Chicago Trump Rally Shut Down
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Chicago Protesters
Shut Down Trump Rally
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has crisscrossed the country spewing his brand of hate against Muslims, women and more, but all of that ended in Chicago on Friday night.
It’s safe to say the Windy City was having none of what Trump was selling — and the proverbial “shit hit the fan.”
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For the first time ever, the Trump rally crowd was an equal mix of supporters eager to cheer on “The Donald,” combined with those who are fiercely opposed to his candidacy. Protesters literally shut down the planned Trump rally on the Chicago campus of the University of Illinois. Racial epithets were hurled. Punches were thrown. People were hurt. Trump was forced to cancel before ever taking the stage.
The Chicago protest and the events that ensued should come as no surprise. For months, Donald Trump has been planting the seeds of hate everywhere he’s appeared. Now, that hate has begun to bloom.
Crowds both inside and outside the venue were overbearing and like nothing the Trump campaign had ever seen. In the interest of safety, a Trump staffer announced the event would be “postponed,” which prompted protesters into raucous chants and cheers. Many inside the arena rushed onto the floor and jumped for joy.
According to Chicago community activist Quo Vadis, hundreds of protesters positioned themselves in groups around the arena. Their goal was “for Donald to take the stage and to completely interrupt him. The plan was to shut Donald Trump all the way down,” he said.
“Trump represents everything America is not and everything Chicago is not,” said 20-year-old student Kamran Siddiqui. “We came in here and we wanted to shut this down. Because this is a great city and we don’t want to let that person in here.”
The anti-Trump sentiment continued.
“Our country is not going to make it being divided by the views of Donald Trump,” said 37-year-old lifelong Chicago resident Jermaine Hodge. “Our country is divided enough. Donald Trump, he’s preaching hate. He’s preaching division.”
Interestingly, a Trump supporter who attended the Chicago rally said he believes Trump created the environment that led to Friday night’s melee. According to 23-year-old Dan Kozak of Tinley Park, IL, Trump’s decision to hold the event at the school, which is known as a civil and immigrant rights organizing hub with large minority student populations, was an extremely poor decision.
“I think he was kind of provoking things, to be honest with you,” Kozak said. “He could have picked the suburbs and nothing would have happened.”
With this week’s slate of winner-take-all primary elections, confrontations between the legion of loyal Trump supporters and protesters who accuse him of stoking racial hatred have become increasingly contentious. For anyone with a conscious, it’s clear that Trump’s divisive candidacy is tipping into dangerous territory.
On Saturday at a rally in Vandalia, Ohio, 22-year-old Thomas DiMassimo dispelled the notion that all Trump protesters are blacks or minorities, by rushing the stage and nearly pulling Trump to the ground, prompting Secret Service agents to step in.
“I was thinking that I could get up on stage and take his podium away from him and take his mic away from him and send a message to all people out in the country who wouldn’t consider themselves racist, who wouldn’t consider themselves approving of what type of violence Donald Trump is allowing in his rallies, and send them a message that we can be strong, that we can find our strength and we can stand up against Donald Trump and against this new wave he’s ushering in of truly just violent white supremacist ideas,” DiMassimo told CNN.
“I was thinking that Donald Trump is a bully, and he is nothing more than that. He is somebody who is just saying a lot of bold things, he’s making bold claims. But I can see right through that and I can see that he’s truly just a coward. And he’s opportunistic and he’s willing to destroy this country for power for himself,” DiMassimo added.
Trump has frequently incited violence against protesters, encouraging attendees to “punch them in the face,” to “knock the crap out of ’em” and to “send them out on a stretcher.” At a North Carolina rally last week, 78-year-old John McGraw took those words to heart and sucker-punched a black protester. Afterwards, McGraw was unapologetic.
“Yes, he deserved it. The next time we see him, we might have to kill him,” McGraw said.
For the record, Donald Trump did not distance himself from McGraw’s actions or words. Instead, he offered to pay the legal fees for McGraw or anyone who “takes care of” a protester violently.
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Trump has created “an environment that encourages this sort of nasty discourse,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said in response to the Chicago events. “When the candidate urges supporters to engage in physical violence, to punch people in the face, the predictable consequence of that is that it escalates,” Cruz added. “Today is unlikely to be the last such incidence.”
Ohio Governor John Kasich, who is also battling Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, agreed that Trump has created a toxic environment.
“Donald Trump has created a toxic environment,” Kasich said. “And that toxic environment has allowed his supporters, and those who seek confrontation, to come together in violence. There is no place for this. There is no place for a national leader to prey on the fears of people who live in our great country,” Kasich continued. “Name calling and lowering the bar in American politics is not acceptable.”
On Saturday, Hillary Clinton blamed Trump for inciting violence at his rallies.
“The ugly, divisive rhetoric we are hearing from Donald Trump and the encouragement of violence and aggression is wrong, and it’s dangerous,” Mrs. Clinton said at a campaign event outside St. Louis.
“If you play with matches, you’re going to start a fire you can’t control,” she added. “That’s not leadership. That’s political arson. The test of leadership and citizenship is the opposite. If you see bigotry, oppose it. If you see violence, condemn it. And if you see a bully, stand up to him.”
Hillary Clinton was not done with Trump yet.
“You don’t get the chance to make America great by getting rid of everything that made America great,” she said, parroting Trump’s campaign slogan. “No, our values, our diversity, our openness, these are strengths, not weaknesses.”
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As for Donald Trump, he played dumb when asked why his events stir up such anger and divisiveness. He also represented himself and his supporters as victims, then blamed organized “thugs” for the protests that shut down his Chicago rally.
“The organized group of people, many of them thugs (code for “Black”), who shut down our First Amendment rights in Chicago, have totally energized America!” Trump said on Twitter. He then added that the anger on display in Chicago wasn’t directed at him or his campaign, but rather was a manifestation of the public’s deep frustration with economic conditions in the country.
“Our businesses are being taken away from us, our businesses are being moved out of the country,” Trump said on Fox News. “This is a demonstration against economic conditions on both sides.”
Donald Trump’s response to the near riot in Chicago proves he is a delusional man. His “playground bully-like” taunts to those who oppose him, panning them as weak “troublemakers” who should “go home to mommy” or “go home and get a job” because “they contribute nothing,” are only fanning the flames of hate and laying a foundation for more violence.
“These are not good people, just so you understand,” Trump says. “These are not the people who made our country great. These are the people that are destroying our country.”
Donald Trump already has his minions raising their right hands in a “Heil Hitler” salute. How long before Trump’s words and actions gets someone seriously hurt — or killed?
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Trump supporters aren't going to other candidates' meetings in droves and start fights.. This notorious racist @okwassup wants there to be more violence against people for "being considered racists"… Your moral high ground is truly impressive folks! The entire point of the poll is to justify violence against Trump supporters and Trump by shifting the blame from the perpetrators — leftists, communists and racist activists, to the victims — Trump supporters and Trump. You want people to say "they brought it on themselves", actually even "whoever does violence to whoever else, they caused it". You put up being racist as justification for violence against that person. Interesting how it is only ever a justification for violence when the accused happen to be mostly white, openly stated and indisputable racism from non-whites is a-ok and ignored. …Notorious implies you've done it before, which you have and a lot. Your previous polls… Read more »