Protesters Descend on Burlingame to Rail Against Trump
By Kimberly Veklerov and Kale Williams
6:15 pm, Friday, April 29, 2016
Presidential candidate Donald Trump was forced to abandon his motorcade on the side of a freeway, scramble up a hillside and slip into a side entrance of the hotel hosting the California GOP convention Friday as hundreds of angry protesters surrounded the building and did their best to disrupt the Republican front-runner’s speech.
Trump joked about his roundabout entrance to the convention, saying it felt like he was “crossing the border” — but the rambunctious demonstrators outside saw no humor in it all as they scuffled with police, threw eggs and blocked roads around the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame.
Antoinette Chen See, 34, one of several protesters who formed a human chain on Old Bayshore Road outside the hotel, said she came out to try to deny Trump a platform in the Bay Area for what she called his racist rhetoric.
“We have a failed system in which someone who is so antiblack, so anti-Muslim and so anti-immigrant is allowed to be a viable candidate for president,” she said. About the chains linking her to her fellow protesters, she said: “They are not comfortable, but it’s worth it.”
Some Trump backers
Presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio were also scheduled to speak at the convention, but it was Trump who drew the most ire from demonstrators Friday before, during and after his noontime speech. Coming just one day after protests at one of the billionaire’s campaign stops in Southern California turned violent, police were on high alert.
“Hate has no place in the democratic process,” Bay Area activist Cat Brooks said in a widely distributed statement urging people to join the anti-Trump rally Friday. “Black communities and all communities of color deserve a democracy that respects our vote, our vision and our values.”
The throng of protesters didn’t dissuade at least a few Trump supporters from staging a small demonstration of their own. Cheryl Tapp, a 62-year-old flight attendant from Burlingame and longtime Trump fan, came out to the hotel to show her support.
6:15 pm, Friday, April 29, 2016
Presidential candidate Donald Trump was forced to abandon his motorcade on the side of a freeway, scramble up a hillside and slip into a side entrance of the hotel hosting the California GOP convention Friday as hundreds of angry protesters surrounded the building and did their best to disrupt the Republican front-runner’s speech.
Trump joked about his roundabout entrance to the convention, saying it felt like he was “crossing the border” — but the rambunctious demonstrators outside saw no humor in it all as they scuffled with police, threw eggs and blocked roads around the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame.
Antoinette Chen See, 34, one of several protesters who formed a human chain on Old Bayshore Road outside the hotel, said she came out to try to deny Trump a platform in the Bay Area for what she called his racist rhetoric.
“We have a failed system in which someone who is so antiblack, so anti-Muslim and so anti-immigrant is allowed to be a viable candidate for president,” she said. About the chains linking her to her fellow protesters, she said: “They are not comfortable, but it’s worth it.”
Some Trump backers
Presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio were also scheduled to speak at the convention, but it was Trump who drew the most ire from demonstrators Friday before, during and after his noontime speech. Coming just one day after protests at one of the billionaire’s campaign stops in Southern California turned violent, police were on high alert.
“Hate has no place in the democratic process,” Bay Area activist Cat Brooks said in a widely distributed statement urging people to join the anti-Trump rally Friday. “Black communities and all communities of color deserve a democracy that respects our vote, our vision and our values.”
The throng of protesters didn’t dissuade at least a few Trump supporters from staging a small demonstration of their own. Cheryl Tapp, a 62-year-old flight attendant from Burlingame and longtime Trump fan, came out to the hotel to show her support.
No comments:
Post a Comment