UPDATED 3/8/17 — Trump supporters who gathered across the country over the weekend to show support for the president were met by violent anti-Trump demonstrators armed with Tasers, pepper spray and bad attitudes.
About 400 Trump supporters converged on Minnesota’s Capitol in St. Paul Saturday – decked out in Make America Great Again gear and toting American flags – to hear from Republican lawmakers and show support for the new Republican administration.
But things turned ugly when about 50 anti-Trump agitators showed up to counter-protest and attack their political foes.
The groups initially traded chants like “Black Lives Matter” and “Blue Lives Matter,” and “get a job” and “F*** white supremacy” inside the rotunda before the anti-Trump group took things to another level, Alpha News MN reports.
According to the site:
Police created a human barrier between the groups on the main floor. Pro-Trump supporters stood behind the police occasionally chanting “Blue Lives Matter,” while protesters faced the cops who pushed them back onto a staircase leading to the floor of the rotunda.
The protesters came prepared for a fight with pro-Trump supporters. In the crowd, protesters put in orange earplugs to block the sound of noisemakers. One young African-American man wore lab safety goggles, and several young men and women wore bandannas to cover their faces.
At least a half dozen altercations broke out between the groups. Protesters released several canisters of mace into the crowd. Protesters also set off smoke bombs and firecrackers in the newly remodeled Capitol building.
The anti-Trump group also attacked at least one security guard, and shocked some with Tasers.
One was caught on video:
A Trump supporter identified only as Steve, 59, was hit multiple times with a Taser as he rescued a security guard who was under attack by anti-Trump agitators.
St. Paul arrested a total of six people Saturday, all from the anti-Trump crowd.
Among those was 24-year-old Linwood Michael Kaine, son of failed vice presidential candidate and Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine.
The Duluth News Tribune reports:
Linwood Michael Kaine, 24, and four others were arrested on suspicion of second-degree riot after the “March 4 Trump” rally in St. Paul; a sixth person was cited for disorderly conduct. Counter-protesters clashed with Trump supporters in the Capitol rotunda after they attempted to disrupt the proceedings with air horns, whistles and chants. At one point, someone set off a smoke bomb.
Linwood Kaine, a Carleton College graduate who lives in Minneapolis and goes by “Woody,” was released from the Ramsey County jail on Tuesday morning pending further investigation, law enforcement officials said.
“We love that our three children have their own views and concerns about current political issues,” Tim Kaine said. “They fully understand the responsibility to express those concerns peacefully.”
It was a similar situation at the Trump rally in Berkeley, Calif., The Washington Post reports.
A planned “March 4 Trump” event at the city’s Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park quickly turned violent when counter-protesters showed up with metal pipes, baseball bats, two-by-four blocks and bricks, police told the news site.
“These people just want to fight,” Nancy Chase, a Trump supporter, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “They are anarchists in black, and it’s not what we are about. I just want to stand up for liberty.”
Fighting is spreading to the streets in Berkeley. This isn’t a Trump rally anymore. It’s the anarchists. pic.twitter.com/cFIu7akCSX
— Lizzie Johnson (@lizziejohnsonnn) March 4, 2017
“It got pretty heated. There were a few brawls,” 27-year-old Trump supporter Jared Malan said. “When we went for the march we were followed. A lot of people were attacked.”
Police said a total of 10 people were arrested in Berkeley, five for battery, four for assault with a deadly weapon (including one with a dagger) and one for resisting arrest, according to the Post.
Seven people were injured, though none badly enough to go to the hospital.
The Associated Press reports Trump supporters near Mar-a-Largo, Ohio, Michigan, and other areas were also confronted by lunatic liberals.
“In Nashville, two people were arrested as protesters clashed with Trump supporters at the Tennessee Capitol,” the AP reports. “And in Olympia, Wash., the state patrol said four demonstrators were arrested.”
Trump supporters also came out in force in New York, Washington, D.C., Denver, Pennsylvania, Maine, Miami, Indianapolis, Phoenix, Virginia Beach, and numerous other locales to support the 45th President amid continuous attacks from leftist agitators and the media.
“Agree with President Trump or not, he is our president, and I think what I see happening in D.C. and with the Democrats — it can’t stand,” 60-year-old Michigander Gary Taylor told the news service.
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