There was nothing peaceful about Washington’s anti-Trump protests

Washington, D.C.

I just witnessed an anti-Donald Trump protest, and it was nasty. About an hour ago, I looked out the window on the corner of 13th and Massachusetts Avenue and saw a crowd of roughly 300 people  — most of them dressed in black and wearing bandanas and hoods — moving quickly through the street. There were loud chants of ‘Fuck Donald Trump’. I walked out onto 13th Massachusetts Avenue and followed the noise down 13th towards Franklin Square. Suddenly it was chaos. There were some loud bangs. People and policemen were running in all directions. I could see lots of smoke which turned out to be tear gas. The bangs, I discovered, were caused by hoodies throwing bricks and rocks at windows. On the corner of Franklin Square, they smashed up a Starbucks and a Bank of America building. I spoke to a woman who said they surrounded the shop and started throwing things.