...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.
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
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
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.
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
Supporters: Trump supporters hold
signs after Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump
cancelled his rally at the University of Illinois at Chicago
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.
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'
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.
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
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
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.
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!'
No comments:
Post a Comment