Thousands rally in Freedom Plaza in support of President Trump. Many falsely believe the November election was rigged.
Thousands of supporters for President Trump descended on downtown D.C. Saturday, protesting unfounded claims of a “stolen” election. For the second time in four weeks, the pro-Trump demonstrations drew opposition from anti-Trump protesters.
D.C. police tried to keep the two sides apart at various places, including near Black Lives Matter Plaza and McPherson Square. But tensions escalated between D.C. police and anti-Trump demonstrators as the afternoon wore into the evening.
By 5 p.m., police had isolated the counter-protesters from the pro-Trump demonstrators. At one point, a D.C. police officer lunged toward a counter-protester.
But small skirmishes between police and counter protesters broke out elsewhere in the blocks surrounding the plaza. Protesters told DCist reporters on the scene they had been sprayed by Metropolitan Police Department officers with a chemical irritant, and a Washington Post reporter tweeted that police pepper sprayed a crowd near 13th and K Street. (Under emergency police-reform legislation passed this summer, D.C. police officers cannot use chemical irritants to disperse peaceful First Amendment demonstrations.)
Police had blocked off a portion of the street surrounding The Capitol Hilton on 16th St., N.W., in the early evening, after a small fight broke out between a Trump supporter and a counter protester. At Hyatt Place, another hotel where the Proud Boys are reported to be staying, similar clashes occurred — one resulting in fireworks going off.
D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham, who will be leaving his post in February to head the Prince William County Police Department, stood amongst anti-Trump protesters near the plaza as they questioned him.
At least six arrests had been made connected to the demonstrations throughout the city, according to a Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson, including at least one charge for simple assault. Police could not provide further details on charges, or whether the arrests involved pro-Trump protesters or counter demonstrations. More detainments occurred as the flare-ups continued into the evening, but D.C. police did not immediately provide updated arrest numbers.
Ahead of Saturday’s events, five people were arrested in connection to a gathering of Proud Boys near Freedom Plaza on Friday night. It was not clear if they were Trump supporters or counterprotesters.
Saturday’s demonstrations occurred throughout much of downtown D.C., as the Proud Boys, self-described “western chauvinists,” again flocked to the city. Members of the extremist, far-right group wore yellow kilts, black shirts, yellow bandanas. Some wore military-grade bullet-proof vests. Groups of Proud Boys also held up white power symbols while others chanted “Fuck Antifa” and “USA.”
Other Trump supporters marching were decked out in red “Make America Great Again” hats and carrying Trump and American flags.
Various rallies took place throughout the afternoon — one led by the conservative group Women for America First at Freedom Plaza, and another, the Million MAGA March, took part near the Washington Monument. At one point, the president’s Marine One helicopter flew over Freedom Plaza. Later in the evening, the pro-Trump demonstrations made their way to the Supreme Court.
Infowars’ Alex Jones made another visit to the city Saturday, speaking to a small group of Trump supporters near the Washington Monument. Supporters also gathered outside the Supreme Court, where they held American flags and signs touting support for false QAnon conspiracy theories.
Meanwhile, local activists gathered in a counter protest around Black Lives Matter Plaza — the locus of the city’s anti-police brutality and racial justice protests — where small clashes continued with pro-Trump and far-right groups throughout the day. D.C. Resident Sam Myszkowski arrived at the corner of 17th and Connecticut Ave., N.W., with the activist group Sunrise DC “in solidarity with Black Lives Matter D.C..”
He said far-right demonstrators in the city were “here not just to threaten people’s safety through violence … but also the fact that none of them are wearing masks, and in the midst of a nationwide pandemic.”
Myszkowski waited to enter Black Lives Matter Plaza as police were blocking off the adjacent streets in an attempt to separate pro-Trump and far-right demonstrators from anti-Trump demonstrators. Police eventually let Myszkowski into the plaza.
Myszkowski said the violence that occurred last month, when one person was stabbed during similar clashes, was “a catalyst for people saying that we need to show up today.”
Earlier in the day, police officers told DCist/WAMU that there had been “some brawls” between Trump supporters and counterprotesters in the plaza. Police had prepared for potential violence Saturday, following the Nov. 14 demonstrations that resulted in one person stabbed and more than 20 people arrested.
At least one person visiting D.C. was surprised by the events taking place in Black Lives Matter Plaza on Saturday. Marcel Malone traveled to D.C. from Philadelphia with his 8-year-old daughter Miah. He said the two of them were most looking forward to visiting the plaza — and he had no idea about the pro-Trump demonstrations in advance of the trip.
As Malone watched Proud Boys members and anti-Trump demonstrators assemble nearby, he said it was “a sign of where we are in the country.”
“President Trump has done a lot to stoke this division,” Malone said. “They have a right to believe in what they want to believe in … but the violence and the trying to antagonize, it’s wrong.”
For a coalition of local activist groups called #DefendDC, the goal this weekend was to protect Black Lives Matter Plaza as a space to fight for racial justice and defend the protest artwork on the fences in front of Lafayette Park (In the past, pro-Trump demonstrators have torn down the artwork and signs along the fence, which memorialize lives lost to police violence). The group organized a live DJ and dance party on Saturday in the plaza.
“We’re not counter protesting,” said Anthony Lorenzo Green, a core organizer with Black Lives Matter’s D.C. chapter. “We’re really just trying to create spaces of liberation so folks don’t feel oppressed or bothered or feel like, you know, ‘Why are these folks coming to our city bringing this type of violence to our city?’ We’re pushing back against that, saying, no, this is D.C., this is who we are, we’re resilient, and we’re going to have our joy in the midst of all that may be going on in the city.”
Local Black Lives Matter activists have also been calling attention to what they see as opposition from D.C. police officers, who they say have a bias against local protesters who fight for racial justice.
“They tell us that they’re here to protect us and keep us safe and separate from those that want to bring us harm,” Green said. “But they also bring us harm as well.”
While tensions escalated into the evening near Black Lives Matter and McPherson Square, members of a local activist group, They/Them Collective, and the Good Trouble Cooperative hosted a quiet, candlelight vigil. It was in memory of Casey Goodson, a 23-year-old Ohio man recently shot and killed by a Columbus police officer.
Becca, a D.C. resident who declined to give her last name because of privacy concerns, said that the group wanted to foster a space of love and honor for Goodson and his family, despite the protests happening in the nearby blocks.
“The family is very intent on having it be a peaceful action,” Becca said. “We’re just here lighting candles, respecting the families wishes. Even though this day unfortunately coincides with a day of hate, hopefully we can show that love is stronger than hate.”