Americans across the country continue street protests for the fourth straight day against the election of Donald Trump as president in an unprecedented show of opposition to a president-elect amid chants of “Not my president!”
The protest rallies throughout the country on Saturday took place a day after one protester was shot and wounded in city of Portland in the Western state of Oregon following a confrontation after nightfall on Friday, when instances of vandalism and assault were also reported.
In Trump’s home city of New York, where mostly peaceful protest rallies along downtown streets have continued since Wednesday – the day after he surprisingly defeated his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by electoral votes and despite losing the popular vote count – more than 10,000 people indicated on Facebook that they would take part in a noon march from Union Square to Trump Tower, the site of the president-elect’s residence and corporate headquarters.
As the protesters first gathered at East 17th Street and Broadway, organizers estimated the turnout at 2,000 but as the march began to move, the number of participants grew closer to the 10,000 mark.
The demonstrators marched up the prestigious Fifth Avenue under heavy police presence while chanting “Not my president!” as well as “Whose streets? Our streets!”
Despite severe security measures around Trump Tower, the building’s lobby and restaurants, which have become a temporary home for journalists looking for information and sightings of members of Trump’s transition team, remained open to the public.
Protesters also waged rallies across the Western state of California, including in the major city of Los Angeles, where more than 200 were detained by police a night before.
Meanwhile, activists across the country expressed firm plans to build momentum ahead of the president-elect’s inauguration ceremonies in Washington on January 20.
Moreover, a “million-women-march” is also being planned on the nation’s capital for the inauguration day, specifically in response to Trump’s widely-reported instances of mistreating women, according to local press reports.
Additionally, online efforts are also in the works by left-wing groups to plan for protest marches during the inauguration events, which attract dignitaries of all sorts from across the US and the world.
This is while co-founder of Black Lives Matter Patrisse Cullors declared that the movement was “grieving and mourning,” vowing to build “something bigger and stronger than the hate Trump and his team have exhibited towards marginalized communities,” the UK-based Guardianreported.
Anti-Trump rallies also spread to Germany with protesters gathering Saturday outside the US embassy in Berlin to censure the stated policies of the newly elected American chief executive.
The German protesters further slammed what they referred to as xenophobia and racism. Civil rights organizations such as Black Lives Matter also took part in the Berlin rally.
The developments came as Trump blamed the persisting protest rallies against his victory on “professional protesters, incited by the media” in a tweet on Thursday, expressing concern that such efforts were tarnishing his electoral success, describing them as “very unfair.”
Following strong criticism of his online post, he stated in a second post that he appreciated the “passion for our great country” shown by protesters.
This is while Clinton and her campaign’s head of opinion research were reported to have blamed her defeat on two letters to Congress from FBI director James Comey, regarding the Democratic presidential nominee’s use of a private email server while serving as the Obama administration’s first secretary of state.
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