More than one million protesters vow to resist Trump

International Desk: More than 1 million people gathered in Washington and in cities around the country and the world Saturday to mount a roaring rejoinder to the inauguration of President Trump.

What started as a Facebook post by a Hawaii retiree became an unprecedented international rebuke of a new president that packed cities large and small — from London to Los Angeles, Paris to Park City, Utah, Miami to Melbourne, Australia.

The organizers of the Women’s March on Washington, who originally sought a permit for a gathering of 200,000, said Saturday that as many as half a million people participated.

Many in the nation’s capital and other cities said they were inspired to join because of Trump’s divisive campaign and his disparagement of women, minorities and immigrants. In signs and shouts, they mocked what they characterized as Trump’s lewd language and sexist demeanor.

The marches provided a balm for those eager to immerse themselves in a like-minded sea of citizens who shared their anxiety and disappointment after Democrat Hillary Clinton’s historic bid for the presidency ended in defeat.

“We just want to make sure that we’re heard,” said Mona Osuchukwu, 27, a D.C. native. “I want her to know that she has a voice,” she said of her 3-year-old daughter, Chioma, who was with her at the march. “No matter what anyone tells her, especially as a black woman in America.”

The Washington demonstration was amplified by gatherings around the world, with march organizers listing more than 670 events nationwide and overseas in cities including Tel Aviv, Barcelona, Mexico City, Berlin and Yellowknife in Canada’s Northwest Territories, where the temperature was 6 degrees below zero.

In Chicago, the demonstration was overwhelmed by its own size, after 150,000 demonstrators swamped downtown blocks. It forced officials to curtail their planned march, although thousands of protesters still paraded around the Loop. In Boston, police estimated a gathering of 125,000. In Los Angeles, officials temporarily closed some side streets to accommodate the crowds.

“We are doing our best to facilitate, because they are squeezing into every street right now,” said Capt. Andrew Neiman of the Los Angeles Police Department.

New York, Miami, Denver and Seattle also had huge gatherings.

In Juneau, Alaska, one man marveled that the crowd was the biggest he had ever seen on the state Capitol’s steps. In Philadelphia, marchers filled city bridges. In Lexington, Ky., they shut down streets. In New Orleans, participants played brass instruments.

The fear — and anger — about Trump’s rise to the most powerful position in the United States reverberated at renowned protest sites around the world, from the Trocadero in Paris to Trafalgar Square in London.

Source: washingtonpost.com

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