NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Thousands of immigrants, women, Muslims, and other New Yorkers took to the streets outside Grand Central Station on Thursday to protest Donald Trump and the hate that he’s inspiring across the country.
Then a man wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat entered the protest area. Soon after, he pushed, shoved, and punched multiple protesters. One of the protest organizers, Mike Vento, was left with a bloody lip.
The middle-aged, white Trump supporter entered the caged-off protest area wearing a bright orange sandwich-board sign covered in pictures of guns. “ISIS is here!” he screamed. “Learn to protect yourselves!”
As he walked, he threw orange fliers advertising the “NYC Shooters Club,” which boasts “NRA-certified instructors” who teach students to “shoot firearms safely.”
Photographers and anti-Trump protesters crowded around the man, chanting “go home” and “stop the hate.” Vento, an activist with NYC Shut It Down, stepped in with his hands up to separate the agitator from the protesters. Things got violent soon after:
Trump supporter walks into NYC anti-hate rally, punches black man in the face pic.twitter.com/mwTLOqnm4u
— Kira Lerner (@kira_lerner) April 14, 2016
This happened at the #HateFreeNY rally tonight. Multiple punches thrown → pic.twitter.com/iek6e9FJxa
— Kira Lerner (@kira_lerner) April 14, 2016
Here’s another view of the altercation, posted by right-wing radio host Alex Jones. Jones, who has fed conspiracy theories to the Trump campaign, asserts that the agitator was “attacked” by the Trump protesters.
This is far from the first time violence has broken out at a Trump-related event. In fact, it has recently become the norm.
Jennifer Garcia, a Yonkers, New York resident who attended the anti-Trump rally with her cousin, told ThinkProgress that Trump is inspiring “more hatred” and “more discrimination” in her neighborhood.
“People are living in fear now, because of him,” she said. “My parents came here to better our lives, and for him to just tell us to back, it’s unfair.”
Down the block, a small group of Trump supporters held a rally meant to counter the protests. Jackie Anderson, a New York resident and Trump supporter, said she is not bothered by the regular violence at Trump events.
“It’s just a nasty, negative distraction,” she said. “I don’t agree with it, but I’m not going to not vote for somebody who’s going to fix all of the problems in the country because of it.”