Posted on 03/11/2016 10:00:06 PM PST by Marie
At 2:30 p.m., I arrived at the Donald Trump rally located at the UIC pavilion in Chicago, IL. There was light police presence at the Blue Line station, and the pavilion was short walk away. There I waited in line for about an hour until making it to the front doors, going through a security scanner, and finding a seat in the main hall.
For nearly two hours the pavilion filled until it neared capacity. It was clear that protesters were seated around the room, given easily away by their manner of dress. Most of the Trump supporters, being suburbanite or small town white people from outside of Chicago, were dressed strikingly normal—jeans and t-shirts, yoga pants or dresses, and the occasional suit.
The first protestors began around 5:30 when two young white males pulled off their coats to reveal t-shirts with anti-Trump slogans. At this point I noticed the police presence inside the rally was a mere 8 police officers, bolstered with hands-off event staff.
Before 6:00 p.m., a man spoke on the microphone and requested that rally attendees do not touch or harm protesters who interrupt the event. He reminded the protesters that Donald Trump supports the first amendment as much as the second.
Following this was a string of smaller incidents, such as people holding up improvised signs and shouting. One entire bleacher row was filled with protesters and they began chanting and throwing around torn up signs.
A few people who began standing up and screaming, and were slowly escorted out by police. The police kept leaving the protesters unattended throughout this, taking 4-8 officers to escort protesters out one at a time.
A black man in a black jacket ran up to the front stage, bumped into the podium, and attempted to speak, but was wrestled down by two men in suits. As they escorted him through the crowd, he took a swing at a Trump supporter. The men escorting him were incredibly gentle and restrained themselves from using any force.
Then voice came on and declared that the event was postponed. A few minutes later, they informed us that Trump had landed in Chicago and spoken to Chicago Police officers, and that due to safety concerns, the rally was canceled.
At this point, the protesters began to descend into chaos. Aside from a few mild “TRUMP” and “USA” chants, the Trump supporters were mostly quiet and bewildered as the protesters began to scream, chant, and run around the main floor area in a huge pack, flipping off the rally attendees and swearing at them. There were a few tense altercations between the two groups, but from what I saw at this point, no violence.
The rally was instructed to leave the pavilion, and I have to admit, the Chicago Police messed up bad here. We walked straight out of the building and into enormous packs of protesters screaming at us, with little police presence to protect the Trump supporters.
Following this, I wandered the protest grounds to see what was going on. My memory is a bit jumbled at this point because I was so pumped up, but let me string together the events as clearly as possible:
Many of Trump propaganda signs, most commonly depicting him as Adolf Hitler, but others showing him with a small penis, simple signs of text English and Spanish, signs. Young women shouting anti-white racial epithets.
“THE PEOPLE ARE UNITED. WE WILL NOT BE DIVIDED” being shouted at Trump supporters who holed themselves up in a parking garage, quietly fearing for their safety.
Another good one by the protesters was “FREEDOM FIRST! FREEDOM FIRST!” Strangely enough, there were a good amount of signs calling for peace and freedom. Lots of peace signs being flashed with the fingers.
A single white Trump supporter who held up a sign and stood quietly as three dozen people surrounded him, smiling and screaming, snatching and pushing at him until he had to run for police cover. Someone grabbed his American flag and threw it on the ground and he fought to recover it. The police escorted him away.
Two young men, perhaps 17-19, standing quietly as they waited for a ride home. They were wearing their MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN hats, looking terrified as people cursed and swore at them, and occasionally threw furious challenges for debate. The two young men held their ground. Only once did one of those hats come down, and it quickly went back on again.
A general atmosphere of pleasure and happiness from the protesters. A common chant was “WE WON!” and “WE STUMPED THE TRUMP!” It honestly felt like a social event for the protesters. There was plenty of mingling
Plenty of shouts at Trump protesters that Trump and his supporters are not welcome in Chicago. I challenged one on the first amendment. He said he does not consider himself an American and continued insulting the grizzled old white man he was arguing with.
Extremely inefficient police presence. The cops were lined up on their horses or standing behind barricades, but generally were not present where Trump supporters were being hounded and occasionally struck by protesters. The protesters were primarily composed of millennial-aged: white hipsters, African Americans, Hispanics, and Muslims. Some of the protesters were teenagers below voting age.
The protesters flew a big set of American, Mexican, and Puerto Rican flags. There were lots of small American and Mexican flags too. *The Trump supporters mostly fled for safety immediately. You have to understand, they were outnumbered by thousands of protesters.
There was media presence, but not as much as you’d think. Plenty of areas where chaos was going on had no media nearby. The reporters were mostly getting people to talk to them off to the side where nothing was going on, or focusing ongoing debates between Trump supporters and rally members.
A small amount of the protesters were smoking weed. (I have nothing against this personally, just included for accuracy.)
Plenty of chants for “BERNIE! BERNIE! BERNIE!” Some Trump supporters looked at each other in bewilderment. “But Bernie Sanders isn’t even running against Donald Trump,” was the common sentiment.
Edit: The Trump supporters had a general trust for the police, while the protesters saw their presence as antagonistic. This is especially interesting to me, because as a foreigner and person of color I am generally afraid of police.
Closing statement:
Obviously I did not see everything that occurred as I wandered the protest grounds outside the cancelled Chicago rally. What I did see, however, was fear. Fear from the rally attendees for their immediate safety, and fear of Donald Trump from the protesters.
More than that, I feel that I experienced today, for the first time in my life, true totalitarianism and authoritarianism, expressed laterally from citizen to citizen, in order to silence opinions from being shared. This enforcement was shared through sheer numbers and intimidation, and in a few cases, violence.
People brought their children, loved ones, and friends to attend the Trump rally. I saw an older Asian man and his white wife in attendance, and the looks on their faces when the rally was declared cancelled almost broke my heart. I saw scared children clinging to their parents’ sides as they exited the building to the screams of protesters. I saw a quiet, but excited crowd of Donald Trump supporters get thrown out of Chicago. Worst of all, I saw the first amendment trampled, spit on, and discarded like trash.
This cannot go on. As I finish this, I feel a sense of utter dread and hopelessness for what is becoming of the youth in this country, particularly those of the regressive left. So polarized has political opinion become, that dissenting thoughts on college campuses are now seen as hateful. These people deal in absolutes. They are right, and whatever means they must take to achieve their ends, they will do it. They will not stop themselves from violence or censorship. They will do it, and they will call hell down upon you if anyone dare does upon them the same.
Tonight I went to the Trump Rally to hear the thoughts of not only the man who was supposed to come and speak, but the people who support him. I found respect. I found calmness. I found peace.
The truth is, I am a legal immigrant, not a US citizen. I am not American. I am not white. I cannot vote.
After tonight, I support Donald Trump.
Lastly, for anyone who thinks the protesters didn’t incite violence tonight, I offer you this.
https://imgur.com/gallery/gokd2dv/new
They will become more bold after this 'win'.
It's not the responsibility of the people attending the rallies to rein them in. (If they try, it'll descend into a riot and won't help anything.)
It's the responsibility of our police forces to deal with this.
But they've been neutered by the PC culture.
The inmates have taken over the asylum.
bfl
Community organizing at its finest...Venezuela’s Chavistas could learn a thing from the Chicago machine.
The ‘Mein Trumpf’ posters were the product of RevCom.
Yes them, again.
The revolutionary communist party.
Headquarters, not surprisingly, in Chicago, IL.
This is the heartbeat.
Not MoveOn, not BLM: they are the puppets.
The master pulling the strings is RevCom.
From 07 March (just this Monday):
“There must be RE-polarization for revolution—and this must be wrenched out of the current situation. There will NOT be any easy road to something better.”
In the same article they specifically encouraged mass disruption of Donald Trump rallies. The rise of Donald Trump is the ‘current situation’ to which they refer.
The hard left are preparing for, and instigating towards, a revolution. Not at the ballot box. An actual God’s honest truth dog fight revolution. They seek an armed uprising and the installation of communism by force.
If you don’t know who these people are, then get educated. This is the face of the enemy within.
They see the Trump candidacy as a vehicle, an opportunity. He is the capitalist of capitalists. This is their time. They seek to drive the wedge, convince whom they can, and make effective tools of their useful idiots. And when they rise up, when they think they have created their opening, they will act with merciless violence.
It is note a joke. It is not hyperbole. It is not an exaggeration or extrapolation.
It is real. They exist. And they want Christians, capitalists, and conservatives vanquished, and by vanquished they mean imprisoned or dead.
As a first hand observer, I would say this is a fairly accurate portrayal.
ping
Yes, I fear you are correct...
The funny thing is, they wanted to protest what they see as fascism, but they became fascist themselves, it is so funny, and they are full of &hit too.
I'm not a fan of his, but he finds a truffle once in a while and unearths it...and I have this instinct he would appreciate this article and put it to use.
Thanks, Leni
I don’t think it’s funny at all. I think they should be shot on sight.
Hopefully someone has sent this to Trump to.
TRUMP NEEDS TO SEE THIS
I got a bad feeling about this, the next time this happens, there will be a lot of blood.
Gee, you’d think the Mayor would have provided a better police presence. /sarc
Thank you, Marie, for this first hand witness account. Very revealing.
I figure RCP, Acorn, Move-on, SEIU and who knows what other assorted fascists.
Opens right up in both Chrome and Pale Moon for me.
(It’s a woman wearing a jacket that says, “Vote for Trump, you get jumped.”)
Not me. I found it on Reddit. :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
