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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Protests Small Outside Anaheim Trump Rally

ANAHEIM, Calif. (CN) — Though protests were low-key directly outside Donald Trump's Anaheim rally on Wednesday, clashes between anti-Trump protesters and police erupted on the streets afterward.

Dozens of riot police on foot and horseback pushed back a small group of protesters on Katella Ave. in Anaheim. On several occasions, the police, who vastly outnumbered the protesters, warned them that they were unlawfully assembled and ordered them to disperse.

Several times the police charged protesters with batons.

At West Street and Katella — blocks from Disneyland — photographer Rick Goldsmith, an Anaheim resident, emerged from a scuffle with blood on his head. He said that he had been attacked by a woman who was part of a group of five anti-Trump protesters and that she had "cold-clocked" him on the head.

As the police repeatedly charged the protesters on Katella they began to slowly disperse. There were reports that police had made several arrests.

At around 3:30 p.m. a group of Trump supporters who had been separated from the anti-Trump group was allowed to disperse.

Dozens of supporters filed down the road with Trump signs as Orange County sheriff's officers — holding batons and dressed in riot gear — formed a line in the middle of the road.

Scenes outside the convention center, located across the street from Disneyland, were relatively uneventful before and after the rally.

One officer told Courthouse News that protests were limited to yelling and chanting.

Trump was at the Anaheim Convention Center ahead of the California Primary on June 7, and amid concerns that his presence in the state could spark violent protests seen after his visit to Costa Mesa in April.

Tickets to the rally were sold out, but the convention center appeared to be about one-half to two-thirds full. Trump's speech was short on substance and laden with insults.

He took aim at everyone, from "crooked" Hillary Clinton, "choker" Mitt Romney and "crazy" Bernie Sanders.

He also called Elizabeth Warren "goofy" and said he taken to calling her "Pocahontas."

Trump reveled in the crowds' chants of "Build that wall," and joined in the chorus himself. He said that he would repeal that "garbage" Obamacare, protect the Second Amendment and build the strongest military in the world, do away with Common Core education standards and bar Syrians from entering the United States.

"We're going to win so much you're going to be so disgusted with me — Los Angeles and California and Anaheim. You're going to say, 'We can't take it," Trump said. "We're going to win with our military. We're going to win on the borders. We're going to win health care. We're going to win on the Second Amendment. We're going to win with education. We're going to win, win, win! You're going to say, 'Mr. President, we can't stand it anymore, we're winning too much, we can't take it. And I'm going to say, 'I'm sorry, we're going to keep winning because we are going to make America great again.'"

Trump was interrupted several times by protesters who were shouted down by Trump supporters. Trump asked security to escort them out of the hall.

"The safest place to be in the country is at a Trump rally," he said.

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