Anti-Trump Protests Continue a Third Night in Metro Detroit

Updated. METRO DETROIT, MI — Protesters marched in Detroit, Grand Rapids, East Lansing and in other Michigan communities Thursday, and more demonstrations were planned Friday in a third night of protests against the election of Donald J. Trump as the nation’s 45th president.

Tens of thousands of Americans disappointed with the results of the 2016 presidential election have gathered in cities across the country to voice their anger at the president-elect’s past and their fears over the country’s future after Trump is sworn in just more than two months from now.

The Michigan State Police said in series of tweets Friday that though police respect the right of protesters to peacefully assemble, demonstrators who block traffic will get citations.

Two rallies that broke out in Detroit Thursday night, including one downtown where about 100 protesters blocked traffic and ignored police commands to disperse, Motor City Muckraker reported. A second rally in Midtown also blocked traffic. There were no arrests in either protest, and no one was injured.

One of two rallies in Metro Detroit Friday was in response to a Wednesday incident in a Royal Oak Middle School cafeteria that left some minority students afraid for the safety.

Students began chanting “build the wall” — the same refrain chanted at Trump campaign rallies in response to his call for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border — and a video of the disturbance was subsequently viewed on social media School officials strongly denounced the incident as outside the district’s core values. Protests were also planned Friday in Philadelphia, Portland, Boston and Miami.

“Stop Trump Royal Oak” demonstrators marched through the city before joining a By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) rally at Wayne State University in Detroit.

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• Royal Oak Students Chant ‘Build the Wall’ After Trump’s Election

Organizers of the Royal Oak rally planned to march through the city to “protest fascism, bigotry, and Trump's dangerous policy proposals” before heading to the Detroit rally, the “WSU Rally & March To Shut Down Trump's Racist Vision For America,” according to Facebook events pages.

“Donald Trump has used the presidential election in the United States to build a movement modeled on the semi-fascist ultra-right wing immigrant bashing parties of Europe, like the Le Pen National Front, and the historical experience of the rise to power of Mussolini’s fascists and Hitler’s Nazis,” the Detroit protest organizers wrote.

“The feeble electoral tactics of Clinton’s Democrats have failed to prevent this disaster for democracy in the U.S. and around the world,” organizers continued. “Both the Democratic Party and the American news media have proven bankrupt in defeating Trump or even in speaking the plain truth about the threat he presents and the real character of the movement he heads.”

In protests in Michigan a day after Trump’s election, demonstrators expressed shock and disbelief at the election outcome.

In Detroit, protesters waved signs, chanted slogans like “Immigrants, Muslims, here to stay! We will march like MLK” and sometimes raised their fists in solidarity during rush hour Wednesday along Woodward Avenue near the riverfront.

In Ann Arbor, a few hundred people showed up for an anti-Trump rally, but a follow-up rally to promote love, equality and discussion about the election outcome drew more — about 1,000 people.

Photo by @Knowehlani_ used with permission