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Inauguration 2017

Protesters take to the streets of Washington, D.C. to protest inauguration

Frankie Prijatel | Senior Staff Photographer

Protesters set fire to a trash can in Washington, D.C. on Friday while protesting the election of President Donald Trump. The protests carried on throughout the day and turned violent at times.

By Jacob GedetsisSenior Staff Writer

WASHINGTON – Dressed in all black with rags covering their faces, a group of protesters began ripping up the brick sidewalk on 13th Street in Franklin Square. One protester launched a piece of burnt red brick toward police.

The police responded.

Chemical dispersant was launched at the crowd. Screams echoed in the square, and many ran with panic despite shouts to “walk don’t run.” It was a back-and-forth motion that lasted almost an hour, stemming from a minority of protesters that were violent.

The protests were in response to the start of Donald Trump’s presidency. Trump was officially sworn in as president of the United States just a few hours earlier on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. But even as he called on Americans to unite, there were already protests erupting nearby. During his campaign for the presidency, Trump incited backlash for his rhetoric on Mexican immigrants, Muslims and women, among others.

The protests began early in the day, hours before Trump was sworn in.



“We came here to protest peacefully,” said Kayla Kisseadoo, a student from the New College of Florida. “… We just want people to know that we will stand up to Donald Trump, and his society.”

But at times, the protests were not peaceful. Early in the day, video circulating social media showed protesters destroying the glass windows of a Bank of America and a Starbucks. By mid-afternoon, Franklin Square was littered with graffiti and the carcasses of burned trash cans and newspaper boxes. Later, a limo was set on fire, and witnesses at the scene said a projectile was thrown into the vehicle.

Washington police said 217 people were arrested during the protests, many of whom were charged with rioting. Six officers sustained injuries, police said. Police also said the arrests resulted from incidents on 13th Street, which involved between 400 and 500 people.

Officers were forced to leave their line on 14th Street and advance toward the protesters so the fire department could safely put out the flame. The movement sparked outrage among some protesters, who began launching bricks. Most protesters, however, stayed peaceful and tried to keep the violence from escalating.

“(A protester) picked the brick off the ground, threw it down again — I kicked it away and said, ‘We can’t do it like this, we have to do this peacefully,” said Dan Rogan, a 30-year-old from Cleveland.

“This is how we get a bad name, unfortunately. I think we are all trying to figure out how to do this right, but we can’t be destructive — that gives them an excuse to scapegoat us,” he continued. “We have to do this peacefully, and we have to do this right.”

It was a sentiment shared by many protesters in the crowd. The protesters varied in age, race, sexual identity and background. Some drove through the night from as far as Iowa City, and others from the protest at Standing Rock, North Dakota. It was a crowd filled with homemade signs and T-shirts donning “This is not normal,” and “I have a job, and it’s not this.”

“Throughout the city we have seen hundreds and hundreds of protesters who have respected our laws and made their voices heard through non-violent acts of protest,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a press conference. “Unfortunately, a small group of people have engaged in vandalism as well as violence against our law enforcement officers.”





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