11 Arrested In San Francisco In Trump Protests
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - As Donald Trump was sworn in as the nation's 45th president Friday, protesters 3,000 miles away in California scattered out across rain-swept streets in Los Angeles and San Francisco, exhorting others to oppose the nation's new leader and his policies.
Early protests were both small and generally peaceful, although San Francisco police reported at least 11 people were arrested at various anti-Trump rallies around the city. Police spokeswoman Giselle Talkoff couldn't immediately say what caused the arrests.
In the city's financial district, several dozen people blocked the 52-story skyscraper that once housed Bank of America's headquarters and is now partly owned by Trump. Another group chained themselves to the nearby Wells Fargo headquarters.
#JewishResistance forms a human chain across #WellsFargo doors at 420 Montgomery in #SF. @CBSSF pic.twitter.com/ocWHjOgEhr
— Jackie Ward (@jackiewardmedia) January 20, 2017
Protesters said they wanted to draw attention to the president's ties to big business. Some carried signs proclaiming, "Resist Trump" while others chanted, "No Trump. No wall." Some used sticks to batter a Trump's head piñata
Traffic generally flowed freely as rainfall was light and demonstrators didn't block streets. About 100 gathered in the financial district.
In Los Angeles, a handful of protesters greeted people heading past downtown's LA Live entertainment center while a heavier rain fell steadily. One man held a sign declaring, "Traitor Trump."
Elsewhere in the Bay Area, protesters gathered in the rain at San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza and in Oakland, at the Ronald Dellums Federal Building.
Demonstrators also sought to blockade the San Francisco headquarters of Uber, whose CEO Travis Kalanick has a role on Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum.
Organizers said more protests were scheduled across the state later in the day and would include people of color, immigrants, the disabled and LGBTQ communities and other groups concerned by the new president's policies.
Those protests were to include a march in Los Angeles by a group called the Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition, followed by another rally soon after at Mariachi Plaza in nearby Boyle Heights where protesters are expected to object to what organizers call Trump's "targeting the large Mexican and Latino community for deportations."
In San Francisco, a "Hands Across the Golden Gate Bridge" demonstration was planned, with organizers saying they would be linked by purple fabric.
In Sacramento, a coalition of activist groups, including Black Lives Matter, planned to march to the Capitol in the afternoon.
The governor and legislative leaders have declared that they'll defy Trump on issues Californians hold vital.
"We will not be dragged back into the past," the leaders of the Assembly and Senate said in a statement shortly after an election where Hillary Clinton got nearly twice the votes that Trump did in California.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press.