Thousands of angry demonstrators filled the streets of New York and other cities across America on Wednesday to denounce Donald Trump’s stunning election win.
Police arrested 65 people around Trump Tower on Fifth Ave., most of them on disorderly conduct or obstruction charges, as protesters marched through Manhattan.
The crowd around Trump Tower swelled to around 8,000 strong, according to estimates.
Chanting “Not my President,” and launching a top-trending hashtag with the same sentiment, hundreds of protesters gathered in Union Square, blocking traffic and clogging Midtown streets.
“F–k Donald Trump,” shouted protester Jose Hernandez, 33, of Brooklyn, who immigrated from Mexico and became a U.S. citizen.
“He is not my President. He’s a bigot. How did America do this? Why?”
Hernandez came with his boyfriend, Eokin Barrios, and said he was worried about gay rights in a Trump administration.
Protesters marched in the rain along Sixth Ave. waving signs and umbrellas until police stopped them at W. 34th St. and put several people into custody.
But a splinter group of protesters broke off and continued Uptown along Fifth Ave., chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “boycott Trump” outside Trump Tower, the President-elect’s Manhattan headquarters. There, some burned a flag as the number of protesters swelled to at least 8,000, according to estimates.
It was not immediately clear if Trump was inside.
“Fear is not an America value,” said Barrios, 31, of Brooklyn, who is originally from Colombia. “It’s not the value I felt when I immigrated here.
“He doesn’t represent an American value, he does not represent us, and he’s not going to do well.
“As a gay couple we don’t feel represented. This is not a person that represents the majority of us.”
A wall of police blocked any efforts to enter the Midtown skyscraper, where cops urged the crowd to keep moving.
There were also reports that the NYPD was looking for two protesters who might have been carrying backpacks filled with Molotov cocktails.
Protester Tim Johnson, 38, from Texas, said he was trying to turn his anger to action. He held a yellow sign that said “F–k Trump” in red letters.
“It feels like everything is being contested, all the struggles we’ve dealt with in the last 100 years are being evaluated,” Johnson said.
“He didn’t have any policies so the only thing I can identify him is by the hateful things he says.”
“It was heartbreaking,” he said of watching the results roll in. “I felt real sad. I’m going to have to get over this sadness and put it towards an agency of change. It was very depressing.”
