Republican
Donald Trump’s surprise U.S. presidential election win, sparked
spontaneous protests across many cities on Wednesday, with marchers
blasting his stance on immigrants, Muslims and other groups.
In New
York, thousands of protesters filled streets in midtown Manhattan as
they made their way to Trump Tower, Trump’s gilded home on Fifth Avenue.
Hundreds of others gathered at a Manhattan park and shouted “Not my
president.”
In
downtown Chicago, an estimated 1,800 people gathered outside the Trump
International Hotel and Tower, chanting phrases like “No Trump! No KKK!
No racist USA.”
Chicago
police closed roads in the area, impeding the demonstrators’ path.
There were no immediate reports of arrests or violence there.
“I’m
just really terrified about what is happening in this country,” said
22-year-old Adriana Rizzo in Chicago, who was holding a sign that read:
“Enjoy your rights while you can.”
In Seattle, a gunman opened fire following an argument and wounded five people, one man critically, not far from protests.
The
police claimed the shooting was not connected to the anti-Trump
demonstrations but instead stemmed from a personal argument..
“It
appears that some type of argument took place. This individual began to
walk away from the crowd, then turned and fired into the crowd,” said
Robert Merner, assistant chief of the Seattle Police Department.
He said the suspect then fled from the area on foot and remained at large more than an hour later.
The
most seriously injured victim, a man, was rushed to nearby Harborview
Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition on Wednesday
night.
The other
four victims, identified only as one woman and three men, all sustained
non-life threatening wounds to their legs, police said.
Hundreds
also gathered in Philadelphia, Boston and Portland, Oregon, on
Wednesday evening, and organizers planned rallies in San Francisco, Los
Angeles and Oakland, California.
In Austin, the Texas capital, about 400 people marched through the streets, police said.
A
representative of the Trump campaign did not respond immediately to
requests for comment on the protests. Trump said in his victory speech
he would be president for all Americans, saying: “It is time for us to
come together as one united people.”
Earlier
this month, his campaign rejected the support of a Ku Klux Klan
newspaper and said that “Mr. Trump and his campaign denounces hate in
any form.”
Earlier
on Wednesday, some 1,500 students and teachers rallied in the courtyard
of Berkeley High School, in a San Francisco Bay Area city known for its
liberal politics, before marching toward the campus of the University
of California, Berkeley.
Hundreds
of high school and college students also walked out in protest in
Seattle, Phoenix, Los Angeles and three other Bay Area cities – Oakland,
Richmond and El Cerrito.
A
predominantly Latino group of about 300 high school students walked out
of classes on Wednesday morning in Los Angeles and marched to the steps
of City Hall, where they held a brief but boisterous rally.
