NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Thousands of New Yorkers converged around the swanky Grand Hyatt hotel in midtown Manhattan Thursday night, with the explicit intention of shutting down Donald Trump’s appearance at the New York State Republican Gala.
Though the Republican presidential frontrunner’s speech went on as scheduled, the protesters certainly demanded attention. The crowd took over the streets of midtown for several hours to speak out against Trump’s hateful rhetoric. Several dozen people were arrested and violence broke out on at least one occasion.
Multiple arrests occurred inside the Grand Hyatt, after several protesters infiltrated the building where the private event took place. Jillian Jorgensen, a politics editor at the New York Observer, reported that NYPD officers escorted protesters out in plastic handcuffs.
Protesters made it into the area where press is being held before the Republican gala where Trump is speaking later pic.twitter.com/YOFdI1ZdN9
— Jillian Jorgensen (@Jill_Jorgensen) April 14, 2016
A number of protesters who stormed the Grand Hyatt spent the night in jail, according to protest spokesperson Joseph Phelan.
“As New Yorkers we stand with people across the country saying no to hate and racism,” Maya Randolph, one of the protesters arrested inside the hotel, said in a press release. “There is an ugly political trend that is preying on economic fear and insecurity…. We stand with the most marginalized around the country and the world as we reject attempts to Make America Hate Again.”
Other people were arrested outside of Grand Central Station. Several people affiliated with Showing Up For Racial Justice — a group that “organizes white people to break white silence, confront racism, and dismantle white supremacy” — sat in a line in the middle of the street, blocking rush hour traffic.
https://twitter.com/Harofin/status/720799907188187138
ThinkProgress spoke with other protesters about how Trump’s xenophobia, misogyny, and racism has affected New York City.
Rana, a 20-year-old Muslim woman who declined to give her last name, said Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric is having an impact on her everyday life.
“Even before Trump started, it’s been very difficult for me,” she said. “I’ve been harassed, I’ve been assaulted, I’ve been followed home… my community’s been spied on by the NYPD. And the way [Trump] is speaking enables this — not only enables it, but normalizes it for everyday Joe Schmo on the street to talk to me like this.”
Boris Yagudayev, an Uzbekistan native living in Nassau County, Long Island, was walking around the rally carrying a fake white rose. He said it symbolized a 1940’s-era anti-Nazi movement, started by German students who wanted to fight back against the hateful actions of Adolf Hitler.
Yagudayev said he wanted to give the plastic rose to Trump, to symbolize all the “thorns” in Trump’s rhetoric.
“He’s spoken a lot of sexist rhetoric, a lot of anti-immigrant rhetoric, a lot of anti-Muslim rhetoric. He’s alienated so many groups,” he said. “He doesn’t deserve to be president.”
Trump was not the only Republican candidate targeted by protesters. Victoria Lahti, a 29-year-old Brooklyn resident, made a sign calling out Ted Cruz’s comments about “New York values.”
“Cruz’s little blip — we all know what New York values are and what he was trying to insinuate,” she said. “That we’re all corrupt and we’re all doggedly liberal. We aren’t all doggedly liberal, but we accept everyone. We are a multicultural and multiracial city. We accept everyone, and he does not.”
Ridgewood, Brooklyn resident Jose Pesantes held a sign calling out Trump’s anti-Mexican rhetoric.
“I’m here to tell Trump that he needs to stop these anti-immigrant policies if he wants to go to the White House,” he said. “He has to change his policy with immigrants.”
Brooklyn resident Chris Nye had similar feelings.
“I hate Donald Trump. I hate the Republican Party,” he said. “The xenophobia, the ‘deport all the immigrants and don’t let anyone in.’ I hate, hate, hate the scapegoating of Muslims. It’s asinine. This really just says it all — like existential dread.”
