Demonstrators
marched in cities across the United States on Wednesday to protest
against Republican Donald Trump’s surprise presidential election win,
blasting his campaign rhetoric about immigrants, Muslims and other
groups.
In New York,
thousands filled streets in midtown Manhattan as they made their way to
Trump Tower, Trump’s gilded home on Fifth Avenue. Hundreds of others
gathered at a Manhattan park and shouted “Not my president.”
In
Los Angeles, protesters sat on the 110 and 101 highway interchange,
blocking traffic on one of the city’s main arteries as police in riot
gear tried to clear them. Some 13 protesters were arrested, a local CBS
affiliate reported.
An earlier
rally and march in Los Angeles drew more than 5,000 people, many of them
high school and college students, local media reported.
A
demonstration of more than 6,000 people blocked traffic in Oakland,
California, police said. Protesters threw objects at police in riot
gear, burned trash in the middle of an intersection, set off fireworks
and smashed store front windows.
Police responded by throwing chemical irritants at the protesters, according to a Reuters witness.
Two
officers were injured in Oakland and two police squad cars were
damaged, Johnna Watson, spokeswoman for the Oakland Police Department
told CNN.
In downtown Chicago, an
estimated 1,800 people gathered outside the Trump International Hotel
and Tower, chanting phrases like “No Trump! No KKK! No racist USA.”
Chicago
police closed roads in the area, impeding the demonstrators’ path.
There were no immediate reports of arrests or violence there.
“I’m just really terrified about what is
happening in this country,” said 22-year-old Adriana Rizzo in Chicago,
who was holding a sign that read: “Enjoy your rights while you can.”
In
Seattle, police responded to a shooting with multiple victims near the
scene of anti-Trump protests. Police said it was unrelated to the
demonstrations.
Protesters railed
against Trump’s campaign pledge to build a wall along the border with
Mexico to keep immigrants from entering the United States illegally.
Hundreds
also gathered in Philadelphia, Boston and Portland, Oregon, on
Wednesday evening. In Austin, the Texas capital, about 400 people
marched through the streets, police said.
A
representative of the Trump campaign did not respond immediately to
requests for comment on the protests. Trump said in his victory speech
he would be president for all Americans, saying: “It is time for us to
come together as one united people.”
Earlier
this month, his campaign rejected the support of a Ku Klux Klan
newspaper and said that “Mr. Trump and his campaign denounces hate in
any form.”
“DREAMERS” FEAR DEPORTATION
Earlier on Wednesday, some
1,500 students and teachers rallied in the courtyard of Berkeley High
School, in a San Francisco Bay Area city known for its liberal politics,
before marching toward the campus of the University of California,
Berkeley.
Hundreds of high school and college students
also walked out in protest in Seattle, Phoenix, Los Angeles and three
other Bay Area cities – Oakland, Richmond and El Cerrito.
A
predominantly Latino group of about 300 high school students walked out
of classes on Wednesday in Los Angeles and marched to the steps of City
Hall, where they held a brief but boisterous rally.
Chanting
in Spanish “the people united will never be defeated,” the group held
signs with slogans such as “Not Supporting Racism, Not My President” and
“Immigrants Make America Great.”
Many
of those students were members of the “Dreamers” generation, children
whose parents entered the United States with them illegally, school
officials said, and who fear deportation under a Trump administration.
“A
child should not live in fear that they will be deported,” said
Stephanie Hipolito, one of the student organizers of the walkout. She
said her parents were U.S. citizens.
There were no immediate reports of arrests or violence.
Wednesday’s
demonstrations followed a night of protests in the San Francisco area
and elsewhere in the country in response to Trump’s victory against
heavily favored Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
(Reporting by Noah Berger and Stephen Lam in Oakland, Timothy
Mclaughlin in Chicago, Alexander Besant in New York, Curtis Skinner in
Berkeley, California, Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee and Dan Whitcomb in
Los Angeles; Editing by Leslie Adler, Peter Cooney and Paul Tait)
