Today Mason students and allies stood up to Trump before getting kicked out by police and other white supremacists. pic.twitter.com/Soz0fojZHE
— Rodrigo (@rodreygency) December 3, 2015
(Video credit: Rodrigo Velasquez/Mason DREAMers President)
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign rallies are drawing massive crowds around the country, filled with supporters and protesters alike. Recently a group of Mason students was kicked out of a Trump for President rally in Manassas, Va., for protesting loudly and disrupting the event.
Kalia Harris, vice president of GMU Student Power, helped organize the protest. Harris said the protesters stood outside the arena in a “formation in which all students of color were surrounded by a circle of white allies who had their arms intertwined to create a barrier.”
The group then began chanting “Dump Trump” loudly enough to be heard inside the arena. Trump stopped in the middle of his speech to ask security to “gently remove the protesters.”
Harris said, “After he requested that we leave, police officers came over to escort us from the property.”
A group of people attending the rally came outside the venue and began to interact with the protesters.
Harris said, “One of our white students was spat on by a Trump supporter while we were still on the venue.”
The disruption only lasted a few minutes before the police escorted the group off the property.
The protesters attended the event to support undocumented immigrants and Muslims within the United States. President of Mason DREAMers, Rodrigo Velasquez, helped organize the protest.
“Our group was protesting the attacks on various communities from Trump and his followers,” Velasquez said. “Given the various anti-immigrant and Islamaphobic incidents happening in Northern Virginia, protesting the rally was critical for many of us who are part of those communities.”
Around 25 student protesters attended the event. The group consisted of members of GMU Student Power, the Native American and Indigenous Alliance (NAIA), Mason DREAMers and Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA).
Velasquez said, “A lot of Mason students were involved, coming from different communities to show how many people are outraged by Trump and his followers.”
Members of CASA in Action, the Prince William NAACP and Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Northern Virginia joined the student protesters. SURJ, the group that formed the ring around the protesters, is a national network uniting white people for racial justice.
The protesters received a lot of attention as they were led out of the venue.
Harris said, “You could hear either Trump supporters honking and yelling at us or anti-Trump folks screaming and honking in support.”
Mason students were not the only people escorted off the venue that night. Mr. Trump had one of his fans removed for displaying the Confederate flag inside the venue.
Ten days later, Trump’s campaign made an announcement in regards to protester disruptions during his rallies, which included ways of stopping the protesters peacefully.
Trump’s campaign requested, “In order to notify the law enforcement officers of the location of the protester, please hold a rally sign over your head and start chanting: ‘Trump! Trump! Trump!’”
Time can only tell whether or not Trump’s new methods will stop disruptions such as the one caused by Mason students.
