WarSclerotic

Protests turn violent in Washington, Washington Times, Andrea Noble, January 20, 2017

Police and protesters clashed in the nation’s capital Friday afternoon just before the inaugural parade got underway, with demonstrators throwing rocks and lighting small fires in downtown Washington, D.C.

The skirmishes occurred outside the parade’s security perimeter but prompted a response by hundreds of officers outfitted in riot gear, who deployed pepper spray and fired off crowd control munitions in an effort to disperse the groups.

The standoff was at least the second major confrontation on Inauguration Day — law enforcement arrested at least 90 people Friday morning after masked protesters smashed storefront windows and bank ATMs and overturned trashcans.

Interim D.C. police Chief Peter Newsham said out of the thousands of peaceful protesters who were demonstrating in the city on Friday that violent agitators amounted to “maybe a couple hundred.”

The afternoon’s confrontations were centered around 13th and K streets Northwest. A few protesters tossed rocks at police officers, meanwhile a group gathered around a set of trashcans and refuse that had been dragged into the middle of the street and set on fire.

Police made mass arrests Friday morning after protests turned violent ahead of the inauguration ceremonies.

Dozens of protesters were chased and surrounded by law enforcement officers carrying riot shields and wielding pepper spray after Metropolitan Police Department officials said they engaged “in a concerted effort engaged in acts of vandalism and several instances of destruction of property.”

Just as Donald Trump was being sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, police began to take individuals into custody one by one, securing their wrists with plastic flexcuffs and loading them into police vans.

As of 2 p.m., at least 90 people were arrested, Chief Newsham said.

“We have number of locations where these folks felt the need to destroy property in our city,” Chief Newsham said, providing an update on police activities through a video posted on the police department’s Twitter feed. “It’s disappointing to us this had to happen.”

Vandalism was reported between 10:30 and 11 a.m. along 12th and 13th streets north of the inauguration security pens. Officers pursued a group of black bloc-styled demonstrators who could be seen smashing windows of a Starbucks, several banks, and even the windows of a black limousine.

“The group damaged vehicles, destroyed the property of multiple businesses, and ignited smaller isolated fires while armed with crowbars, hammers, and asps,” read a statement issued by the MPD. “Preliminary information indicates the group collectively engaged in these criminal acts.”

Police corralled a group of protesters at 12th and L streets Northwest, where onlookers chanted “Let them go” and watched as members of the group were individually arrested.

Police said those individuals who had been arrested were being charged with rioting.

MPD officials said several police vehicles were damaged during the incident and two uniformed officers sustained minor injuries during “from coordinated attacks by members of the group that were attempting to avoid arrest.”

Just after 1 p.m, another large group of protesters descended on the 12th and L location and a separate group of demonstrators shut down traffic on Interstate 695 at the 6th Street exit in Southeast and began marching west toward downtown.

During Mr. Trump’s swearing in, A group of a half-dozen protesters in a guest section of the Capitol grounds began chanting the Preamble to the Constitution just as Donald Trump was taking the presidential oath of office Friday morning.

As Chief Justice John Roberts began to administer the oath to Mr. Trump, the protesters, clad in identical blue athletic jerseys emblazoned with a large red “R” on the front, stood on their white folding chairs and began shouting in unison, “We the People of the United States of America, in order to form a more perfect union…”

The new president seemed either not to notice or not to hear the demonstration, which took place just 100 yards from the podium and went on for much of the oath. The protesters managed to get into one of the most exclusive sections of the event, reserved in part for the press and special congressional guests.

People around the protesters made no move to stop the demonstration, and it took about 15 seconds for the police to reach the demonstrators and escort them down the aisle and out of the section. Several were still chanting as they left, holding a fist in the air.

As they were being evicted, one member of the crowd drew laughs by re-working a favorite crowd chant during Mr. Trump’s successful campaign against Hillary Clinton, calling out, “Lock ‘em up!

Earlier in the morning, protesters descended on Washington, intent on forming blockades to prevent access to Inauguration Day security checkpoints.

Carrying a banner that read “the future is feminist,” protesters could be seen locking arms to form a human barrier at one checkpoint while Black Lives Matter activists chained themselves together outside another at John Marshall Park.

At various points throughout the morning, checkpoints at 4th and F Streets, 10th and E streets, and 13th and F streets were reported closed and law enforcement officials were directing spectators who hoped to gain access to the National Mall to other nearby entry points.

But by 10:45 a.m. Friday, a spokeswoman from the inauguration’s joint information center said all checkpoints were open.

At a checkpoint at 10th and E streets NW, police escorted a line of spectators around a crown of demonstrators and drew a chorus of boos when an officer pushed a protester out of the way.

At a security checkpoint at John Marshall Park, a line of young black women chained themselves together in front of the entrance. Other protesters linked arms and blocked the entrance and chanted “go home!” at people attempting to enter.

“We’re not blocking people’s freedom. We have freedom to do this. There are other checkpoints,” said Michaela Brown, 24, a Black Lives Matter leader from Baltimore who was leading the demonstration.

But some spectators reported problems getting through security as a result of the demonstrators. Hope Kolb traveled from North Carolina with her grandchildren to see her first presidential inauguration, but said she was turned away by demonstrators at an entrance to the National Mall.

“If we did this at Obama’s inauguration, they would have called up the worst racists in the world,” she said.