American Flag Burned, Officers Assaulted In Protest At Trump Rally As Crowd Yells ‘Viva Mexico’
The American flag was treated in a less than a dignified manner at a Trump rally in New Mexico on Tuesday. Anti-Trump protesters were waving the Mexican flag while they burned the flag of the United States, all while yelling “Viva Mexico.”
Few presidential candidates have seen as much backlash for their campaign as Donald Trump, whose remark early in his campaign about illegal immigrants had been taken as a blanket statement and offended Hispanic citizens across the United States. He had called them rapists and criminals and has since said he plans to have Mexico build a wall across the border to stop immigrants from coming into the nation undocumented.
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Many celebrities like Salma Hayek and Pitbull have publicly denounced any support for the real estate and media mogul, which further ignited a rivalry between Donald Trump and Hispanic immigrants. Even Hillary Clinton hasn’t seen this level of hate during her campaign. At one point, a group of Black Lives Matter activists interrupted her speech, believing that her statement “all lives matter” was a racist one.
Now, Mexican supporters have taken to New Mexico during a Trump rally and burned an American flag to show their dislike. The protest turned even more violent when rioters tried to take over the auditorium and clashed with police. They had allegedly thrown rocks and bottles, and injured several officers, even pushing a horse over and attempting to set it on fire with a flaming T-shirt. Local news reporters claimed the rioters even jumped on police cruisers and smashed the windows.
Police were forced to use pepper spray and smoke grenades to control the situation and escort the protesters from the premises. One woman allegedly tried to lock herself to a police barricade to keep them from taking her away.
It is unknown how many were arrested in the wake of the riot, but it is a sign of disrespect to the United States to burn the American flag, and it is also illegal. So is assaulting an officer, which several protesters had done.
This didn’t seem to phase Donald Trump, though, as the media mogul made a quick joke after two similar interruptions to his rally.
“This is so exciting, isn’t it? Still wearing diapers, look at this guy! I’m telling you the kid looks like he’s 10 years old.”
It’s statements like this which often get Trump in trouble with the press. He’d made a similar statement about former rival Carly Fiorina when he’d said “look at that face,” saying she doesn’t look like a real president. He later took it back, telling her she has a “beautiful face,” but the damage was done.
“Go home to mommy,” @realDonaldTrump tells protester after interrupting rally: https://t.co/5HsAkKaqvp https://t.co/WiA6kcdnTh
— CBSN (@CBSNLive) May 25, 2016
Donald Trump seems to be the target of a lot of attacks, as the citizens and other residents of the United States continue to attempt physical harm to him and his staff. We can’t know how this will affect him if he succeeds Barack Obama, but he may need to keep bodyguards around any time he goes out in public. The fact that protesters are willing to commit a felony by burning an American flag might be a sign that the nation could be on the brink of civil war if he is elected.
The rioters might not understand that burning the American flag is not protesting Donald Trump. It’s a protest of Constitutional free speech, and a felony.
[Image via Joseph Sohm/Shutterstock.com]
