D.C. streets brim with protesters

Droves here, abroad rally over Trump

People crowd into the National Mall for the Women’s March on Washington, one of several protests around the nation and the world Saturday, the day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
People crowd into the National Mall for the Women’s March on Washington, one of several protests around the nation and the world Saturday, the day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

WASHINGTON -- More than 1 million people rallied in women's marches in the nation's capital and in cities around the world Saturday to convey to President Donald Trump on his first full day in office that they won't let his agenda go unchallenged.








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AP/JULIO CORTEZ

U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democrat from New Jersey, cheers on the crowd Saturday in Trenton, during an event held in support of the Women’s March on Washington.

"Welcome to your first day, we will not go away!" marchers in Washington chanted.

From New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles to Mexico City, Tel Aviv, Paris, Berlin and London, people brandished signs with slogans such as "Women won't back down" and "Less fear more love." They decried Trump's stand on such issues as abortion, health care, diversity and climate change. And they called him a sexist, a bully, a bigot and more.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer had no comment on the march except to note that there were no firm numbers on its turnout in the U.S. because the National Park Service no longer provides crowd estimates.

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The march's Washington organizers originally applied for a protest permit for 200,000 people, but city officials said more than 500,000 participated Saturday. And as night fell, no arrests had been reported.

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

March organizers listed more than 670 events nationwide and another 70 in cities overseas.

In Arkansas, about 4,000 demonstrators marched in Little Rock to the state Capitol, according to state police and organizers.

In Chicago, the demonstration became overwhelmed by its own size, after 150,000 people swarmed through downtown blocks. It forced demonstration leaders to curtail some of their march plans, although thousands of people paraded nonetheless.

In Boston, police estimated 125,000 people in the streets. 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," Capt. Andrew Nieman of the Los Angeles Police Department said Saturday.

In Juneau, Alaska, one longtime resident said the crowd there was the largest he had ever seen on the state Capitol's steps. In Lexington, Ky., streets were shut down. In New Orleans, marchers played brass instruments.

Fear and anger over Trump's rise to president of the United States reverberated at protest sites around the globe, from the Trocadero in Paris to Trafalgar Square in London.

Common in every gathering were pink knit hats and repeated references to Trump's 2005 taped comments backstage at the television show Access Hollywood, in which Trump boasted of groping women and said he could get away with it because he was a star.

The crowd in London was large and lively -- organizers estimated that participants numbered as many as 100,000. Demonstrators held colorful placards reading, "A woman's place is in the revolution," and, apparently referring to Trump and Harry Potter books, "Even Voldemort was better."

In Paris, thousands of women and men marched in the city's boulevards in a march organized by a network of French and American feminist organizations.

"We are mobilizing as the new president of the United States prepares to apply the violently sexist, lesbophobic, homophobic, xenophobic and racist ideology that he defended during his campaign," read the event's Facebook page, which listed more than 4,000 attendees.

In Israel, several hundred people gathered in front of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. The rally was led by American Israelis, and the speakers spoke in English.

In Sydney, demonstrators were met with a surprise when they looked up to see "Trump" emblazoned in the sky. Trump supporters reportedly paid to have the president's name written in the air, prompting jeers from the crowd.

"People ask: 'Why here? Why Sydney? This isn't your issue,'" Kate Taylor, co-founder of the march on Sydney, said at the rally. "But it is. Misogyny and bigotry are global issues."

Topping expectations

At the end of the day in Washington, marchers had left thousands of signs in front of the Trump International Hotel, just blocks from his new home at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Protesters got as close as they could to the presidential mansion, crowding metal barriers less than a block away, with police and Secret Service personnel watching closely.

Turnout in the capital was so heavy that the designated march route alongside the National Mall was impassable. Protesters were told to make their way to the Ellipse near the White House by way of other streets, causing a chaotic scene that snarled transportation in downtown Washington. Long after the program had ended, groups of demonstrators were still marching and chanting in different parts of the city.

Demonstrators arrived in Washington from around the nation. Some slept on the couches of people they had never met. As of 4 p.m. Saturday, the subway system had recorded more than 597,000 trips, a weekend ridership record. By comparison, as of 4 p.m. on Inauguration Day, there were 368,000 trips. The city issued about 1,800 bus parking permits for the Women's March, and Amtrak added extra trains in and out of Union Station.

Christopher Geldart, Washington's homeland security director, said the crowd exceeded the 500,000 that organizers told city officials to expect. The largest-ever demonstration in Washington, according to National Park Service crowd estimates, was an anti-Vietnam protest in 1969 that drew 600,000.

The crowds delighted women's-rights advocate Gloria Steinem, 82, who was among the first speakers at Washington's event on the National Mall.

"This is the upside of the downside," she said. "This is an outpouring of democracy like I've never seen in my very long life."

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton didn't attend the march but tweeted her gratitude: "Thanks for standing, speaking & marching for our values womensmarch. Important as ever. I truly believe we're always stronger together."

The march in Washington turned into a star-studded event, with celebrities such as Janelle Monae, Scarlett Johansson and Ashley Judd making appearances.

Madonna gave a fiery, profanity-laced address to the gathering. And Cher, also in the nation's capital, said Trump's ascendance has people "more frightened maybe than they've ever been."

John Fisher, a 34-year-old locksmith from Grand Rapids, Mich., drove more than nine hours with his wife, Kara Eagle, to attend. He was one of many men who participated in the marches.

"I'm here to support my wife," Fischer said. "I don't care who you are, women impact your life, and there's no reason why they shouldn't have the same rights as men."

Many held up signs -- "I Am Very Upset!" and "Love Trumps Hate" and "Bridges Not Walls" -- while others took videos of the moment on their cellphones.

As the march grew in size, it highlighted long-existing racial and political rifts in the feminist movement. The initial organizers of the march were white women, although they later shifted leadership to a group of veteran organizers from New York.

The march platform called for ending violence against women, for workers' rights, reproductive rights, environmental justice, immigrant and other rights.

But a group of anti-abortion women also attended, beseeching the larger march to recognize their variety of feminism. Whether to include the conservative viewpoint sparked controversy in the days before the march. Anti-abortion women said they were excluded.

Siobhan Rooney, 32, drove from Philadelphia on Saturday morning to march for women's rights. For her that includes the rights of unborn children.

"We are in the same page on so many issues. It's just this one issue," she said.

Marlita Gogan, who went to Washington from Houston, Texas, for the inauguration, said police advised her family not to wear their "Make America Great Again" hats as they walked through the crowds of protesters as tourists Saturday.

"I think it's very oppressive," Gogan said of the march atmosphere. "They can have their day, but I don't get it."

Information for this article was contributed by Nancy Benac, Ben Nuckols, Alanna Durkin Richer, Tami Abdollah, Juliet Linderman, Brian Witte, Matthew Barakat, and David Dishneau of The Associated Press; and by Perry Stein, Steve Hendrix, Karla Adam, Griff Witte, James McAuley and Abigail Hauslohner of The Washington Post.

A Section on 01/22/2017

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