MINNEAPOLIS, MN — More than 2,000 protesters from more than 70 organizations took to the streets of Downtown Minneapolis to voice their displeasure with the 45th President of the United States Donald Trump.
The protest remained fairly peaceful and nonconfrontational. An effigy of Donald Trump was burned to ash at the intersection of Franklin and Nicollet.
Multiple groups held separate protests around the city to voice their anger towards the Dakota Access Pipeline, islamophobia, anti-immigration rhetoric, anti-women rhetoric, anti-LGBT rhetoric, pro-cop rhetoric, the state of the criminal justice system, and the election and policies of the Trump Administration.
Separate protests began at 2 p.m. Friday afternoon around the city and converged into the plaza of the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis around 5 p.m. where speakers from Black Lives Matter St. Paul and other groups spoke to the crowd.
Protesters blocked and ultimately shut down the light rail for approximately 30 minutes by walking on the tracks. A group of people with their faces covered with bandanas cheered when they realized they shut the light rail down. One young man waiting for the train to arrive told Alpha News that “it [shutting light rail down] was a useful tactic but it was an annoyance, so it’s working” explaining he had worked a long day.
Some protesters lit firecrackers and opened a canister filling the air with orange smoke.
A group of Native American protesters danced and played drums according to their traditional customs and lit sage on fire creating smoke.
Most people who spoke with Alpha News were angry with Trump’s inauguration and the policies that he had proposed during the campaign trail.
A couple of girls who attended the protest worked for the Sierra Club, an environmental group out of D.C. They told Alpha News they did not consider the actions of protesters in D.C. to be violent when asked about the burning of SUV’s and breaking windows. “There are a lot of questions about what is considered violence, property is not people. I think people have a lot of feelings, people are being charged and fired up.”
The crowd began to thin out by 5:30 p.m. and the event was packed up and over by 6:10 p.m.
No arrests were made according to officials.
Preya Samsundar
Preya Samsundar was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. She graduated from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities this Spring with a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology, with a minor in Strategic Communications. Preya has previously worked on several State Campaign Races.
