Hundreds of people on Thursday took to the streets of San Jose—at one point blocking a portion of Highway 87—to protest Donald Trump’s election to the nation’s highest office.
The demonstrations began in the afternoon when roughly 200 students from San Jose High and a few local charter schools marched to City Hall with signs denouncing the president-elect, who defined his campaign with pejorative rhetoric about minorities, Muslims and women.
Protesters made a larger showing later in the day, starting with a group of about 200 that at least doubled at its peak. Activists hoisted signs that read, “Not my president,” “Dump Trump” and more aggressive denunciations. Blasting music and chanting “peaceful protest,” they worked their way from the civic center to Highway 87, where they walked about a mile from San Carlos to Julian streets accompanied by a police escort.
“The intent for tonight was to show Donald Trump and the people who support him who we are and that we will not stand for hate,” said Mike Baker, a 28-year-old organizer. “We want them to know that we will stand for the people who need to be protected, and that we will not forget his rhetoric. We won’t forget what he has inspired.”
Protesters stand outside the MLK library in San Jose. (Photo by Jennifer Wadsworth)
Heightened bigotry apparently inspired by Trump’s win has been reported throughout the country, including harassment, assault and racist graffiti. During the Thursday night protest, the passenger of a car with a Trump-Pence bumper sticker leaned out the window and shouted an obscenity at some of the activists.
The morning after Election Day, someone allegedly attempted to yank a hijab off of a San Jose State University student’s head. Nineteen-year-old Esra Altun, a psychology major who attended the afternoon protest, said she collapsed to her knees, gasping for air after the attack, which took place in a parking garage on Fourth and San Salvador streets.
University spokeswoman Pat Harris said it’s unclear who attacked her, but an investigation is underway.
“We are, of course, very concerned that this has occurred on our campus,” Harris said. “No one should experience this kind of behavior at San Jose State.”
That same day, San Jose City College sent out a campus-wide alert about “hate motivated vandalism” in a restroom stall.
A protester outside the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in downtown San Jose. (Photo by Jennifer Wadsworth)
Sylvia Arenas, an East Side school trustee and candidate for San Jose City Council, said her son asked her on Wednesday if he would get arrested if he went to Mexico.
“I told him, ‘No, absolutely not,’” Arenas said. “’As long as you don’t do anything wrong, you are safe.’ Apparently someone at the school told him to go back to Mexico and some other comments. My son was scared.”
State Attorney General, and now U.S. Senator-elect, Kamala Harris issued a bulletin to law enforcement on Wednesday with a rundown of state laws that prohibit hate crimes.
Hate crimes are typically defined as an act that injures not only the immediate victim, but also the community they’re perceived to represent. Harris said that police agencies throughout the state have seen an uptick in threats of hate crimes and violent extremism.
According to a state Justice Department report, hate crimes surged by more than 10 percent from 2014 to last year. Most of that increase stems from crimes motivated by religious bias, the report found. The second-most common hate crime involves bias against the victim’s sexual orientation.
Though Trump hasn’t disparaged LGBTQ people the way he has non-white ethnic groups and women, he surrounds himself with people who have. His running mate, Mike Pence, called homosexuality a personal choice, and one that will hasten “societal collapse.” Pence opposed the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that forced non-straights to stay in the closet. He also decried President Barack Obama’s directive on transgender bathrooms.
“I haven’t really slept since Hillary [Clinton] conceded,” 50-year-old Gilroy resident Vicki Lucas said. “It’s scary. Because number one, I’m a woman. But I’m also a lesbian, and it’s frightening the way [Trump] degrades everybody and the way he surrounds himself with extreme right-wing Christians.”
That fear seems to be reverberating in the in the LGBTQ community following Trump’s Electoral College win. There’s a sense that the Trump administration will reverse some of the advances made toward greater equality.
The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention hotline for queer youth said the call volume doubled this week. “Young people are worried about their futures,” Trevor Project spokesman John Mendelsohn told Time Magazine. That number is 866.488.7386.
The Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center in San Jose will host a post-election meeting tonight to talk about how to continue advocating for equal rights under an administration adversarial to the cause.
Organizers of Thursday’s anti-Trump march in San Jose will assemble for another rally this afternoon. Activists created a Twitter account, @NotMyPresSV, and a website for people to get involved.
Similar protests have been taking place throughout the U.S. In Oakland, the turnout has numbered in the thousands—up to 7,000 at one point, according to news reports. In one of his first Twitter updates since the election, Trump dismissed the demonstrations as being led by “professional protesters, incited by the media. Very unfair!”
All photos by Greg Ramar.
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- Many protesters wore masks and carried anti-Donald Trump signs.
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- This protester was a very good boy.
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- Some protesters concealed their identities but the demonstration remained peaceful.
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- Santa Clara Street shut down as protesters marched by San Pedro Square,
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- The LGBTQ community has expressed concerns that a Donald Trump administration will try and repeal their rights.
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- California was one of several states to overwhelmingly support Hillary Clinton for president.
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- Donald Trump’s divisive campaign rhetoric has people wondering what he will do in office.
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- This man in an anonymous mask carried a message of love.
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- At least a couple hundred people gathered outside of Martin Luther King, Jr. Library.
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- Tensions have been running high since Donald Trump won the presidential election.
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- This man was one of many people marching down Santa Clara Street.
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- The public art project under the Highway 87 overpass added a little light to protest.
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- Donald Trump received an endorsement from the Ku Klux Klan.
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- This protester raised a fist in solidarity with the anti-Donald Trump movement.
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- A protester outside the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in downtown San Jose. (Photo by Jennifer Wadsworth)
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- People marched through downtown San Jose on Thursday night to protest this week’s election of Donald Trump as president of the United States. (Photo by Greg Ramar)
I was in the area of City Hall midday when the youth came out to protest. In total it was more like 500-600 school children. But they came in groups from different directions and different schools and some groups left after a while to return to school so the count varied at any given time as groups came/went. I passed several large gruops heading down Santa Clara: they were very purposeful. The protest appeared very self-led (no adults were egging them on…). Overheard some of their conversations and they seemed very informed.
I’m simply amazed at how stupid you people are, Obumer and Hillary both want to ship in hundreds of thousands of possibly radical Muslims with records of cutting of heads, shooting up gay night clubs, throwing bombs in gay neighborhoods, and you’re afraid of Trump supporters that have been gang beaten by people like you.
Simply amazing how you people fall for the Koolaid trick of the leftist media every time.
Your kid wants to go to Mexico like Mexicans come here? You bet your going to be arrested, they aren’t going to play catch and release like we do here they have very strict immigration laws and they really don’t like stupid Americans that violate them. There are no sanctuary cities there.
You will find Canada not much more accommodating, I checked that out when Obumer was elected!
So stop with the tantrums it make you people look like vial spoiled brats.
Trump is very smart. He fed on the fearful uneducated and religious brainwashed like this comment from empty gun. It is our responsibility as Americans to restore the faith and foundation of our nation. Stay strong. Stay focused.
No Mr Seattle,
It is the victims of government indoctrinated anti American Hillary supporters perpetrating violence on the streets of our cities are creating fear. Please note that the lead picture showing people carrying Mexican flags.
What American would do that? Obviously not a bunch of patriots.
More like some dim wit who was brainwashed into thinking this is Mexico.
In Mexico these people would be immediately arrested and tried, likely beaten and raped by the Federales as some of my friends who got drunk down there were.
We have tolerated 8 years of open institutionalised anti Christian, anti Jewish, anti white, and anti conservative hate from Obama reseam and it’s consorts in state and city governments.
You think you won the popular vote, I doubt it, the place’s that Hillary won are all places with rigged polls and dead voters with no ID’s . There is a very big red country full of people unemployed, deliberately left behind and it’s their turn to fix the problems created by Obama.
Elections have consequences as the lame duck president has been so fond of saying.
You have a right to peacefully protest here in America MR Seattle but this vial pack of verman that are shooting our cops, beating good citizens, burning cars and business and cities must stop it is not free speech and will likely fan the flames of civil war.
Just stop it!
Many if not most of the “protesters” are paid by George Soros and brought in on buses.
What is lost here is that Trump is not a Republican, if anything he is less conservative than Obama. He is a life long NYC Democrat that believes in active government, but a competent government. He is a disaster for conservatives. If you have paid attention to him since the 80s you will see he doesn’t fight against government out of philosophy, he just thinks they are incompetent. Bad deals, bad policy, bad execution.
My guess is if unobstructed he would:
1) Amend ACA to allow a medicare buy-in for middle class income instead of continually punishing the middle class with higher mandate penalties. You see the writing on the wall already. Government will spend more on Healthcare with an unobstructed Trump, not less.
2) Cut taxes on the middle class, raise taxes on higher incomes, cut corporate tax to get that inversion money back in US.
3) Punish inversion tax avoiders (with a near term amnesty), and end some other dubious loopholes like carried interest. Oh and exact revenge on Silicon Valley elites, just for its own sake.
4) Rebuild water pipes in swing state cities. Along with beautiful airports, better highways, and huge oil pipelines.
5) Redirect money from sanctuary cities to swing state cities for redevelopment / infrastructure. I assume he is looking to solidify support in the mid-west and could give a hoot about Portland, San Jose, and LA. Detroit, Flint, Gary, Cleveland, Pittsburg, mid-West will see Fed investment, CA/WA/OR/NY will see much less. What ever gets him to 271, because now its only about one thing for him, re-election.
6) Pull out of all the trade agreements and cut deals with the big guys, China and Russia. This would reduce our defense protection racket and redirect that money back into domestic defense and infrastructure projects.
If Bernie won, I think much of the outcome would look very similar. Identity Politics being the greatest difference between the two. Trump is a Keynesian in the Nixonian mold, because that maximizes his power. My guess is the debt would skyrocket along with inflation going to 5%-10%. But so what? For many in the middle class that is a good outcome, if it means more jobs, increased income, lead free water, safer roads, more secure energy sources, and better airports.
The one thing that the election of Trump proves is that conservatism (and likely globalism) as a political philosophy is dead in America. Personally, I think he will bankrupt the US, so if CA liberals are so bent on obstructing him, all the better for conservatives. It gives everyone 4 more years to diversify and prepare. He is a Democrat that just pulled a coup on the GOP and the left is trying to impeach him before he gets into office. Good luck to that, maybe these riots will work.
I am with you in spirit, but being a white male and not too keen on a beat down, I think I’ll watch from a “safe space”.
Remember. Trump is a protectionist, supporting some of your comments. Hillary a globalist. Corporate America seek the latter. What tipped the scales are the rust belt states who normally vote Democratic. Ironic that the protesters are the same who rallied against the 1% who represent sending jobs the middle class have lost due to offshoring..
I’m confused. Who’s yelling “stop the hate”, the guy smashing out the window, the guy with the sign where every sentence starts with the f-word or the brain-less dorks blocking Highway 87 while I’m just trying to get home?
Can someone tell me where I can buy a costume so that I can dress up to look like an illegal alien, a Muslim with a torn burqa or some pencil-neck ignoramus with a Guy Fawkes mask? I just want to get home through the crowd of imbeciles so I can eat my frijoles, halal chicken, some type of soul food, grits, quiche, rice, anything stereotypically kosher, fish (only on Friday in order to offend Catholics) barbecued ribs (any other typical redneck food) and any other ethnic food, the mention of which will send protesters into a rage, before it gets cold.
Blocking Highway 87!?! Where’s a drunk driver in an 18-wheeler when you need one.
Obviously confused when you support trump and denounce violence then advocate threatening people with a vehicle.
Mr. Racoon,
This is part of the problem. No one threatened anyone with a vehicle but the reaction of the knee-jerk yellow-puddle rioter-enablers is so predictable. I don’t even know how to drive a stick shift, much less the millions of gears in a semi.
I don’t know why these mental midgets are so worried about being deported. We can’t even deport an illegal immigrant after he kills someone! (Ask the parents of Kate Steinle!).
True irony would be the horde of protesting savages and vandals being plowed into by an 18-wheeler, driven by an illegal immigrant, after the truck lost its brakes because it came up here from Mexico and is therefore, due to NAFTA, not required to undergo a U.S. safety inspection and was on its way to deliver a load of pesticide that is legal in Mexico but illegal in the US, followed by the driver fleeing to a sanctuary city where he impregnates a homeless woman living in affordable housing who then has an anchor baby that qualifies her for welfare as a single mother who then gets drunk and groped at a frat party by a college kid with “white privilege, who gets thrown in jail on a light sentence, where he shares a cell with a crazy man who, after being beaten by supposedly out of control jail guards, then goes on a hunger strike and is released from jail early due to overcrowding and who then gets high on legal marijuana he bought from a dispensary and is then profile-stopped by one of only a dozen San Jose police officers who didn’t leave after Measure B destroyed their pension system and who is caught on cell phone camera doing something, however justifiable, that prompts race-baiters to start another protest until another 18-wheeler comes along and the cycle goes on endlessly! Welcome to San Jose!!!
I’m just trying to get home before my dinner gets cold!!! Is it too much to ask for these imbeciles to stay out of the road on Highway 87 so I can get by them so I can get home and eat before I have to go to my second G** D****job so I can earn enough to send my daughter to college where she can sit next to someone who is there on a “person of color” scholarship that my daughter is not eligible for because she’s white but who then screeches about unfairness and cuts class to go out into the street to protest while my daughter worries about whether or not I’m going to be able to get through to pick her up after class because I don’t want her riding her bike or walking to school because of the G***D** crowd of dumbsh*ts who are trashing the downtown!!!
Ladies and gentleman, Welcome to Hell!!!!
Take it easy bro. Your man got elected. The election was not rigged. All the Muslims will be out, the illegals walled off, affirmative action put out with the garbage. Breathe. It’s almost like you guys need something to rail against.
Mr. Calm HD,
“you guys”?…”you guys?!?”…YOU GUYS!!!! I’m not even a Republican you ignoramus! I’m just a poor b*stard who just wants to get to work. I don’t give a rats-ass if the guy working next to me is a legal or “immigrationally challenged” as long as he’s not lazy, and he does his fair share of the work so it doesn’t get dumped on me because I don’t get paid any extra for picking up his slack.
And all I know about affirmative action is that other people get it and my daughter isn’t eligible because she’s white. That’s all I know.
As far as Muslims; Assimilate. You want to live in America, is it asking so much that at least when you are out in public can you at least try to be an American?!
If you want to go around tying up your women with head scarves or throwing a black potato sack over your wife and daughter after you cut eye holes in it or if you want to throw your bath mat on the floor five times a day, if you want to beat and “honor kill” your women GO BACK HOME AND DO IT THERE!!!
Until then,stop whining, stop burning the flag, stop blowing sh*t up and if you can’t even do that, stop blocking the road!!!
JR,
It sound like a great plot for a Cheech Marin movie, should we call it Pinata Day, or Born in East Jose?
Mr. Empty G,
This would have to be the theme song for the movie you suggested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPM1ifkOQ9s
I love it……………LOL
J.S. I believe you are looking for the local KKK or Arian Brotherhood.
Blocking streets and interstates and bridges? Destroying brand new autos at a dealership? Breaking windows on peoples cars? Damaging peoples businesses? Look, quit pampering these jackasses. The government has the responsibility to the people paying their wages to wade in on these sleezy weiners and stop this crap. Lock their butts up for a year or two. Quit pampering them and treat them like the criminals they are. Men and women alike. People have seen this crap for too long. What if someone is trying to take someone to the emergency room and can’t because these weasels have the highway blocked and cause a death? You have the fire power to stop these spoiled brats. Do it.
What a bunch of entitled brats. So you don’t get your way. So smash in the windshields of cars. You are a pathetic group. I am entirely disappointed that you think your fit throwing has any effect.
Where are your parents? Trying to find the money for your fine? Shame on all of you. One thing is peaceful protest, another is spoiled, whiney brats who are filled with the hate they despise.
Before any of you drivers hit the brakes for the anti-Trump rioters, consider what happened to this poor fellow at the hands of some young men Obama might say, could’ve been his sons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmljpCj27tk
Hillary supporters in LA beating a homeless black woman to the ground because she supported Trump: https://youtu.be/cJV41gS2c8M. Not covered by CNN–The Clinton News Network.
Remember all the Republicans who rioted in 2008 and 2012 when Obama won? Neither do I.
Liberals must be so proud of these gutless crap thugs running the streets. Well are you proud you intolerant liberals?
You do realize that the rioting is occurring only in the few states that Hillary won. Hmmmm. I would not be surprised if George Soros is also funding these riots as he did others. Hillary is responsible for these actions because she played her own voting group. You don’t see her or the President very upset about this display of feelings.
I don’t suppose the IRS or FBI would have any reason to follow that money. Nope no connection!
The first photo shows us a few Mexican girls carrying Mexican flags. If a few American girls carried American flags to a protest in Mexico, they’d all be arrested and thrown into a prison where they would not fare well.
The last photo shows three “protesters” so committed to their “cause” that they hide behind bandanas and a mask.
However, these losers get press coverage, while the mainstream media do the best they can to keep coverage of protesters beating Trump supporters to a minimum; especially if the beaters are black and the beaten are white.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8CjI8_gNa0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6K9dS9wl7U
Best post on this whole site, hypocrite of the highest order. Oh yes, it was another time…
Now you just need a video of Bill Clinton chastising Trump on his misogyny.
> Claims of hate crimes possibly linked to . . . .
Well, THAT really nails it down.
What’s the minimum jail time for a “claimed hate crime possibly linked to something or other”?
Jennifer decries attacks by alleged Trump supporters, and rightfully so. But she ignores the attacks against Trump supporters by Hillary supporters, so-called liberals and progressives, which are at a level an order of magnitude higher in number than attacks by Trump supporters. The media deliberately refuse to publicize the attacks by Hillary supporters, and they only come to light when a You Tube goes viral showing them–like the old white guy stomped by black men and women, and the black homeless woman in LA beaten to the ground by Hillary supporters. Liberals in this country have become the most intolerant segment of US society. A more accurate point of view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTJgT-Egrgg