Teen Gropped and Pepper Sprayed at Trump Rally

Police are looking for a man who pepper-sprayed a 15-year-old girl as opponents and supporters of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump clashed outside a Wisconsin rally.

The altercation is the latest in a series of confrontations that have marred recent Trump events.

Investigators have photos taken by participants at Tuesday’s demonstration outside of the Holiday Inn Express that could help to identify the man with the pepper spray, Janesville Police Sgt. Aaron Ellis said Wednesday.

Ellis said the girl told police she punched a man who groped her, and another man then pepper-sprayed her. The girl and a 19-year-old woman standing next to her were treated and released from a hospital, police said.

Ellis said the girl could face charges for punching the man, identified by the Wisconsin State Journal as Dan Crandall, of Milton.

“I didn’t touch her,” Crandall, a Trump supporter, told the newspaper. “She started to challenge why I was at the Trump rally since I was a grown man. I told her I was at the Trump rally because I was a grown man and I cared about my country.”

Crandall said someone standing behind him used the pepper spray. That person could be charged with illegal discharge of pepper spray since he was not using it in self-defense, Ellis said.

“It doesn’t appear that (the man who used the pepper-spray) was directly involved,” Ellis said. Police released a photo of the man suspected of using pepper spray on the girl, which shows him wearing a red hat with the Trump campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”

Reality

Donald Trump has declared in the past he would help to defend supporters who respond to protesters with violence in court. It is no surprise that violence is a common occurrence at Trump events.

Protests at Trump rallies do not occur in a vacuum. Since he first announced his candidacy, Trump continues to make racist, sexist, and authoritarian remarks that marginalizes anyone who do not meet his view of white and conservative enough. A full list of protests can be found here.

Video posted on social media shows the girl arguing with someone in the crowd before punching or pushing a person who was not shown on camera. The teen was then pepper-sprayed. As the young woman was blinded by the spray, Trump supporters cheered, and one man wearing Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” shouted at her, “You goddamn communist nigger-lover, get out of here.”

Media

Links

http://news.yahoo.com/teen-pepper-sprayed-trump-protesters-supporters-clash-120727698–election.html

https://twitter.com/MollyBeck/status/714930032444047361