Outrage and Fear Fuel Continuing Anti-Trump Protests

Police in Portland, Oregon, are looking for a suspect after one person was hurt in a shooting that took place in the midst of a street protest

Spurred by fear and outrage, protesters around the country rallied and marched Friday as they have done daily since Donald Trump's presidential election victory.

Police in Portland, Oregon, say they are investigating a shooting that occurred during a protest march early Saturday morning. The suspect left the scene of the shooting, which left one person with non-life-threatening injuries. 

Rowdy protests had continued Friday night in Portland as hundreds of people took to the streets. Police used tear gas and flash-bang grenades in an effort to disperse the crowd, reports Portland NBC affiliate KGW. Authorities reported "burning projectiles" being thrown toward police, and Portland police said they'd received reports of vandalism and assault.

In South Florida, demonstrators marched through the streets of Downtown Miami and halted traffic on a highway during the evening rush. Protesters were holding signs and some were heard chanting "not my president." 

Anti-Trump protesters blocked several major intersections in Atlanta, Georgia, on a third day of demonstrations, NBC affiliate WXIA reported. Police formed a blockade around the demonstrators to keep them from enterting the interstate.

Hundreds of protesters fanned out across Center City Philadelphia Friday as they marched toward Independence Mall holding signs and chanting, "We reject the president-elect." Philadelphia police had been escorting the protesters through the city, officials said, noting they have all been peaceful.

In downtown Los Angeles, the crowd swelled to an estimated 3,000 people, and at least one person was arrested.

Hundreds more took to the streets of San Diego, California, Friday evening.

The spirited demonstrations on college campuses and along downtown streets were mostly peaceful following previous outbreaks of window-smashing and fire-setting.

Several hundred people gathered on Boston Common to publicly object to the election of Trump, NBC Boston reported. The evening event was billed as a rally for love and peace rather than a protest.

Hundreds of people attended another "love rally" Friday in Washington Square Park in Manhattan. New York police made 11 disorderly conduct arrests during Friday protests, but the demonstrations remained peaceful.

Leslie Holmes, 65, a website developer from Wilton, Connecticut, took an hour-long train ride to the demonstration — her first protest since the 1970s, when she hit the streets of San Francisco to oppose the Vietnam War.

She described herself as an armchair liberal but declared, "I'm not going to be armchair anymore."

"I don't want to live in a country where my friends aren't included, and my friends are fearful, and my children are going to grow up in a world that's frightening, and my granddaughters can look forward to being excluded from jobs and politics and fulfilling their potential, so I'm here for them," she said.

In Tennessee, Vanderbilt University students sang civil rights songs and marched through campus across a Nashville street, temporarily blocking traffic.

In Chicago, multiple groups planned protests through Saturday.

Nadia Gavino, 25, learned about the rallies on Twitter and protested Thursday evening. Gavino, whose father is from Peru and whose mother is of Mexican and Lithuanian heritage, said she took Trump's harshest statements about immigrants and Latinos personally.

"I obviously agree that he's racist, he's sexist, he's phobic, he's misogynistic. He's all these things you don't want in a leader," she said.

Ashley Lynne Nagel, 27, said she joined a Thursday night demonstration in Denver.

"I have a leader I fear for the first time in my life," said Nagel, a Bernie Sanders supporter who voted for Hillary Clinton.

"It's not that we're sore losers," she said. "It's that we are genuinely upset, angry, terrified that a platform based off of racism, xenophobia and homophobia has become so powerful and now has complete control of our representation."

Authorities and advocates in Las Vegas were preparing for a weekend protest that could pit supporters and opponents of president-elect Trump against each other near the hotel that bears his name.

Las Vegas police said Friday they were monitoring social media reports suggesting that more than 1,500 Trump protesters planned to take part in a Saturday evening demonstration and march on the Las Vegas Strip. Other reports said several dozen Trump supporters planned a demonstration in the same area at the same time.

Previous demonstrations drew thousands of people in New York, Los Angeles and other large urban centers. The largely peaceful protests were overshadowed by sporadic episodes of vandalism, violence and street-blocking.

On Thursday night, some marchers in Portland, Oregon lit firecrackers, set small fires and used rocks and baseball bats to break the glass of businesses and cars parked at dealerships. Police used pepper spray and flash-bang devices to force people to disperse and made more than two dozen arrests.

In Texas, Houston police arrested five anti-Trump demonstrators during a downtown protest Thursday. Dallas police say three people were arrested. Texas troopers in Austin detained two demonstrators on the grounds of the Capitol. The reason for the arrests was not immediately clear. 

A protest organizer decried the vandalism and said the group planned to help clean up.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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