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."
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.