BY LEVAR ALONZO AND BOB KRASNER | President Trump came back home Monday to a hostile welcoming party on his first return to Trump Tower since being inaugurated.
More than 1,000 people waited to greet the president at his gleaming Fifth Ave. residence, chanting, “Not My President!” and “Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “Black and Trans Lives Matter!”
The president’s motorcade came from a different direction, bypassing the enormous crowd.
Sand-filled Sanitation dump trucks blocked the building’s entrance and police erected hundreds of yards of metal barricades to contain protesters.
Helping fuel the protesters’ already-present outrage against him was the president’s recent frightening and inflammatory rhetoric versus North Korea, plus the wild racial strife over the weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, that saw 32-year-old protester Heather Heyer killed by an enraged alt-right driver. If there was previously any doubt, Trump’s pathetic response to that tragedy solidified many people’s opinion that he is truly unfit to lead this country.
Monday’s Midtown protest lasted more than four hours.
Hawk Newsome, president of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, who had been in Charlottesville protesting the alt-right rally, said police did nothing to contain the supremacists.
“It was war…people throwing rocks at us, hitting us with pipes and sticks and the police just standing there doing nothing to separate or even help the group,” he said. “It was absolutely horrifying.”
At the entrance to Central Park, a number of people dressed all in black held a mock funeral procession to mourn Heyer’s death.
Maryellen Novak, a Manhattan resident and co-organizer of Monday’s action, said in a press release, “In the wake of all this dangerous saber-rattling by the Republican Party, I feel it’s my duty to march and demand the hostile threats of war stop now. We are here to demonstrate a force of peace and love.”
The protest was not devoid of Trump supporters. About two-dozen of them stood two blocks away from the tower, chanting, “God bless President Trump” and carrying American flags and signs, one of which read, “Now is not the time for divisiveness.”
“I’m here to support the man I voted for and who will change this country, making it great again,” said Heshy Freedman of Manhattan, a member of Jews for Trump.
Freedman said he supports Trump because he believes the president will change the direction of the Supreme Court, making the country more conservative, give more security to Israel and talk tough to countries like North Korea that want to threaten American freedom.
“Go home, Nazi! Go home!” the protesters shouted at the pro-Trump group.
Much of the protest was peaceful until one Trump supporter was hit by a water bottle. Police tried to catch the thrower but he slipped away into the crowd.
According to police, only three people were arrested during the action.
The evening before, there were scattered smaller protests around the city, including at Union Square, in response to the Charlottesville tragedy.
Following chanting, speeches and some very appropriate solemnity, the Union Square rally got a little raucous as the sun went down.
Perhaps taking her cue from Emma Goldman, (who famously stated, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution”) Qween Amor, a “trans queer performance artist,” cranked up a boombox and pranced up a storm to some very danceable protest tunes.
Some of the more energetic participants joined Amor, dancing to Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and the Sharon Jones funk version of “This Land Is Your Land.”
An extremely vocal supporter of Jesus attempted to shout his message to the crowd, but was drowned out by R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” and was eventually forced to leave by the police, after getting into a shoving match with a protester.
Calm was restored as 19-year-old Adri led the transition from disco to campfire tunes, strumming her acoustic guitar and leading the crowd in singing tunes such as Bob Marley’s “One Love” and John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
After participating in a few sing-alongs, the Qween packed up her sound system and said goodnight.
“I’ve got a street party to go to,” she explained.
