Trump Ejects Protesters Into the Cold and Takes Their Coats

Trump ejects protesters into the winter in Burlington, Vt and takes their coats.

Republican front-runner Donald Trump directed security to kick out protesters and Bernie Sanders supporters from his Vermont rally and to confiscate their coats.

As protesters shouted “Bernie! Bernie!” during his rally in Burlington, Vt, Trump ordered his security:

Throw them out into the cold. Don’t give them their coats. No coats! Confiscate their coats.

The anti-Trump protesters had planned to infiltrate the Trump rally, but many were thwarted as Trump security screened attendees and ejected those who didn’t declare allegiance to the billionaire.

But about half an hour into the speech some protesters began chanting.

Trump said it was “fun” to have the protesters attend his events and kick them out. Trump then told his security:

It’s about 10 degrees below zero outside. … You can keep his coat; tell him we’ll send it to him in a couple of weeks.

“You know it’s sort of fun. Isn’t this more exciting?” Trump added. “You know, you go to a Hillary thing. It’s like, boring. You go to a Jeb thing and you fall asleep.

“Are there any remnants?” Trump later asked, as another protester shouted out.

“There’s a remnant,” he said, pointing. “Throw him out.”

But as the disruptions continued, Trump’s patience appeared to wear thin. He blamed security guards for not responding more forcefully:

This is why we’re losing control of our country. This is why. We lose control of our country ’cause everybody’s afraid to do anything. They’re afraid to lose their jobs.

(h/t The Hill, NY Daily News)

Media

Trump Audience Member Yells Nazi Salute as Protester Removed From Las Vegas Rally

Donald Trump’s rally in Las Vegas on the eve of the next GOP debate turned chaotic on Monday as protesters shouted slogans and audience members screamed back.

Trump was interrupted several times by protesters shouting slogans supporting gun control and “Black lives matter!,” prompting a furious reaction from the crowd. Some screamed, pointed, and at one point shoved a heckler as hotel security swooped in to remove them.

The first protests began after Trump invited Jamiel Shaw, a supporter, to the stage to recount how he lost his son after an undocumented immigrant gang member shot him while walking home. One protester who shouted in response that the story showed the need for gun control was promptly removed by professionals, a scene that played out repeatedly through the night.

As one man was dragged away, people in the crowd variously yelled, “Shoot him!” “Kick his ass,” and “Light the motherfucker on fire!”

A large middle aged man shouted, “Sieg heil!” — a Nazi Germany-era salute — as the protester was taken away. The man, whose motives were not clear, was far enough from the stage that it was unlikely Trump heard the remark.

“He’s a Muslim!” another man in a glittering black suit shouted as another protester was removed. “He’s a Muslim!”

A spokeswoman for the Las Vegas Police Department told NBC News that 15 to 20 people “attempted to disrupt the event, were escorted out, trespassed off property, but no arrests were made.”

Media

Links

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-audience-member-yells-nazi-salute-protester-removed-las-vegas-n480056

Protesters Disrupt Donald Trump Speech at NYC Luncheon

Hundreds of activists rallied on Thursday in front of Donald Trump’s hotel in midtown New York City to condemn the Republican 2016 presidential candidate’s call to bar Muslims temporarily from entering the United States.

Chanting “Dump Trump” and “refugees welcome,” the protesters castigated Trump’s comments.

“We are not asking for any favors,” Linda Sarsour of the Arab American Association of New York told the crowd. “We are asking for the basic respect and dignity that we all deserve here in the United States of America.”

Four protesters chanting “Trump is trying to bring us down, targeting people black and brown,” tried to storm a side entrance into the speech at Manhattan’s The Plaza Hotel as security staff pushed them away.

The protesters were affiliated with various Arab-American and Muslim-American groups, as well as groups for racial equality.

One of those protesters, Jorge Gonzalez, fell down a flight of stairs after a hotel security worker pushed him. He said he was uninjured. Another was thrown to the ground in the hotel lobby.

Two reporters from The Associated Press, Jake Pearson and Warren Levinson, were also forcibly removed from the lobby by hotel security. The event, sponsored by the Commonwealth Club, a Pennsylvania Republican group, was closed to the press.

Later in Trump’s speech, about nine other protesters from various advocacy groups stood up to denounce his recent comments to temporarily bar Muslims from entering the U.S., protesters said.

“I’m really frightened by that kind of rhetoric,” said Martha Acklesberg, 69, a member of the group Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, who along with Judith Plaskow, 68, paid to hear Trump speech and then disrupted it in protest.

Trump, said Acklesberg, briefly stopped his speech during their protests and quipped, “when you’re the front runner you get a lot of attention.”

(h/t Associated Press, Reuters)

Reality

Violence has no place in our political process and should be condemned from all sides.

Donald Trump says a lot of divisive and hateful statements, escalation of tensions may only seem natural. However as a protester, engaging in violence only plays into the hands of Donald Trump and his supporters. It gives them justification for their false sense of being victimized and allows them to paint the opposition as “thugs” and side-step our real and valid arguments.

Media

http://bcove.me/hqzadmzh

Supporters of Donald Trump Spit and Clash With Protesters In Richmond Rally

Violence against protesters at Trump rally in Richmond, VA

Donald Trump on Wednesday addressed a crowd of nearly 5,000 energized supporters in Richmond, delivering his standard stump speech and taking shots at Democrats who debated for the first time just the night before.

But not long into his speech, nearly 20 protesters unfurled a banner that read “No human life is illegal” and began shouting “Dump Trump” as the Republican front-runner tried to press on with his speech.

After more than 10 minutes of heckling, the protesters were escorted out by a combination of Trump campaign and event staff, as well as several police officers. At least one female protester was physically forced out of the event hall by a police officer after she got into a physical altercation with another woman at the event. An African-American woman shouted, “Black power” as she was forced out of the rally.

The protesters started shouting and heckling Trump just as he began talking about his plan to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, which at first drew massive applause from the crowd of supporters. Trump supporters quickly began cheering to drown out the protesters.

Media

Links

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/14/politics/donald-trump-protestors-virginia/

Trump Security Guard Hits Protester

Trump security punch protester

A top security guard for Donald Trump smacked a protester in the face after the man chased him for snatching a banner Thursday, video shows.

The guard grabbed the blue sign that said “Trump: Make America Racist Again” — a play on the billionaire’s campaign motto — outside a press conference on the Donald’s new pledge of loyalty to the Republican Party, NY1 Noticias video shows.

Demonstrator Efrain Galicia ran after Schiller and appeared to reach for the banner and grab the guard from behind. Within seconds, the guard turned around and whacked him in the face with an open hand as a scrum of reporters snapped photos.

Galicia stumbled as another guard tried to restrain him, appearing to briefly put him in a stranglehold. Galicia fought back, grabbing at the second guard’s arms before the two yelled at each other outside Trump Tower.

A source familiar with the Trump campaign identified the first guard as Keith Schiller, Trump’s director of security and longtime bodyguard.

After the 10-second tussle, Galicia told reporters the guards are “just acting like their boss.”

“This man thinks he can do whatever he wants in this country, and we’re going to stop him,” Galicia said in Spanish.

An attorney for Galicia said he is exploring all “legal remedies that may be available” as Schiller appeared to “attempt to suppress free speech and the growing public criticism of the Trump campaign.”

“The video in a sense speaks for itself,” Benjamin Dictor told the Daily News Friday. “The actions were just exceedingly aggressive especially given the fact that demonstrators were on a public sidewalk speaking out about issues of public concern.”

(h/t NY Daily News)

Media

Update

On 8/21/2018 a New York State judge has shot down an effort by President Donald Trump to dismiss a lawsuit against his private security guards for allegedly roughing up demonstrators who were protesting outside of Trump Tower months after he announced his presidential run.

The New York Law Journal reports that Bronx Supreme Court Justice Fernando Tapia on Tuesday declined to dismiss the suit filed by protesters who claim they were roughed up by the president’s security team back in 2015.

Specifically, Tapia said that Trump himself “authorized and condoned” his security guards to rough up the protesters, and he specifically cited the president’s statement that “maybe they deserved to be roughed up” on the grounds that “it was absolutely disgusting” what the protesters were doing.

The lawsuit was filed by five Latino activists who claim that they were roughed up by longtime Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller and two other men who were employed as part of the then-candidate’s security personnel.

Links

http://www.ny1noticias.com/nyc/twc-ny1-noticias/noticias/2015/09/3/protestan-frente-a-torre-trump-.html

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/03/trump-violence

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