Protesters Continue Anti-Trump Demonstrations

New Orleans Protests   Reuters

Demonstrators took to the streets across the country for a second day on Thursday to protest the Republican presidential election victory of real estate mogul Donald Trump, voicing fears that his triumph would strike a blow against civil rights.

Beefing up protection for two of Trump's marquee properties that have become protest rallying points, police erected security fences around his newly opened Pennsylvania Avenue hotel in Washington and placed concrete blocks in front of the high-rise Trump Tower in Manhattan.

Protesters crowded against security lines across the street from the Trump Tower in New York, chanting, "my body, my choice" and "not my president."

About 100 protesters marched from the White House, where Trump had his first transition meeting with President Barack Obama on Thursday, to the Trump International Hotel blocks away, chanting "love trumps hate."

Crowds of protesters also marched down streets in Baltimore and Denver, temporarily blocking traffic. Also in Los Angeles, crowds marched down a freeway near downtown, blocking traffic until police cleared them away.

Trump's critics have expressed concern that his often-inflammatory campaign rhetoric about immigrants, Muslims, women and others - combined with support he has drawn from the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists - could spark a wave of intolerance against various minorities.

Anti-Trump rallies were held in more than a dozen major U.S. cities on Wednesday, with thousands turning out for each of the biggest gatherings - in New York, Los Angeles and Oakland, California. In Oakland, unruly protesters smashed windows, set fires and clashed with riot police.

A Trump campaign representative did not respond to requests for comment on the protests. Taking a far more conciliatory tone in his acceptance speech early Wednesday than he had at many of his campaign events, Trump vowed to be a president for all Americans.

More anti-Trump demonstrations were planned for the weekend.