NEW YORK – Shouting “all votes count, count all votes”, hundreds of people gathered on Wednesday on the steps of the New York Library on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan to denounce President Donald Trump’s attempts to stop the scrutiny in two key states.
After a quiet election night in terms of expected riots in New York City, some intense clashes erupted Wednesday as largely peaceful protesters called for every vote in the historic presidential election to be counted.
Police say more than 50 people were arrested, including a woman who was seen calling a NYPD officer a “fascist” and spitting on him, but there were no reports of widespread destruction that many stores across the five boroughs waited with windows. bricked up. However, it could still be days until millions of votes are counted and with the growing demand for all legally cast ballots to be counted, city officials and the NYPD say they are prepared for anything in the next few days.
The march began with a few dozen people near the public library and grew exponentially when it reached Washington Square Park, where nearly 1,000 people gathered. As the night progressed, NYPD said garbage fires had started in different parts of the West Village, and that police arrested more than 20 people. NYPD said those arrested “attempted to sabotage” a peaceful protest by setting fire, dumping garbage and eggs at police. It was not immediately clear what charges they faced.
Among the lions that guard the doors of the centennial building, labor, immigrant and political organizations gathered to show their rejection of the request of Trump’s electoral team to recount the votes in the state of Wisconsin and the threats to request in court the count stoppage in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
“I am here to join other New Yorkers in ensuring that the results of this election are protected and I hope that today we can also celebrate a victory and that the country works again,” said the community organizer for the NGO Jews for Justice Economic and Racial, Jehuda Webster.
In a festive atmosphere, along with Webster and several members of his organization, activists from RefuseFascism (Reject Fascism) brandished posters denouncing that “White Supremacism, Theocracy and Fascism are never legitimized” and calling for the departure of the President and Vice President. Mike Pence.
A member of this organization, Travis Morales, assured that “voting is very important, but not enough.”
“We need to be in the streets to demand: Trump and Pence go now, because it is a fascist regime that imprisons children in cages at the borders and violently attacks the protesters of the movement of black lives matter,” said Morales dressed wearing a mask and a T-shirt that read “Trump / Pence OUT NOW.”
NO TO VIOLENCE
Asked about the security measures deployed by the authorities and the fear of many downtown businesses that the marches could lead to looting, both insisted that the protest was peaceful.
New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea warned Tuesday that there will be “zero tolerance” by his agents for possible riots in the Big Apple after the closure of polling stations and the arrival of the first results.
“We are not here because of violence, there are colleagues who have received training in de-escalation of conflicts and who are here to ensure that the protest remains peaceful,” said Pence.
For his part, Morales, visibly shaken, assured that “the source of the violence is Trump and his fascist thugs” who the only way to confront “with millions of people on the streets demanded that they leave.”
Among the concentrates were also the well-known “Cowboy of Times Square” with his white underpants with the name of the president printed next to the artist Tootsie Warhol, characterized as Donald Trump and a sign that could read “Vote for Trump to leave” .
After a few minutes in which several songs were sung and speeches were read denouncing Trump’s steps against the electoral process, the protesters began to march down Fifth Avenue escorted by police officers who filed past the buildings.
In the direction of the south of the island of Manhattan, where other similar protests have also been called, as in other districts of the city, the participants advanced slowly preceded by a large poster in which the echo that could be read once again they repeated over and over again all the voices: “All votes count, count all votes.”
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