So on Saturday (“Tax Day”), some folks protested.
Specifically, some folks protested because we (still) haven’t seen Donald Trump’s tax returns.
As a reminder, he’s the first U.S. president in four decades to decline calls to release his full tax returns to the public.
https://twitter.com/stephscrafano/status/853329095622631424
Most of the protests were peaceful.
But…
Things went horribly awry at a “Patriots Day” rally in Berkeley where, for the third time, pro-Trump demonstrators and counter-protesters engaged in a little fisticuffs that culminated in an Anchorman-ish melee at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. Here’s the LA Times describing the scene:
Both groups threw rocks and sticks at each other and used a large trash bin as a battering ram as the crowd moved around the perimeter of the park. One bank boarded up its ATMs before the rally as a precaution. Fireworks and smoke bombs were thrown into the crowd, and a few demonstrators were doused with pepper spray.
Twenty-one people were arrested, including some on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, according to Officer Byron White of the Berkeley Police Department. Eleven people were injured with at least six taken to a hospital for treatment, including one stabbing victim.
Police confiscated knives, stun guns and poles.
How fun is that, right?
Here are two pictures that pretty much tell the story:
Now there are all manner of appropriate ways to respond to and/or address all of that if you’re the President. Predictably, Trump eschewed all of them and went straight to Twitter on the way to missing the point entirely.
I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017
Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017
Yes, “the election is over!” Says the guy who mentioned the Electoral College in a tweet exactly 6 minutes earlier.
Of course as with all things Trump, when it comes to blatant hypocrisy and/or answering his own questions, “there’s a tweet for that”…
**********
The scene in Berkeley was caught on tape in stunning HD…
