On Thursday night, attendees of the alt-right’s DeploraBall event at the National Press Club were met by hundreds of protesters decrying the movement’s bigotry and the incoming Trump administration. Uniformed police officers shielded guests coming in and out of the building as some of the protesters pelted them with water bottles and eggs. Other protesters played music, carried signs, and projected messages—including “Impeach the Predatory President”—on the building’s façade. Riot police were brought in, but scuffles between protesters and police were few and minor. According to NBC 4, no arrests were made.
“We’re going to let these folks know that they are going this far but no farther,” Daryle Lamont Jenkins of the One People’s Project said in a speech. “Y’all stay out here and make sure that they see you! And make sure that they see you well beyond today!”
“We do not want to see or partake in Trump’s policies of exclusion,” said protester Lacy MacAuley. “We say no to what we believe may become the Trump era.”
Some onlookers, many of them Trump supporters in town for the inauguration and passing by the scene, jeered and engaged with the protesters. “These are ultra-lefties who are behaving radically,” said Ram Lubranicki. “Yelling, threatening, covering their faces. These are cowards.”
Slate’s Aymann Ismail took these photos from the scene:
Aymann Ismail
Aymann Ismail
Aymann Ismail
Aymann Ismail
Aymann Ismail
