Multiple Protests Rock U.S Cities Following Trump’s Victory

Republican Donald Trump’s surprise U.S. presidential election win, sparked spontaneous protests across many cities on Wednesday, with marchers  blasting his stance on immigrants, Muslims and other groups.

NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 9: Protestors rally against Donald Trump in Union Square, November 9, 2016 in New York City. Republican candidate Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election in the early hours of the morning in a widely unforeseen upset. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

In the early hours of Wednesday after Trump was declared winner, Lady Gaga staged a protest outside Trump Tower in New York, standing on a sanitation truck and holding a sign that read “Love trumps hate”.

In New York, thousands of protesters filled streets in midtown Manhattan as they made their way to Trump Tower, Trump’s gilded home on Fifth Avenue. Hundreds of others gathered at a Manhattan park and shouted “Not my president.”

In downtown Chicago, an estimated 1,800 people gathered outside the Trump International Hotel and Tower, chanting phrases like “No Trump! No KKK! No racist USA.”

Chicago police closed roads in the area, impeding the demonstrators’ path. There were no immediate reports of arrests or violence there.

“I’m just really terrified about what is happening in this country,” said 22-year-old Adriana Rizzo in Chicago. She was holding a sign that read: “Enjoy your rights while you can.”

In Seattle, a gunman opened fire following an argument and wounded five people, one man critically, not far from protests.

The police claimed the shooting was not  connected to the anti-Trump demonstrations but instead stemmed from a personal argument..

“It appears that some type of argument took place. This individual began to walk away from the crowd, then turned and fired into the crowd,” said Robert Merner, assistant chief of the Seattle Police Department.

He said the suspect then fled from the area on foot and remained at large more than an hour later.

The most seriously injured victim, a man, was rushed to nearby Harborview Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition on Wednesday night.

The other four victims, identified only as one woman and three men, all sustained non-life threatening wounds to their legs, police said.

SEATTLE, WA – NOVEMBER 09: Emma Esselstyn (C) a student from the University of Washington, join thousands of protesters march down 2nd Avenue on November 9, 2016 in Seattle, Washington. Demostration in multiple cities around the country were held the day following Donald Trump’s upset win in last night’s U.S. presidential election. (Photo by Karen Ducey/Getty Images)

Hundreds also gathered in Philadelphia, Boston and Portland, Oregon, on Wednesday evening, and organizers planned rallies in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Oakland, California.

In Austin, the Texas capital, about 400 people marched through the streets, police said.

A representative of the Trump campaign did not respond immediately to requests for comment on the protests. Trump said in his victory speech he would be president for all Americans, saying: “It is time for us to come together as one united people.”

Earlier this month, his campaign rejected the support of a Ku Klux Klan newspaper and said that “Mr. Trump and his campaign denounces hate in any form.”

Earlier on Wednesday, some 1,500 students and teachers rallied in the courtyard of Berkeley High School, in a San Francisco Bay Area city known for its liberal politics, before marching toward the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.

Hundreds of high school and college students also walked out in protest in Seattle, Phoenix, Los Angeles and three other Bay Area cities – Oakland, Richmond and El Cerrito.

DENVER, CO -NOVEMBER 09: Students from Martin Luther King High School walk back to school after joining students form Denver’s Noel Community Arts School to protest Donald Trumps election win, November 09, 2016. Some of the students fear being deported or their families being deported with Trump as president. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

A predominantly Latino group of about 300 high school students walked out of classes on Wednesday morning in Los Angeles and marched to the steps of City Hall, where they held a brief but boisterous rally.