All the following material was taken from the ABQ Journal News Paper.
City Hall Blog <http://www.abqjournal.com/category/city-hall>
Trump supporters and protesters trade blame, take stock
By Dan McKay / Journal Staff Writer
<http://www.abqjournal.com/author/dmckay>
Published: Wednesday, May 25th, 2016 at 1:14pm
Updated: Wednesday, May 25th, 2016 at 11:56pm
Trump supporters and protesters trade blame, take stock
<http://www.abqjournal.com/?attachment_id=780936>
Albuquerque resident Chelsea Rae Gray burns a Donald Trump T-shirt on
Tuesday outside the Convention Center. A half-dozen police officers were
injured during protests outside a rally for the Republican presidential
candidate. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)
/Copyright © 2016 Albuquerque Journal/
The smell of rotting trash filled the air as the protest spun out of
control.
A group of young men overturned an enormously heavy trash bin and rolled
it into the street, just off Civic Plaza, leaving a trail of empty water
bottles, fast-food wrappers and a banana peel.
And then about a half-dozen volunteers – mostly women – lifted the bin
upright and started tossing the trash back in.
It was another example of the push and pull of Tuesday’s riotous night
in Downtown Albuquerque, ignited by a mix of protesters, people
attending a Donald Trump rally and, perhaps, folks just looking for trouble.
About 8,000 people turned out for the rally inside the Albuquerque
Convention Center – where Trump vowed to win New Mexico and criticized
Gov. Susana Martinez, a fellow Republican – as protesters gathered outside.
Hours later, the cleanup and recovery began even as smoke lingered in
the air.
On Wednesday, people on all sides of the conflict began to take stock
and trade blame.
Protesters try to convince a woman to rethink her vote as she walks
toward Donald Trump's rally Tuesday afternoon at Second and Tijeras in
Downtown Albuquerque. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)
<http://main.abqjournal.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/25/a01_jd_26may_riotasdf.jpg>
Protesters try to convince a woman to rethink her vote as she walks
toward Donald Trump’s rally Tuesday afternoon at Second and Tijeras in
Downtown Albuquerque. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)
Mayor Richard Berry said the city “will work diligently to hold
accountable those few individuals who came to perpetrate violence,
endanger others and damage property.” Police arrested three people
inside the rally and one outside.
City Council President Dan Lewis, who attended the rally and supports
Trump, said councilors will work to make sure there’s money available to
repair broken windows and other damage to the Convention Center.
Liberal advocacy groups, he said, should share in the blame for what
happened.
“You can’t bring the gas and the matches to the party then act shocked
when a fire erupts,” Lewis said.
But the ultimate responsibility for violence, he said, lies with the
people who engaged in it.
At one point, protesters threw rocks and flaming T-shirts at police, and
a half-dozen officers were injured, the police department said.
George Lujan, a spokesman for the SouthWest Organizing Project, said his
group knew people would turn out to protest Trump’s “hateful, bigoted
rally,” so SWOP did what it could to keep the demonstration peaceful.
Trump “brings hatred and divisiveness everywhere he goes,” Lujan said.
At a rally in Iowa earlier this year, Trump told the audience to “knock
the crap” out of anyone preparing to throw a tomato and he’d pay the
legal fees.
Javier Benavidez, executive director of SWOP, was among the protesters
escorted out of Tuesday’s rally in the Albuquerque Convention Center,
though he wasn’t arrested. The crowd booed as Benavidez shouted, “Stop
the hate.”
Trump pointed his finger and gave him a dismissive wave.
*Peacekeepers*
The SouthWest Organizing Project trained about 20 volunteers as
peacekeepers – obvious in their yellow vests – to de-escalate conflicts
outside the Convention Center. They, too, endured the rock- and
bottle-throwing as they tried to keep people safe, Lujan said.
“It was pretty indiscriminate,” he said.
The peacekeepers, at one point, led the crowd on a march through
Downtown – an attempt to burn off people’s energy and move angry
protesters away from Trump supporters entering and leaving the rally,
said Rodrigo Rodriguez, one of the peacekeepers and a community
organizer for SWOP.
Peacekeepers also held hands, at one point, to form a human chain
between protesters and police officers.
“I think the protesters and the police and the Trump supporters were all
antagonizing each other,” Rodriguez said. “The peacekeepers were
literally just trying to keep a barrier between all sides, trying to
de-escalate the situation.”
But after dark, Lujan said, as more people arrived at the protest – and
some of the original protesters left – the tone changed.
“We can’t control the entire protest. … We stayed there as long as we
could,” Lujan said.
People yelled racist taunts and obscenities at each other; shoved,
punched and kicked others, even as the target fell to the ground; and
threw bottles, rocks and flaming T-shirts.
Police officers, peacekeepers in yellow vests and other ordinary folks
stepped in repeatedly to try to defuse confrontations, help the fallen
stand up and clean up the trash.
Lewis said it isn’t fair to blame Trump for the violence any more than
it would be fair to blame President Barack Obama.
“To see an officer and the fear on his face,” Lewis said in an
interview, “that’s pretty shocking that people would put law enforcement
officers through that – people who are there to protect and serve.”
*‘Troublemakers’*
In a written statement, SWOP said it would “never condone any type of
violence” and that it’s not the group’s role to provide policing.
The mayor issued a statement thanking people who protested peacefully.
Berry, a Republican, didn’t attend the Trump rally.
“The freedom to support the candidate of your choice and to protest is a
sacred First Amendment right granted to all Americans,” Berry said.
“When civil protests are interrupted by those who turn to violence, we
are fortunate to have our first responders there to protect our
community and all those who participate in our American democracy.”
City Councilor Ken Sanchez, a Democrat, thanked police officers for
their work.
“Last night,” he said, “officers had literally hundreds of opportunities
to engage the protesters with violence, but instead, at their own peril,
they patiently redirected them until they dispersed.”
Sanchez added that the “violence that erupted last night was not the
result of peaceful protests by local community action groups, but rather
was the result of incitement by a small but organized group of
troublemakers whose sole intent was to act out.”
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