VIDEO: VCU students heckle Trump at Richmond rally
Photo by Brooke Marsh, the Commonwealth Times
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SP5BB-Yfmo
Let me tell you how dishonest the press is. We have thousands of people in this room. Six — 7,000 — I think about 7,200 people here, we have about ten people over there — they’ll get the headline.” -Donald J. Trump
He’s led in the polls since August among GOP candidates vying for the Republican nomination. His outspoken persona has fashioned him into not only a business mogul, but a reality television star. With his unmistakable diction and demeanor, Donald Trump has amassed record numbers on televised debates and along the campaign trail — including Richmond.
Last night in Richmond, however, the spotlight may not have shone entirely on Trump. That’s because a group of determined dissidents, primarily VCU students, made it their mission to “disrupt the Trump” at his appearance in Virginia’s capital on Oct. 14.
It all started with a Facebook post,” said Camila Grez-Messina, a senior chemistry major at VCU who helped organize the protesters. “I saw that he was coming to Richmond and I posted ‘demonstration opportunity’ to find out who would be interested in doing something like this.”
Grez-Messina’s efforts to coordinate through social media were successful. Within two days, Grez-Messina was able to garner more than 100 interested people on a Facebook event page.
One of those people was Kendall King.
The fact that so much media and so much attention has been put toward a person who is intentionally racist and xenophobic is disgusting. The more that we can push back against someone like that — it’s important,” King said. “I have friends who are Latino and Latina, they identify with identities that people like Donald Trump continually try to insult.”
Before living in Richmond, Grez-Messina said they* resided in Leesburg, Virginia. Originally, though, they hail from Rancagua, Chile, and as a naturalized United States citizen, said they’re offended by Trump’s language and proposed policies on immigration.
“I’m an immigrant myself and my parents are immigrants,” Grez-Messina said. “The way that he has been talking about us is not correct, it’s demonizing. I’m not going to stand for that, he is not welcome here.”
The students erected a large sign at the rally that read “no human life is illegal,” which they said was immediately and forcefully removed by Trump supporters as Trump bellowed, “That’s why we have freedom of speech.”
One supporter even stood on the sign to ensure the students couldn’t raise it again.
“Even our presence in the rally without any kind of disruption was unwelcome,” Grez-Messina said. “When we started chanting, it got worse. People ripped signs out of our hands and we were forced out of the rally. We were yelled at, called dykes and lesbians and the N-word, and one of our protestors was spit on.”
Some of Trump’s supporters, however, were seemingly unprovoked by the students. Sharon Hall, a Richmond native, said she’s sick of politicians from Washington. For Hall, it’s not only Trump’s business acumen, but the fact that he’s a political outsider, that she said has captivated her.
“I’m sick of things as usual, we need a change. He can say some controversial things but I love it,” Hall said. “He thinks like I do. I love all his policies — the wall, Obamacare, his taxes.”
Trump also took notice of the dissenters in his hour-long speech, and told CNN the heckling did not bother him one bit.
“It’s a very, very small group. You look at the thousands of people — we had 7,000 people — you had 10 protesters,” he said. “So you look at the thousands of people we had tonight — not at all.”
Some members of the group provided The Commonwealth Times with video footage of their experience at the rally.
Grez-Messina said they warned the members of the dissenting group that they couldexpect hostility at the rally.
“We spent a lot of time notifying everyone that tearing signs, shoving and spitting should be expected,” Grez-Messina said.
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Fadel Allassan, Staff Writer
Fadel is a sophomore print journalism major. He is fluent in English and French and enjoys writing about politics. // Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
allassanfg@commonwealthtimes.org
Peaceful protest is as disgusting as assault?
Eric Stansbury From what I saw on video, yes I'd have to say disgusting behavior from all. I also think the peaceful protest line got blurred.
Money and power always is America primero. The Indians are the only real Americans the rest are Imigrants
I think calling a group of people shouting "dump trump" during a speech peaceful is a stretch. Non-violent yes…
Typical liberal "if you don't agree with me you are wrong" mentality. Why do ILLEGAL invaders deserve any benefits or consideration? They are ILLEGALLY in our Country.
I was gonna say something about "shared humanity" and "basic compassion" but it'd just go in one ear and out the other, I think.
Again, maybe I missed something, but didn't see anyone spitting.
Eric Stansbury still rocking the FB comments!
Our country? Are you Native American? You do know you can't take the land with you when you go, don't you? They are people, not invaders. Act like a human.
Eric Stansbury Fine, but if we decide that laws are merely suggestions and don't _really_ need to be followed, then all of us are gonna have a bad time. We can change the laws, and ripping families apart is stupid, but we do need _some_ kind of sane process for bringing people here and getting them into jobs, paying taxes, and giving them the chance from the very beginning to start building savings, a credit history, etc.
I don't agree with Trump's immigration policies either, but we also can't just declare the flood gates open and let everyone and anyone to just walk in. There are consequences to population growth (increased load on schools, hospitals, etc.) so we have to have some way to manage that. Plus, we need immigrants to help contribute to some of those costs. Integrate them in and make this country all of us can be proud to be a part of.