Demonstrations against Trump draw tens of thousands around the U.S.
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 Indianapolis, Ind., Worcester, Mass., and Iowa City, Iowa — were largely peaceful.
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 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.
Indianapolis, Ind.
Demonstrators against Donald Trump in downtown Indianapolis on Saturday.
Protests were mainly peaceful, but a few demonstrators threw rocks at police in Indianapolis, slightly injuring two officers, according to Police Chief Troy Riggs.
Some protesters began chanting threats including “Kill the Police,” and officers moved in to arrest seven demonstrators.
Police briefly fired pepper balls into the crowd during the confrontation.
“We believe that we have some instigators that arrived in our city,” trying to start a riot, Riggs said.
Portland, Ore.
Police wearing riot gear watch as demonstrators protest against Donald Trump in Portland
Rowdy demonstrators marched through downtown Portland again Saturday night despite calls from the mayor and police chief for calm.
Several hundred people took to the streets, and authorities reported at least one arrest after people in the crowd threw items at police in riot gear. The gathering came after a news conference Saturday in which Mayor Charlie Hayes and Police Chief Mike Marshman urged restraint after several days of violent marches that damaged property and left one person shot.
Friday night, police used flash-bang grenades to disperse a crowd of hundreds in the downtown area. Seventeen people were arrested and one man was shot — suffering non-life-threatening injuries — in what police described as a confrontation with gang members. Two people were arrested on attempted murder charges.
Elsewhere in the U.S.
People protesting both the Dakota Access Pipeline and the election of Donald Trump pass by the Chicago Theatre during a march from Federal Plaza to Trump Tower in Chicago on Nov. 12, 2016.
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, Mo.; Olympia, Wash.; 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.
In Chicago, hundreds of people, including families with small children, chanted “No hate. No fear. Immigrants are welcome here,” Saturday as they marched through Millennium Park, a popular downtown tourist attraction.
Sonja Spray, 29, who heard about the protest on Facebook, said she has signed an online petition urging the electoral college to honor the popular vote and elect Clinton.
“Women aren’t playthings. Journalists aren’t pawns. People of color are not commodities. Marriage equality is not up for debate,” Spray said.
Ashley Lynne Nagel, 27, said she joined a Thursday night demonstration in Denver.
“It’s not that we’re sore losers,” said Nagel, a Bernie Sanders supporter who voted for Clinton. “It’s that we are genuinely upset, angry, terrified that a platform based off of racism, xenophobia and homophobia has become so powerful and now has complete control of our representation.”
Around the world
A small group of people protest against U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on the steps of the Angel of Independence monument in Mexico City on Saturday.
Demonstrations also took place internationally. A group of Mexicans at a statue representing independence in Mexico City expressed their concerns about a possible wave of deportations. One schoolteacher said it would add to the “unrest” that’s already in Mexico. About 300 people protested Trump’s election as the next American president outside the U.S. Embassy near the landmark Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
President Obama meets in Berlin next week with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and several other European leaders, and he is expected to confront global concerns about Trump’s election.
ALSO
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California and Trump are on a collision course over immigrants here illegally
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