PORTLAND — Hundreds of high school students joined protests in Portland on Monday against Donald Trump’s election that have ranged from peaceful to violent, as the mayor accused vandalizing demonstrators of “outrageous, bad, criminal behavior.”
High school students walked out of at least four schools and gathered in front of City Hall. Police were allowing the march to proceed, but tweeted: “Parents encouraged to tell their kids to go back to school.”
Students chanted “Peaceful Protest” and “No Trump, No KKK.” They marched across a bridge to the city’s east side in a light rain.
More than 100 people have been arrested in Portland, which has been an epicenter of protests, since Trump was elected. Some of the protests have turned violent, with anarchists among the demonstrators smashing windows and causing other mayhem.
Portland Mayor Charlie Hales said Monday that protests aren’t a productive way to create change. He told Oregon Public Broadcasting that demonstrations can be peaceful, he but believes those in Portland are being used as cover for “outrageous, bad, criminal behavior.”
Some of those who have been arrested were due in court on Monday.
Greg McKelvey, a protest organizer in Portland and head of Portland’s Resistance, said protesters are trying to coordinate with counterparts in New York, Washington, Austin, Oakland, Boston and a few other cities. “We’re going to go national, where we’re all organizing together,” he said in a telephone interview.
Some protest movements want to prevent Trump from becoming president, while others feel that’s inevitable and instead want to insulate their communities from his policies, he said.
“Trump is going to be president, so we need to prepare for that,” McKelvey told The Associated Press. “Our group thinks the time to stop Donald Trump from becoming president was last Tuesday.”
He said Portland’s Resistance aims make sure city and state governments are working on issues such as limiting climate change, advocating for single-parent health care, addressing racial disparities in policing and keeping a ban on no-cause evictions alive in Portland, which is in a housing crunch.
Police, meanwhile, announced that an 18-year-old who had been arrested in the shooting and wounding of an anti-Trump protester early Saturday was being released, after further investigation determined that he was not the suspect.
They instead arrested a 14-year-old boy and placed him in a juvenile detention home on charges of attempted murder and unlawful use of a weapon. The driver of the car whose occupants confronted protesters is also charged in the case.
An online fundraising campaign to raise money for small businesses that were vandalized in the protests has received over $54,000. McKelvey, whose group renounces violence, is helping push for the funds.
