Cameron Whitten was live streaming an anti-Trump protest march in Portland, Ore., in the early hours of Nov. 12 and captured a shooting break out. Police say a man in a car got out and fired several shots at a demonstrator. (Facebook/Cameron Whitton)
PORTLAND, Ore. —A confrontation involving an anti-Donald Trump protester in Portland ended in gunfire Saturday, sending the demonstrator to the hospital amid dozens of sometimes violent protests in the wake of Trump's victory in the presidential election.
In Portland, the site of some of the most virulent anti-Trump protests, demonstrators took to the streets on Tuesday, even before the Associated Press declared Trump the winner.
They've marched every night since.
Demonstrators there hurled burning projectiles at police, destroyed property and injured people during rallies, according to the AP. Police responded with tear gas and flash-bang grenades Friday to try to disperse the crowd of hundreds marching through the city. Authorities and protest leaders said "Black Bloc" anarchists and others bent on property damage or antagonizing police were mixing in with peaceful crowds, ramping up the violence.
Other cities have seen less violent protests since Donald Trump's unexpected victory in the presidential election on Tuesday. Thousands took to the streets to rail against the ascension of a man who had, among other things, called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.
On Friday, marches sprang up in cities including New York, the District, Dallas, Miami, Orlando, Raleigh, Los Angeles and Portland.
More than 350 protesters have been arrested across various cities since Wednesday — at least 226 in Los Angeles alone, the AP reported — amid demonstrations that have included highway blockades and angry chants of "not my preside nt," according to multiple media reports.
There were spirited demonstrations on college campuses and peaceful marches along downtown streets. Some protests were organized via social media, others were impromptu gatherings that grew.
President Obama, President-elect Trump, and political leaders on both sides of the aisle appealed for unity, even as some protests veered into violence.
More rallies were planned through the weekend in scattered cities.
The shooting in Portland happened Saturday as protesters crossed the Morrison Bridge over the Willamette River. The man in the car got out and fired several shots at the demonstrator, according to a police news release.
A man was shot and wounded in Portland, Ore., in the early hours of Nov. 12 as protests continue across the country against the election of President-elect Donald Trump. (Reuters)
Police nearby rendered aid to the victim but had not apprehended the suspect, described as a 5-foot-8 black man in his late teens wearing a hoodie and blue jeans.
Cameron Whitten, a witness who went on Facebook live[1], said the confrontation started after protesters "recognized (the people in the car) as being involved in the protests. And they recognized these people as people who were involved in physically damaging, looting, rioting that we saw the last two days."
['Not my president': Thousands protest Trump in rallies across the U.S.[2]]
Confrontational, physical protests ranging from mass gatherings and vigils to disruptive direct action has for decades been a staple of grass-roots political activism, specifically among Americans on the center-left of the political spectrum, from the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s to the contemporary Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter protest movements.
And, in the wake of Trump's election, many civil rights, environmental, immigration, labor rights and LGBT activists — all of whom have frequently deployed street marches and disruptive protests during the Obama years — saw taking to the streets as the clear first step in collectively r egistering their opposition of what they fear is to come.
Trump wins and protesters take to streets
Protests began early Wednesday in the biggest U.S. cities — New York, Los Angeles and Chicago — and flared in places from Portland and Seattle to Philadelphia and Richmond, along with cities in red states such as Atlanta, Dallas, Omaha and Kansas City, Mo.
On Thursday, about 600 "anti-Trump" protesters marched to downtown Baltimore and blocked streets. Following a rally in downtown Minneapolis, several thousand protesters blocked the heavily traveled Interstate 94 for about an hour Thursday night, causing a major traffic backup in both directions, the Star Tribune reported.
In Oakland, Calif., officials pleaded with demonstrators to remain peaceful Thursday after the previous night's violence. Several incidents of graffiti — with phrases such as "Kill Trump" — were reported. Protesters set many small street fires a nd smashed a handful of windows, but the disorder did not appear as widespread as the night before, SF Gate reported. At least a half-dozen arrests were made.
On Friday in Miami, hundreds of demonstrators clogged a major thoroughfare, the MacArthur Causeway, halting traffic for more than an hour shortly after dusk. They eventually moved downtown and by 9 p.m. had blocked northbound lanes on Interstate 95.
"Once I saw other people protesting white supremacy, I said, 'You know what? We need to do one in Miami,' " protest organizer David Michael told The Washington Post. "We got the word out on social media like Facebook, all of that."
In many cases, police said they encountered few if any issues.
Boston had about 4,000 people during a rally Wednesday night, and it was "orderly and peaceful," a police spokesman said.
Portland's protest turns violent
In Portland, organizers and authorities said things turned violent because anarchist groups sought to use a massive peaceful protest as cover for property damage and violence against police.
Gregory McKelvey, who has organized Black Lives Matter events in Portland, said he planned the "Portland's Resistance" event, and he said his group was unaffiliated with those who turned violent.
McKelvey said that once protesters learned there were violent people among the demonstrations, "we attempted to separate." Teressa Raiford, a community organizer in Portland, said these other people were unaffiliated with peaceful protesters and were "not coming to show solidarity; they're coming because they know there's going to be a big crowd."
[Trump met with Obama at the White House as whirlwind transition starts[3]]
"I'm saddened by the destruction of our public spaces and local businesses caused by rioters," Portland Mayor Charlie Hales said in a statement. "Although the majority of over 4,000 protesters last night were peaceful and followed Portland Police safety instructions, anarchists shut down these voices by spreading violence and fear."
Pete Simpson, a spokesman for the Portland police, said these anarchists "aligned with the black bloc groups" infiltrated peaceful demonstrations "covered head-to-toe and carrying weapons."
"Their tactic is go out and destroy property," Simpson said. He noted that while peaceful demonstrators tried to stop the violence, they were "not having any luck."
These "black bloc" groups rely on a tactic of wearing masks to cover their faces and dressing in black so they can identify each other, said David Gomez, a former senior FBI counterterrorism official in Seattle, a city that has seen high-profile issues[4] with such groups.
"What they're doing is they're taking advantage of the legitimate protesters to destroy things and emphasize their anarchist roots," Gomez said. "So you're not going to see them at a tea party protest, except maybe as counter-protesters. But you will see them where you have very progressive political movements, [like] Seattle and Portland."
[While the country shifts to the right, California keeps moving left[5]]
The demonstrations have played out across social media and on cable news networks, with some channels showing four or six gatherings simultaneously.
Anger at the outcome of the election and a professed unwillingness to accept it are widespread on the Internet, despite conciliatory words from Hillary Clinton and Obama. Thousands of people have declared on social media that the president-elect is "never my president" or "not my president[6]," phrases that showed up on signs at protests. But only a relative few sharing that sentiment have actually taken to the streets.
That could change if protesters are dissatisfied with some of the policies Trump enacts, said T.V. Reed, a Washington State University professor and author of the book "The Art of the Protest."
"We can be certain that these protests portend far larger ones in the future as social movement groups prepare to resist any policies of the new administration that threaten people stigmatized by Trump or that scientific evidence suggests will hasten environmental catastrophe," Reed said.
"This could be the beginning of a revolution," said Johnathan Hahn, 19, during the Chicago demonstration late Thursday. "This is a moment that will echo in time. No one knows what the future holds. But we need to organize, to spew love, caring, harmony and equality, the things that will make Trump lose his lunch."
Jessica Orman, 24, said at the same event that she hopes the electoral college opts to pick Clinton rather than Trump. "I don't think it will happen … but we have to fight. We have to protest," she said.
Brian Murphy in Washington, Bobby Allyn in Philadelphia, Kari Lydersen in Chicago and Katie Zezima in Santa Ana, Calif., contributed to this report.
Further reading:
President Trump's Justice Dept. could see less scrutiny of police, more surveillan ce of Muslims[7]
References
- ^ went on Facebook live (www.facebook.com)
- ^ 'Not my president': Thousands protest Trump in rallies across the U.S. (www.washingtonpost.com)
- ^ Trump met with Obama at the White House as whirlwind transition starts (www.washingtonpost.com)
- ^ high-profile issues (www.seattletimes.com)
- ^ While the country shifts to the right, California keeps moving left (www.washingtonpost.com)
- ^ not my president (twitter.com)
- ^ President Trump's Justice Dept. could see less scrutiny of police, more surveillance of Muslims (www.washingtonpost.com)
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