MORE than 95 arrests were made as US police deployed pepper spray and tear gas in a chaotic confrontation streets away from Donald Trump’s inauguration as protesters registered their rage against the new president.
In Britain thousands demonstrated against the Trump presidency and banners across bridges up and down the country declared: “Build bridges not walls”.
And there were spirited peaceful demonstrations at various security checkpoints near the US Capitol in Washington as police helped ticket-holders get through to the inaugural ceremony.
But at one point in police chased a group of about 100 protesters who smashed the windows of city centre businesses and injured two police officers as they denounced capitalism and President Trump.
Demonstrators dressed in black had smashed windows of shops and cars as they marched through the city.
They targeted shops including a Bank of America branch and a neighbouring Starbucks as well as a McDonald's restaurant before the inauguration ceremony.
Ronald Dye, 56, said he hid under tables at Starbucks as 300 to 400 protesters swept past, some stopping to hurl bricks.
“They started throwing bricks at first, then they started throwing the trash bin but that didn’t work, then they picked up metal spikes and just started smashing the windows out," he said.
Police in riot gear used pepper spray from large canisters and eventually cordoned off the protesters.
The group damaged vehicles, destroyed property and set small fires while armed with crowbars and hammers, police said in a statement. Police said “numerous” people were arrested and charged with rioting. The confrontation happened about an hour before Mr Trump was sworn in and began giving his inaugural address at the Capitol.
There were rallies in London, Glasgow, Manchester and Edinburgh, where protesters donned Trump masks to make their opposition to the new President known.
In Glasgow more than 500 took part in a protest against the presidency – including an alternative inauguration speech declaring opposition to Trump intolerance.
Around 100 officers in riot gear, carrying shields,were seen standing in a line blocking off K Street in the American capital.
Washington interim police chief Peter Newsham described the damage as significant to local businesses and vehicles. One heavily-damaged limousine was swarmed by protesters at one point and later set ablaze.
"Unfortunately, we had a small group of protesters who wanted to disrupt the inauguration,'' Mr Newsham said. "They caused significant damage to a number of blocks in our city.''
The violence appeared contained to a three-to-four-block area, while the main protest site at the Navy Memorial near the inaugural parade route was largely peaceful.
When one police SUV tried to drive through the crowd, several protesters dressed in all black tried to block it and when it sped up, pushing the protesters aside, one picked up a rock, threw it, and smashed the vehicle’s rear window.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel