Anti-Trump Protests After 2016 Election

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Noura Al-Rajhi

A voter protesting after the 2016 election.

Donald Trump’s win over Hilary Clinton for the presidency of the United States shocked many people in the United States. The aftermath of the 2016 election has shown how upset American citizens have been about the results. Anti-Trump protests have appeared in many states around the country and have been occurring since the day Trump won the presidency.

The protests have been both violent and peaceful and in a wide variety of cities. People protested for many reasons including Trump’s immigration policies, health care policies, the environment, LGBT rights, the sexist and racist tone of his campaign, and other issues. Marches have appeared in a lot of cities including New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. On November 12th in San Francisco, protests reached up to 8,000 people. In New York, thousands marched to Trump’s tower and began the chant “Not my president.” On November 13th in Los Angeles in front of the CNN building, about 100 people gathered to march. There have been other protests in cities such as Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Oakland, San Francisco, and Chicago. Most of the marches have been fairly peaceful, but the ones in Portland, Oregon have stood out because of their violence.  There was a shooting, many arrests, and other forms of violence. Portland has had a good turnout reaching numbers near 4000. In another violent rally in Indianapolis, marchers threw rocks at the police injuring them. Some protestors were arrested in Indianapolis as well. Oakland was another place where violence broke out. There were 6,000 protestors who started small fires in the streets and broke windows. There were other marches in places like Washington DC, Cincinnati, Salt Lake City, and Providence. These rallies continue to go on, and the protestors don’t plan on quitting anytime soon. There are also many protests planned in DC for Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Female voter showing her disappointment with the 2016 election results.
Noura Al-Rajhi
Female voter showing her disappointment with the 2016 election results through a “Not my President” shirt and a poster.

 

The violence at some of marches protests have increased to a point where the police have had to take action. Police used tear gas and flash grenades in Portland. Even during the peaceful protests, armed police have been patrolling the streets, prepared for the worst. There have also been a lot of violence towards police officers in places where the violent protests broke out. The police have tried to control the protests, so they don’t get out of hand.  Law enforcement is concerned for people’s safety in all that is going on. Many news networks have covered the rallies on their networks. CNN and MSNBC have been reporting the protests in a non-biased fashion. Fox News, on the other hand, promotes the idea that the marches have been hired by the Democratic Party

Trump supporters simply don’t understand the riots and think they are useless, while many Hillary voters support the actions taken by the protestors to fight for what they believe is right. As such, the marches haven’t been the only reaction to the election. There have been hate crimes and white supremacy acts around the country. The protests are rooted in the fear people have of Trump and his supporters. They have shown how these people fear the bigotry of Trump and his campaign, and   how they are fighting to be treated right. Trump says he will bring our country together, but with all the hate brought to the surface by this election, our country is only at risk for being split further apart.