MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Thousands of protesters marched peacefully in Minneapolis Friday to demonstrate against the inauguration of Republican President Donald Trump, saying his policies don’t match what they stand for.
The Resist from Day One Coalition said various Twin Cities groups and dozens of student groups marched to reject what the coalition calls “the Trump administration’s hateful agenda.”
A crowd that police estimated at 2,000 ended the march with a rally on the Hennepin County Government Center plaza in downtown Minneapolis. Some protesters threw fireworks or briefly stopped light-rail trains with smoke canisters, but no one was arrested or hurt.
Roxanne Prichard, a Minneapolis mother of two, said she came to “fight oppression,” and is concerned about the spread of xenophobia and stereotypes.
The protest caught Christopher Au Roberson’s attention on his way home from work in downtown Minneapolis, but he had plenty of reasons to be there, he said.
“My partner is from Vietnam and we are concerned that his applications are going to get rejected to be a citizen. We don’t know if they’re being harsher,” Au Roberson said. “I guess we’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed at this point.”
Students walked out of classes at the University of Minnesota, Augsburg College and at high schools to join the march, the coalition said.
University Ph.D. student Thorn Chen said he is worried about what the public university system and cultural studies programs will look like under Trump’s presidency.
“Trump really shows the dark side of what was already here,” he said. “I think he’s someone who manifests what has already been happening to the country in terms of corporate power and in terms of a failed capitalism.”
Police say at one point the protesters burned a mannequin in south Minneapolis, but the fire did not threaten any businesses.
A protest also was held in St. Cloud on Inauguration Day.
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