Thousands take to streets in S.F., Oakland, Berkeley to pledge their resistance
Bay Area residents turned out by the thousands on Friday to carry signs, shout slogans and link arms in defiance over Donald Trump being inaugurated president.
Loud, sometimes angry and often rainsoaked, protesters marched through San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland, among other places. They gathered on college campuses, walked out of elementary school classrooms and chained themselves together to block train tracks.
Marches continued after dark in San Francisco and Oakland, but there was no replay of the late-night troubles that followed Trump’s election in November.
Though spirited and occasionally tense, the local protests were free of the violence seen in
the nation’s capital, where more than 200 people were arrested amid scattered scenes of brick-throwing and window-smashing.
Nor were the crowds as large as they’re likely to be at the Women’s March scheduled for Saturday afternoon in San Francisco — one of several taking place across the region and the nation. The main Women’s March will be in Washington, D.C., and is expected to attract more than 200,000 people.
Friday’s demonstrations kicked off in Oakland at 7 a.m., more than two hours before Trump took the oath of office in Washington. But the early action was in San Francisco, where shouts of “Not my president” and “Down with Trump” echoed through the Financial District as a crowd snaked down the sidewalks and streets, blocking buses and backing up traffic on side streets.
“Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go,” the foes of the new president shouted as, 3,000 miles to the east, Trump was delivering his inaugural address.
On the UC Berkeley campus, one of the only people who turned out to support the country’s 45th president was Jose Marine Diaz, president of the Berkeley College Republicans. As everyone around him protested, Diaz blasted “Hail to the Chief ” from a booth on Sproul Plaza.
“We understand that there are those who are discontented with the inauguration, and we want to be here to help alleviate any concerns or irrational fears people might have,” Diaz said.
Protesters’ fears were written on their signs and banners, which read, “Latino power” and “Women power” and vowed resistance to Trump if he strips away civil rights.
On the Golden Gate Bridge’s east sidewalk, about 3,000 people, many dressed in purple, gathered to link arms in what organizers called a “performance piece.” Lisa SatoWheaton said Bridge Together Golden Gate was an “opportunity for people to share their feelings, whatever they are — love, hate or fear.”
Elsewhere in the city, on Market Street, demonstrators shut down traffic as a band played music outside the doors of Uber, where some employees were blocked from entering and stood outside, frustrated. Protesters targeted Uber because its CEO, Travis Kalanick, is an economic adviser to Trump.
Protesters also blocked the Caltrain tracks at 16th and Mississippi streets for about three hours, chaining themselves together and bringing all train traffic to a halt. Police arrested at least 11 people there.
As of Friday evening, a total of 29 demonstrators had been arrested during protests throughout the city, San Francisco police said.
Many students in the region, meanwhile, marked inauguration day by taking to the streets. About 300 students walked out of public schools in San Francisco to join the protests, according to the district officials.
“It’s a little crazy, but it’s good for America,” said one student, 11-year-old Sofia Collins. She is a sixth-grader at Francisco Middle School where, she said, kids recently told friends of hers to go back to Mexico.
“I thought it probably happened because of Trump and the energy he’s sending out,” Sofia said. “That’s why we need this. We can’t just sit around and do nothing.”
Shortly before noon in Oakland, a group of middle school students gathered at Frank Ogawa Plaza outside City Hall for a planned rally and march through downtown.
“We’re the generation that can end racism and sexism,” said eighth-grader Trinity Wallace, 14, of Park Day School. “But we have to cooperate and be kind to each other in order to stop Donald Trump.”
In East Oakland, about 400 students at Bridges Academy elementary school marched 12 blocks down International Boulevard as Trump was telling the nation that “mothers and children (are) trapped in poverty in our inner cities (and our) education system ... leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.”
Third-grade teacher Mia Kleven said Trump’s words didn’t ring true.
“We have a really beautiful, vibrant community in Oakland,” she said. “Students are proud. Students are overcoming challenges with grace.”
At UC Berkeley, about 1,500 gathered for a noon antiTrump rally on Sproul Plaza.
“I’m scared,” said Cal freshman Kevin Hernandez, 18, who came from Mexico to the United States at the age of 2. He said he registered with immigration authorities under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the future of which is uncertain.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Hernandez said. “They got all our contact information. It’s scary that Donald Trump has all that information. Deportation — that’s one of my biggest fears.”
The biggest protest Friday evening was in San Francisco, where people gathered at United Nations Plaza at 5 p.m. Despite the dismal weather, spirits were high as several hundred people listened to speeches and then set off on a march through the Castro and Mission districts.
Participants included John Bournique, 40, an attorney who said it was his first protest since 2002. A number of causes had piqued his interests over the years since, he said, but not enough to hit the streets.
The difference now? “There’s this thing, the Constitution,” the lawyer said, adding that Trump, in his mind, pays it little mind.
In Oakland, around 200 protesters gathered at dusk at Frank Ogawa Plaza, near City Hall. Close by were large numbers of police officers in riot gear, determined to prevent the destruction and looting that marred protests there in the aftermath of Trump’s victory.
The group marched and chanted slogans aimed both at Trump and police before the protest dwindled in size, breaking up around 8 p.m. There were three arrests. San Francisco Chronicle staff writers
Hamed Aleaziz, Michael Cabanatuan, John King, Steve Rubenstein, Cynthia Dizikes, Sarah
Ravani, Jill Tucker and Kimberly Veklerov contributed to this report.
“We’re the generation that can end racism and sexism. But we have to cooperate and be kind to each other in order to stop Donald Trump.” Trinity Wallace, 14, eighth-grader at Park Day School