Posted on January 20, 2017

Inauguration Protesters and Police Clash on Washington’s Streets

Michael S. Schmidt et al., New York Times, January 20, 2017

Police officers used nonlethal crowd-control tools against dozens of protesters just blocks from the parade route where President Trump was scheduled to pass on Friday afternoon.

Protesters threw rocks and bricks at the police, smashed car windows and lit trash cans on fire. Officers holding riot shields formed a phalanx and were trying to prevent protesters from advancing.

Earlier in the day, protesters destroyed the glass front of a Bank of America and a Starbucks in the area. The Metropolitan Police Department said that at least 95 people had been arrested. A spokesman for the department said it would not release estimates on the number of protesters who were clashing with police.

Many of the protesters were dressed all in black, wore face masks and carried flags associated with antifascist groups. {snip}

{snip}

Some convened before sunrise, in downtown Washington, to protest Mr. Trump’s immigration policies, a gathering dotted with black hats that read, “Not My President.”

Just before 9 a.m., about 150 protesters gathered in McPherson Square, breaking off in groups to march along I Street. An organizer advised two dozen people on the day’s aims: to disrupt Mr. Trump’s celebration as much as possible — an objective, he predicted, that would rankle “mainly police officers and Trump supporters.”

{snip}

Mr. Trump was sworn in around noon. The resistance was already well underway.

Across the city — and with rallies planned throughout the country all weekend, cresting with a massive women’s march in Washington on Saturday — the demonstrations simmered in the hours before Mr. Trump was to take office.

{snip}