217 arrests, 6 officer injuries during inauguration protests
WASHINGTON — Protesters and police clashed in a section in northwest Washington Friday during Donald Trump's historic inauguration in a rolling series of confrontations that injured six police officers and left store windows and ATMs smashed.
Police used pepper spray to control the crowd, some of whom were armed with crowbars and hammers, authorities said. A total of 217 people were arrested by early evening in what were the most violent episodes of the day involving protesters and police. Police said six officers suffered minor injuries, including three head injuries caused by rocks and other projectiles.
Columns of officers outfitted in heavy riot gear smothered a violent late-morning eruption, when about 90 were arrested. Only hours later, the quiet turned to chaos near the intersection of 13th and K streets, just a few blocks off the inaugural parade route. Police rushed protesters who had begun to hurl broken bricks, tossed newspaper racks and sidewalk trash containers into the street, setting them on fire.
Police responded with pepper spray and flash grenades, with detonations echoing off surrounding office buildings, as police helicopters circled above. One heavily-damaged limousine was swarmed by protesters at one point and later set ablaze.
D.C. interim Police Chief Peter Newsham described the damage as significant to local businesses and vehicles. He said a core group of up to 500 protesters was believed to have been involved in the series of daylong eruptions. All those arrested were charged with rioting, he said.
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"Unfortunately, we had a small group of protesters who wanted to disrupt the inauguration,'' Newsham said. "They caused significant damage to a number of blocks in our city.''
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said that while “hundreds and hundreds’’ of protesters demonstrated peacefully, much of the damage was caused by smaller groups bent on destruction.
“We will not tolerate the destruction of our neighborhoods, and we will not tolerate violence against our officers,’’ the mayor said.
Patrick McGuire, 37, of Baltimore, said he was was hit point blank by something thrown by police. Multiple groups of protesters had converged quickly, he said, and the situation escalated quickly.
"The pain is so great, you have no expectation of the pain ever ending," he said.
The violence, however, was largely contained to a three-to-four-block area, while the main protest site at the Navy Memorial near the inaugural parade route was largely peaceful. But the slow pace of security checks there kept many protesters from accessing the site.
Nevertheless, protesters yelled in defiance as Trump was sworn in, with some carrying signs of support for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Within moments of the 45th president being sworn in, rain began to fall on the crowd.
Small groups of protesters popped up at various security checkpoints across the spectator zones, attempting to block entry. One group, affiliated with Black Lives Matter, chained themselves to metal barricades. But police said no entrances were completely shutdown.
Robert Hrifko, 62, a member of Bikers For Trump, appeared to suffer the most visible injury from the late-morning clash in the city's northwest section, as blood streamed from a cut under his left eye.
The Florida man said he was attempting to assist police when he was hit with a rock by an anti-Trump protester. He said the encounter devolved into a chair-throwing free-for-all.
"It was just crazy, man," Hrifko said, holding a block of ice to his injured face.
Police quickly moved in and cornered a group of protesters on L Street, between 12th and 13th. Other protesters chanting, "Let them go!" shouted from behind crime scene tape as officers prepared to make arrests.
Shortly before the encounter, limo driver Luis Villarroel of Virginia said he was dropping off passengers near the Washington Post building when he saw "hundreds of masked men" coming his way.
"They threw food at me," he said, adding that they pounded the vehicle and then threw a flare inside the car.
"This is my business. Why are you destroying my stuff? It took me years to build," he recounted after the crowd left.
On the next corner at a Wells Fargo bank at 13th and I St NW, glass windows were shattered and ATMs smashed.
"At least I'm alive," Villarroel said.
Late Thursday, raucous protesters had squared off against local police outside a meeting of Trump supporters.
A 34-year-old D.C. man was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit assault after an incident outside the National Press Club. Protesters massed there to demonstrate against the "DeploraBall,'' an event drawing some of the president-elect's most ardent supporters.
Washington, D.C., police said "several individuals'' had planned to disrupt the event, resulting in the arrest of Scott Ryan Charney of Northwest, D.C. An undisclosed number of others also were being sought by police.
Newsham said that police were prepared for the demonstrations, but would not tolerate unlawful disruptions.
"There will be some people who will have views different than yours,'' Newsham said. "But this is Washington, D.C. People agree to disagree.''
Organizers of protests said they’re kicking off a modern-day resistance.
Julie Godshaw, a 27-year-old social work student from Queens, said her goal was simply “to be heard and to represent those who can’t be heard.” But she said this is the start of her commitment to organizing and protesting against Trump’s policies.
“I will fight for you and I will love you with every ounce of my soul,” read her sign, which she said is directed at minority communities that could face the brunt of issues in the new administration.
Trump takes office with one of the lowest approval ratings of any occupant of the Oval Office, although he has called those polls “phony” and “rigged." The sound of protests pulsating through the nation's capital demonstrated the breadth of concern among those groups who feel threatened: minorities, labor, women, LGBTQ, environmental activists and others.
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“We believe that it’s our role and the role of any people of conscience to try to disrupt his inaugural and have a massive show of resistance,” said Samantha Miller, a key organizer around the #DisruptJ20 group. “We intend to set the tone of resistance for the coming years. This is just the first wave."
Heather Gatny and her mother, Julie Godshaw, 67, had never been involved in a major protest — until now. Gatny, a 37-year-old researcher from the University of Michigan, drove eight hours to stand several blocks away from Trump’s parade route with signs reading “illegit prez.”
“This is the most political I’ve been in my whole life,” said Godshaw. “It just feels like we are going backwards.”
“It’s important to show up here to make a statement that so many Americans are angry with the outcome of this election and believe he’s illegitimate” due to Russian interference and voter suppression in critical states like North Carolina, Gatny said.
The area near the Navy Memorial was awash in protesters, including a throng of people dressed as Russian soldiers in black fur hats with a sign reading “Trump, remember our kompromat.” Occasional Trump supporters made their way past the crowd, including one marching defiantly with her middle finger in the air.
The issue of Russia was raised time and again by protesters who called Trump “illegitimate.”
“I need to be here,” said John Snyder, a 51-year-old man from Allentown, Pennsylvania. “Trump is a total fraud. We can’t let this happen. It’s a farce.”
Many appeared to have come alone and were not part of any organized group, though they vowed to get active in their local communities when they return home.
“This is not it for me,” said Snyder. “Never give up.”
On inauguration eve, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, filmmaker Michael Moore, and actors Alec Baldwin and Mark Ruffalo joined other celebrities for a rally in front of the Trump Tower in New York to “send a message to president-elect Trump” that New York City, for its part, “will continue to make real progress on important issues such as healthcare, climate change, social justice and immigrant rights.”
Roughly 30 separate demonstrations were permitted around Washington D.C. The Answer Coalition, formed as an anti-war, anti-racist coalition, secured space along the inauguration route on Pennsylvania Avenue near the Navy Memorial.
“We oppose this far-right government of billionaire oligarchs and bigots, and we will fight it every step of the way, starting on Day One,” the group says on its website. “This protest is not a one-day event — it is the beginning of a powerful grassroots movement for profound radical reorganization to put the needs of the people first rather than the corporate elites and military-industrial complex.”
Occupy Inauguration and #DisruptJ20 planned marches with marching bands, puppets and various “delegations” such as labor and indigenous peoples to merge on McPherson Square, just blocks from the White House.
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Victor Frankel, 32, was part of a caravan of demonstrators who arrived in D.C. on Thursday to rally opposition to the final leg of the Dakota Access pipeline. The disputed portion, opponents assert, threatens a reservoir on the Missouri River in North Dakota at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation.
“We’re not going to give Mr. Trump a free pass,’’ said Frankel, whose group joined a larger DisruptJ20 organization.. “We plan to meet Mr. Trump at the front gate.’’
Katie Bechtold, 38, a spacecraft engineer, said she was drawn to participate in her first demonstration because she believes the country is “headed on a dangerous course with this new administration.’’
She said Trump’s treatment of dissenters, including many removed from the then-candidate's volatile rallies during the primary and general election, moved her to act.
“I couldn’t just stand aside,’’ she said.
Contributing: Emily Brown, USA TODAY
