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Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Pepper spray, stun grenades used to control crowds

by

20170120

WASH­ING­TON – Pro­test­ers reg­is­tered their rage against the new pres­i­dent yes­ter­day in a chaot­ic con­fronta­tion with po­lice who used pep­per spray and stun grenades in a melee just blocks from Don­ald Trump's in­au­gur­al pa­rade route.

Scores were ar­rest­ed for trash­ing prop­er­ty and at­tack­ing of­fi­cers.

Sev­er­al spir­it­ed demon­stra­tions un­fold­ed peace­ful­ly at var­i­ous se­cu­ri­ty check­points near the Capi­tol as po­lice helped tick­et-hold­ers get through to the in­au­gur­al cer­e­mo­ny.

Signs read, "Re­sist Trump Cli­mate Jus­tice Now," "Let Free­dom Ring," "Free Pales­tine."

But about a mile from the Na­tion­al Mall, po­lice gave chase to a group of about 100 pro­test­ers who smashed the win­dows of down­town busi­ness­es in­clud­ing a Star­bucks, a Bank of Amer­i­ca and a Mc­Don­ald's as they de­nounced cap­i­tal­ism and Trump. Po­lice in ri­ot gear used pep­per spray from large can­is­ters and even­tu­al­ly cor­doned off pro­test­ers at 12th and L streets in north­west Wash­ing­ton.

The con­fronta­tion be­gan an hour be­fore Trump took the oath of of­fice and es­ca­lat­ed sev­er­al hours lat­er as the crowd of pro­test­ers swelled to more than 1,000, some wear­ing gas masks and with arms chained to­geth­er in­side PVC pipe. One said the demon­stra­tors were "bring­ing in the cav­al­ry."

When some crossed po­lice lines, taunt­ing, "Put the pigs in the ground," po­lice charged with ba­tons and pep­per spray, as well as stun grenades, which are used to shock and dis­perse crowds. Loud booms echoed through the streets about six blocks from where Trump would soon hold his in­au­gur­al pa­rade.

Some pro­test­ers picked up bricks and con­crete from the side­walk and hurled them at po­lice lines. Some rolled large, met­al trash cans at po­lice.

Po­lice said in a state­ment that the group dam­aged ve­hi­cles, de­stroyed prop­er­ty and set small fires while armed with crow­bars and ham­mers. Pe­ter New­sham, the in­ter­im po­lice chief of the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Po­lice De­part­ment, said the group caused "sig­nif­i­cant dam­age" along a num­ber of blocks and that more than 90 peo­ple were ar­rest­ed and charged with ri­ot­ing.

Be­fore In­au­gu­ra­tion Day, the Dis­rup­tJ20 coali­tion, named af­ter the date of the in­au­gu­ra­tion, had promised that peo­ple par­tic­i­pat­ing in its ac­tions in Wash­ing­ton would at­tempt to shut down the cel­e­bra­tions, risk­ing ar­rest when nec­es­sary.

Ear­li­er in the day, as guests were go­ing in to the cer­e­mo­ny, lines for tick­et-hold­ers en­ter­ing two gates stretched for blocks at one point as pro­test­ers clogged en­trances.

Trump sup­port­er Brett Eck­er said the pro­test­ers were frus­trat­ing but weren't go­ing to put a damper on his day.

"They're just here to stir up trou­ble," said the 36-year-old pub­lic school teacher. "It up­sets me a lit­tle bit that peo­ple choose to do this, but yet again, it's one of the things I love about this coun­try."

At one check­point, pro­test­ers wore or­ange jump­suits with black hoods over their faces to rep­re­sent pris­on­ers in US de­ten­tion at Guan­tanamo Bay. Eleanor Gold­field, who helped or­gan­ise the Dis­rupt J20 protest, said pro­test­ers want­ed to show Trump and his "mis­guid­ed, mis­in­formed or just plain dan­ger­ous" sup­port­ers that they won't be silent.

Black Lives Mat­ter and fem­i­nist groups al­so made their voic­es heard. Out­side the In­ter­na­tion­al Spy Mu­se­um, pro­test­ers in Russ­ian hats ridiculed Trump's praise of Pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin, march­ing with signs call­ing Trump "Putin's Pup­pet" and "Krem­lin em­ploy­ee of the month."

Demon­stra­tions in Wash­ing­ton were not the on­ly ones yes­ter­day. In San Fran­cis­co, thou­sands of demon­stra­tors formed a hu­man chain on the Gold­en Gate Bridge and chant­ed "Love Trumps hate." In the city's fi­nan­cial dis­trict, a few hun­dred pro­test­ers blocked traf­fic out­side an of­fice build­ing part­ly owned by Trump.

In At­lanta, protests con­verged at City Hall and a few hun­dred peo­ple chant­ed and waved signs protest­ing Trump, de­nounc­ing racism and po­lice bru­tal­i­ty and ex­press­ing sup­port for im­mi­grants, Mus­lims and the Black Lives Mat­ter move­ment.

And in Nashville, half a dozen pro­test­ers chained them­selves to the doors of the Ten­nessee Capi­tol. Hun­dreds al­so sat in a 10-minute silent protest at a park while Trump took the oath of of­fice. Or­gan­is­ers led a prayer, sang pa­tri­ot­ic songs and read the De­c­la­ra­tion of In­de­pen­dence aloud.

Yes­ter­day's protests weren't the first of the in­au­gu­ra­tion. On Thurs­day night, pro­test­ers and Trump sup­port­ers clashed out­side a pro-Trump event in Wash­ing­ton. Po­lice used chem­i­cal spray on some pro­test­ers in an ef­fort to con­trol the un­ruly crowd.

The demon­stra­tions won't end when Trump takes up res­i­dence in the White House. A mas­sive Women's March on Wash­ing­ton is planned for to­day. Christo­pher Gel­dart, the Dis­trict of Co­lum­bia's home­land se­cu­ri­ty di­rec­tor, has said 1,800 bus­es have reg­is­tered to park in the city to­day, which could mean near­ly 100,000 peo­ple com­ing in just by bus. (AP)


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