After the unexpected victory of Donald Trump in the presidential elections, protests have erupted across the United States and California. San Diego was no exception and  protests have been held  in several locations over the last couple of days.
One of the earliest demonstrations in the county occurred Downtown in the late hours of Tuesday night. The largely unorganized assembly saw a large group of citizens march through Downtown San Diego’s streets with no notable incidents.
Further north, a contingent of over 500 UCSD students marched through the La Jolla campus shortly after midnight on Election Day. While marching down Gilman Drive, a few students walked down an on-ramp onto Interstate 5. According to a CHP report, one of the students who walked onto the freeway was struck by a vehicle and hospitalized shortly afterward. No details on the condition of the student have been released.
On Wednesday afternoon, two protests gathered in Downtown San Diego to voice their disapproval at the outcome of the presidential race.
The first assembly, which was organized by Activist San Diego, gathered at approximately 5 p.m. at Horton Plaza Park. This group, which was relatively small and included children and families, marched around the park’s edge on Broadway hoisting signs and chanting slogans such as “love trumps hate” and “peace is the way” and also had guest speakers who expressed their outrage against the president-elect.
Enrique Morones, Founder and Director of human rights non-profit Border Angels, spoke about the results of the presidential race and the attitude people should have in light of the results.
“Today is one of the saddest days of my life. Donald trump has practiced the message of hate, of divisiveness, and exclusion. It is very important to remember that the only way to overcome hate is with love.” Morones declared before a growing crowd. “It is important that we are heard loud and clear.”
“It is righteous to resist. We are doing this in a peaceful and determined way,” said Martin Eder, Executive Director of Activist San Diego. “We are both frightened and disgusted by this wave of reaction against immigrants, muslims, peoples of color in this country and we want to register that there are plenty of people that welcome minorities.”
“We organized this march with less than 24 hours notice and it’s going to build over the next days. We want to move towards becoming a progressive humanitarian movement for social justice,” Eder added.
The second group, which gathered over 500 people, met at the San Diego Civic Center to demonstrate. Shortly after the group began their march from the Civic Center into the heart of Downtown, this larger group merged with the smaller group of people at Horton Plaza Park and continued to make their way eastward on Broadway and into other corners of Downtown.
Despite the peaceful nature of the protests, San Diego Police Department officers were present at the scene of the demonstrations. Police activity mostly involved redirecting traffic on Broadway and Market Street due to the large amount of people marching on the streets. Police equipped with riot gear did block off the intersection in an effort to disperse the mobilization at the corner of 11th and C, next to the City College Trolley Station, but no altercations came from this. A man and a woman were the only reported arrests in Wednesday’s protests.
Many more protests against Trump’s election are being organized this weekend throughout the nation and in our region. On Friday, community members will gather at Chicano Park on Friday at 5 p.m. and  on Saturday there is a gathering scheduled for 1 p.m. in Balboa Park.