Trump Rally- Chicago disruption -the report

...Mr Trump, part 2 of your hard work




It was reported that there was a credible threat against Trump from groups of protesters who planned to storm the stage at the University of Illinois at Chicago Pavilion.

Fist fights broke out inside. An impatient group massed outside. Temperatures rose.

News of the shut down came hours after a black activist in St.Louis, who gave his name as Anthony Cage, was filmed being escorted into a police van by two officers with blood across his face and down the front of his sweater after clashing with Trump supporters.

Photo: EPA

Torn in half: An opponent of Businessman and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds up a campaign torn in half as a Trump campaign rally is cancelled for public safety reasons

Photo: AP

Earlier that day: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in St. Louis.It was reported that there was a credible threat against Trump in Chicago

Photo: AP

Trump protesters and supporters clashed outside of the Chicago rally after it was cancelled due to the teeming number of protesters at the event 

Chicago police confirmed at least eight arrests, including one journalist.

Reports swirled that rioters were smashing cars parked in the venue's main garage. One outburst caught on a police scanner suggested a protester in the resulting scrum brandished a firearm.

Trump appeared on MSNBC, lamenting how he was squelched while live video of the chaos played.

'We have a country that's so divided that even you don't understand it,' he told anchor Chris Matthews. 'I've never seen anything like it, and this has been going on for years.'

'There's a lot of anger in the country, and it's very sad to see actually,' he said.

'I don't want to see people hurt or worse,' he said, explaining the rationale for calling off his speech.

But frustration rang in his voice.

'It's a little bit sad when you can't have a rally in a major city in this country ... whatever happened to freedom of speech?' the Republican front-runner asked.

Photo: AP

Cheering: A supporter of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump tries to pump up the crowd before a rally on the campus of the University of Illinois-Chicago on Friday 

Photo: Reuters

Supporters: Trump supporters hold signs after Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump cancelled his rally at the University of Illinois at Chicago

Photo: Reuters

In another state: Police detained Anthony Cage after a fight between supporters and opponents of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, ahead of his speech outside the Peabody Opera House in St. Louis on Friday

Inside an hour earlier, left-wing activists had had their own seating section – or five.

They shouted 'Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!' as a public address announcer called the night over.

Community organizers were out in force, chanting 'Latinos Unidos' slogans and jawing en masse at the Republican front-runner's supporters.

By the time the event was officially 'postponed,' activist chants of 'Si! Se puede!' and 'We don't give a f***' dueled with pro-Trump groups screaming 'USA! USA!' at the top of their lungs.

Photo: EPA

Postponement: Left-wing activists had their own seating section – or five. They shouted 'Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!' as a public address announcer declared that 'for the safety of all the tens of thousands of people, tonight's rally will be postponed'

Photo: EPA

Opposing views: Protesters at Donald Trump's first Chicago campaign rally (pictured) were so numerous on Friday that they shut the event down

The groups kept screaming at each other, waving signs – both physical posters and gang signs – long after the announcement.

Two fistfights broke out. Police raced to one corner of the arena, and then the next. Cheers rose and fell like the jangle of fans at a bullfight.

'Attention! The event is now over. Please exit the building!' the public address announcer blared repeatedly. No one cared.

Bernie Sanders campaign signs waved. One man hoisted a brightly colored poster that read: 'Trump Hates Puppies.'

A twentysomething woman got in his face.

Photo: AP

More than an hour before Trump's appointed 6:00 p.m. starting time, scuffles broke out inside the University of Illinois at Chicago Pavilion. Pictured here are protesters standing outside 

Photo: Reuters

Verbal exchange: Trump supporter exchanges words with a demonstrator  after Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump cancelled his rally at the University of Illinois at Chicago 

'Build that wall!' she screamed. 'Build it now! Build it high! Build it ten feet higher!'

The Trump campaign issued a statement as chaos reached its apex.

'Mr. Trump just arrived in Chicago and after meeting with law enforcement has determined that for the safety of all of the tens of thousands of people that have gathered in and around the arena, tonight’s rally will be postponed to another date,' it read.

'Thank you very much for your attendance and please go in peace.'

Law enforcement acknowledged that the intensity of the protesters, and their numbers, came as a surprise.

'It's like 10 per cent of them are here to shut it down,' - Chicago police officer

Photo: EPA

Cancellation: An empty podium stands on the stage after protestors forced the cancellation of a Businessman and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump campaign rally out of concern for public safety

Asked if it was more than law enforcement had prepared for, he said: 'Affirmative.'

More than an hour before Trump's appointed 6:00 p.m. starting time, scuffles broke out inside. And a riot-threatening crowd gathered outside, pressing against police lines that separated them from rally-goers .

Trump aides and Secret Service agents refused at 5:15 and 5:45 to speculate on whether or not the campaign event would be called off for the candidate’s safety.

A federal agent deflected the question as his eyes followed a young black man wearing a purple backpack.

'I don't know,' he said. 'I guess if they cleared Secret Service, then it's okay. I guess.'

One group of black audience members jeered a white man wearing a confederate-flag hat who told them they likely had no stake in the election. They couldn't vote, he yelled, according to two witnesses, because they were all felons.

Most of the venom, however, came from a section of anti-Trump forces, clustered in the rear of the arena. They provided off-and-on fireworks and attracted police attention minute by minute.

'¡Pendejos!' one Hispanic man yelled over and over again.

'F*** the police!' a black woman screamed to no one in particular, repeatedly.

Both found hails of wadded-up food wrappers and paper cups thrown in their direction as chants of 'We Want Trump!' rang out in response.

The multi-ethnic lake of humanity, surrounded by a larger sea of Trump supporters, included black, white, Latino, Indian, and women wearing headscarves.

They shouted 'Kick him out! Kick him out! Kick him out!' at a white man whose sin was holding a Trump rally sign over his head in the wrong place at the wrong time.

An African-American protester grabbed it, tore it in two, and held it aloft like a trophy. His friends flipped middle fingers to a scrum of journalists watching from behind barricades on the arena floor.

Photo: CNN

In st. Louis: Pictured here is a protester who stormed the podium during the rally in St. Louis earlier on Friday where another protester was beaten bloody after clashing with Trump supporters 

No screaming. No slogans. Just a moment's show of dominance before uniformed Chicago police gently led him out.

The man whose sign he took flashed a sheepish grin and retreated to another section of seating, sweat visible on his brow.

Some in the protest crowd shouted 'Undocumented! Unafraid!' over and over, competing with the Rolling Stones on Trump's pre-show playlist.

The adventures in protesting had begun when three young men wearing undershirts reading 'Muslims United Against Trump' were ushered out of the arena near the stage.

Witnesses said they were turned away at the door, left, and returned wearing hooded sweatshirts over their magic-markered messages.

Protesters are nothing new at Donald Trump rallies. Typically an hour-long speech stops a dozen times – sometimes more – so social justice warriors can vent their spleens.

Trump has turned mocking them into an art form. But Friday night's display was different.

The atmosphere was supercharged early on by news that a similar rally in St. Louis hours earlier generated 32 arrests including one for 3rd degree assault.

By 5:30, Trump's staff locked reporters inside the 'pen,' a barricaded-in area that journalists are not allowed to leave while The Donald is speaking.

Typically the lockdown happens ten minutes before 'go time' and exceptions are made for bathroom breaks. Not on Friday.

'I don't care,' one Trump aide told journalists. 'Stay in there. You don't come out.'

As soon as the event was canceled, however, there was no candidate to protect. The floodgates opened and journalists flooded out – some with cameras, others with notepads – to document the continuing melee.

'This is all your fault!' one young man boomed at no one in particular. 'You damned media people. You've ruined Donald Trump for all of us!'

BLOODIED PROTESTER IS ESCORTED FROM TRUMP RALLY IN ST.LOUIS 

A bloodied protester was filmed being escorted from a Donald Trump rally in St Louis on Friday as demonstrators shut the event down for ten minutes.

The black activist, who gave his name as Anthony Cage, was filmed being escorted into a police van by two St Louis officers with blood across his face and down the front of his sweater.

There had been signs of trouble as early as 8am when people began queuing outside the Peabody Opera House to get tickets, with large groups of pro and anti-Trump fans shouting at one another.

After a large number of demonstrators sneaked into the event and began a coordinated protest inside, Trump told the crowd: 'Part of the problem and part of the reason it takes so long is nobody wants to hurt each other anymore, right?

'And they're being politically correct the way they take them out. So it takes a little bit longer,' the River Front Times reported.

It is not clear how the activist was injured, but there were multiple scuffles between Trump supporters and demonstrators.

Other reports indicated that the man was not arrested, but instead had his wounds treated and was allowed to walk free.

The fresh scenes of violence come after Trump supporter John McGraw, 78, was caught on camera hitting Rakeem Jones, 26, at another event in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Wednesday. 

Quizzed by Inside Edition on why he hit the black demonstrator, McGraw responded 'we don't know if he's ISIS', before adding: 'Next time we see him, we might have to kill him.'