Anger over Trump explodes; protesters set fires, smash glass
OAKLAND, Calif. — Demonstrators angry about the election of Donald Trump smashed windows and set garbage bins on fire early Wednesday in downtown Oakland, Calif., joining protesters elsewhere in the country who swarmed streets in response to the election. Other protests were generally peaceful.
In Oregon, dozens of people blocked traffic in downtown Portland and forced a delay for trains on two light-rail lines. Media reports said the crowd grew to about 300 people, including some who sat in the middle of a road. The crowd of anti-Trump protesters burned American flags and chanted, “That’s not my president.”
In Pennsylvania, hundreds of University of Pittsburgh students marched through the streets, with some in the crowd calling for unity. The student-run campus newspaper, the Pitt News, tweeted about an event titled “Emergency Meeting: Let’s Unite to Stop President Trump.”
In Seattle, about 100 protesters gathered in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, blocked roads and set a trash bin on fire.
On Twitter, the hashtag “Not My President” had been used nearly a half million times.
The Oakland protest grew to about 250 people by late Tuesday. Police Officer Marco Marquez said protesters damaged five businesses, breaking windows and spraying graffiti. No arrests were made.
A woman was struck by a car and severely injured when protesters got onto a highway, the California Highway Patrol said. Demonstrators vandalized the driver’s SUV before officers intervened. The highway was closed for about 20 minutes.
Oakland is a hotbed of violent protest in the San Francisco Bay Area. Two years ago, demonstrators briefly shut down two freeways, vandalized police cars and looted businesses when a Missouri grand jury decided not to indict a white police officer in the fatal shooting of a black teenager in Ferguson.
Elsewhere in California, more than 1,000 students at Berkeley High School staged a walk-out and marched to the campus of the University of California.
Students also walked out of two high schools in Oakland as well as a school in Phoenix, Ariz.
Police said at least 500 people swarmed streets in and around the UCLA campus, some shouting anti-Trump expletives and others chanting “Not my president!”
Smaller demonstrators were held at other University of California campuses and neighborhoods in Irvine and Davis, and at California State University, San Jose.