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
Protest fascism? Not really. The simple motive is they want power. The complaint of capitalism is their vehicle for moral persuasion.
It’s coming now or later. Might as well do it now while the Military has at least heard of the constitution, in English.
RCPUSA is the driver.
Most of the rest are just fellow travelers and useful idiots.
bkmrk
The city of Chicago should be ashamed.
I believe he was the “gentleman” who ran up to the podium and attempted to start speaking :(
Yes and Obama taught the others just HOW to do it.
You guys should check out the subreddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/
It’s mostly young people, but they’re very serious Trump supporters. There’s lots of good insight there.
(They no longer tolerate Bernie supporters. Not after tonight.)
I think RCP is headquartered in Chicago.
Trump had many volunteers there—I am sure he was made aware!
Some indications is that these were not college kids but a bunch of outside agitators. That’s my take.
Yes. Chicago.
It’s not coincidence.
(I do mention that in post 5 above for those not as familiar with who they are.)
If true, then that fact should be widely disseminated.
Let the American People know exactly who is behind such mayhem, and let the American People decide exactly who is trying to foment civil unrest.
If Communists and their Marxist authoritarian ilk are trying to trample on Rights protected under the First Amendment, to the point where they infringe on the Rights of Assembly and Association, then the police had damn well better do their jobs...
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.
And the other Republican candidates had the audacity to try to blame the Trump campaign rather than the Left-wing disruptors who are instigating this?
If so, then I'm absolutely, 100% finished with each of them, because they're unprincipled, amoral opportunists who just showed solidarity with the real enemies of this country.
There was adequate police presence from 3:00-6:00. The worst problems occurred outside... when a large group of protesters started marching towards the Pavillon...Hard to deal with 2000+ outside plus the large numbers inside...
Tho some protesters were quiet and peaceful—actually helped a friend of mine up after she fell down waiting in line to get in, there was a contingency of activist types there to cause trouble and be disruptive :(
I was there too, but I didn’t make it inside. I got to the UIC pavilion around 6 PM. I couldn’t believe how long the line was. It weaved around for about 4 blocks and was incredibly orderly and peaceful. I could tell that there were a lot of people in line who were anti-Trump, but I was amazed at the number who were obviously pro-Trump with the red “Make america great again” hats. It also seemed that there were quite a few Eastern Europeans. It was quite an interesting scene. I cracked jokes with a couple of guys in line next to me about the protesters who were heckling those standing in line. There was a lot of positive energy among the Trump supporters.
Around 6:30 PM, police told us that they weren’t letting anyone else in so to go ahead and go. I figured I’d just keep walking toward the pavilion and hope that maybe they’d let me in with my ticket, but at that point my mom called me and said the event was being delayed for safety reasons, and then she called right back and said it was cancelled. I knew at that point that with all the protesters around celebrating their victory at squashing free speech, things had the potential to get ugly.
Even though I wanted to stick around and see what would happen and although I wanted to help keep the peace where I could, I knew that there was little I could do, so I just got on the Blue Line right away to go to my car a few towns west.
Eh they did...you can read some of my posts about getting ambushed...
Sounds like a target rich environment.
I never yearned to relieve any of this, but here we are again. :-(
It’s a shame that your government has outlawed handgrenades for you to defend your rights in this situation.
They call whomever they decide to hate "Hitler" ONLY because they know that he was a "bad man". These blithering idiots neither understand nor know any factual history and their paltry vocabularies are sparse. They only "think" ( SIC ) in emoticoms.
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