No fewer than 90 persons have been arrested by the Washington police for staging protests against the inauguration of President Donald Trump on Friday, a spokesman said.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Lt. Sean Conboy, “We have arrested approximately 95 people for vandalism and destruction of property.”
Conboy said two police officers were hurt during confrontations with the protestors.
Trump took the oath of office on Friday as the 45th president of the United State after defeating his closest rival, Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
The protest march of more than 90 people started about 9 a.m. in front of the Department of Energy building near the Mall and then broke through largely closed off streets to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Shouting “Our land,” and carrying signs that read, “Resist!” and “Protect!” the protesters said they were advocating for basic environmental protections and improved housing for the poor.
“We’re here to call attention to Trump’s connections to companies that make money off of ruining people’s water,” one of the protesters idneitified as Hannah Jones was spotted saying.
Ramah Kudaimi, 30, who sits on the board of the Washington Peace Center, helped organize the protest opposing Mr. Trump’s proposed immigration policies, which he said would destroy a number of communities and would hurt groups like Muslims and transgender people.
“It’s important from Day 1 of Trump’s administration that we make clear that we are going to be disrupting his agenda.
“When communities are under attack, we are going to fight back”, she said.
Reuters reports that from ocean to ocean, from the Midwest and the Maryland suburbs, the protesters came here to stand on a different side of history, trudging beneath a spitting rain toward a celebration they were powerless to stop but desperate to at least interrupt: the presidential inauguration of Mr. Trump.
They hauled signs: “Reject, Resist,” “Putin’s Orange Puppet,” “Rage, Rage Against the Dying of Our Rights.”
They chanted — “We are a peaceful protest!” — but by late morning, several shop windows in downtown Washington had been shattered, the air filling with a spray deployed by police.
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