kansas City, Missouri; Olympia, Washington, Iowa City and more.
More than 200 people, carrying signs, gathered on the steps of the Washington state Capitol. The group chanted “not my president” and “no Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA.”
In Tennessee, Vanderbilt University students sang civil rights songs and marched through campus across a Nashville street, temporarily blocking traffic.
In Cincinnati, hundreds of protesters already had taken to the streets early Saturday afternoon to protest a jury’s failure to reach a verdict in the trial of a white former police officer who killed an unarmed black motorist in 2015.
A mistrial was declared in the trial of former University of Cincinnati officer Ray Tensing. He was fired after shooting Sam DuBose in the head after pulling him over for a missing front license plate last year.
Several hundred anti-Trump protesters joined the trial protesters and marched through downtown Cincinnati.