Pro-Trump Rallies Attract Opposition, and Violence Again Ensues
Just like the campaign season, post-election campaign events supporting the president have become the scene of all kinds of ugliness as counter-protesters push back.聽
Hundreds of Donald Trump supporters in dozens of cities around the nation held local pro-Trump rallies this weekend, but not all were聽peaceful.
The rallies鈥攐riginally organized to celebrate an anticipated repeal of the American Care Act that did not come about when the House canceled its vote on repeal legislation鈥攚ent ahead anyway 鈥渁s a show of support for the administration鈥檚 fast-moving agenda,鈥� as put it.
Most of the rallies鈥攊n places such as New York, Philadelphia, Washington, San Diego, Nashville, and Lansing, Michigan鈥攄rew only medium-sized crowds. Opponents showed up to counter-protest, and in some locales such as Philadelphia, outnumbered pro-Trump protesters.
And there was the inevitable friction, especially where members of the anarchist 鈥淏lack Bloc鈥� became involved. The masked, black-clad 鈥渁nti-fascists鈥� led chants to interrupt the rallies and began scuffling with the red-hatted objects聽 of their protest.
At rallies in Huntington Beach, California,聽Seaside Heights, New Jersey, and Salem, Oregon,聽fights broke out, though police quickly intervened in each case and prevented the violence from spreading. The scene at Huntington Beach very nearly descended into a running melee, with one of its organizers getting hit with pepper spray.
Four counter-protesters were arrested, three for illegal use of pepper spray and one for assault and battery, for the California State Parks Police.
Some of the self-described 鈥淧atriots鈥� who showed up to support Trump also were seen wearing masks of their own, notably at the rally in Salem led by antigovernment organizations such as the militia-oriented 鈥�3 Percenters.鈥�
One of these 鈥淧atriots鈥� approached and surrounded a black man from Portland named , who had come to the rally, he said, to ask people questions. Some of the pro-Trump bloc apparently misidentified Whitten as a Portland black man arrested as a sex offender for sex with underage girls.
They wound up haranguing and threatening Whitten. 鈥淚 suggest you get back over on that side right now,鈥� a masked man told him, 鈥渂efore I f------聽kick your ass for f------聽raping little kids, you son of a b----.鈥� He claimed 鈥渨e have done a shit-ton of research on you.鈥�
Whitten kept asking the man to identify him, if in fact he knew who he was. The man, joined by several of his friends, continued to threaten him until they were distracted by reports of a flag burning.
One man, Matthew Heagy of Terrebonne, was arrested for pepper-spraying a police officer. Another pro-Trump supporter was briefly detained for having a gun at the rally, but was released,
Violence trailed President Trump鈥檚 rallies all during the 2016 campaign, encouraged by the then-candidate鈥檚 own rhetoric. Trump openly told participants at one rally to 鈥渂eat the hell out of鈥� protesters, told them he鈥檇 like to 鈥減unch [a protester] in the face,鈥� and later described for his rally-goers the violent fate that 鈥渂ack in the old days鈥� was expected for such protesters.
