'Do something': Protests as Trump visits mass shooting victims
Written by Millennium on August 8, 2019
US President Donald Trump met victims and first responders from last weekend’s deadly shootings in Texas and Ohio on Wednesday, as chanting protesters accused him of inflaming tensions with anti-immigrant and racially charged rhetoric.
Trump visited hospitals where victims were treated in El Paso, Texas, on the border with Mexico, and in Dayton, Ohio, after massacres 13 hours apart that shocked the country and reopened a national debate on gun safety.
“The job you have done is incredible,” told police officers and first responders in El Paso. Following his two visits, Trump also told reporters, “We had an amazing day…the love, the respect for the office of the president…I wish you could have been there to see it.”
But in both cities that he visited, crowds of protesters gathered to confront the president and condemn his visit. Some held signs reading “Trump is racist,” “Love over hate” and “Send him back!”
“He has used our community as a prop in the past, misrepresented who we are, described us as dangerous city, a place to be feared, described people in my community, Hispanics, immigrants as people to be hated,” Democrat Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, told Al Jazeera.
“He needs to take responsibility.”
In Ohio, at least 200 protesters gathered outside the Miami Valley Hospital, where the president and first lady Melania Trump were meeting victims of the gun assault. At least nine people and the suspect were killed in Sunday’s attack, one of two mass shootings that shocked the country over the weekend.
The crowd set up a “baby Trump” blimp balloon and held signs reading “Do Something,” “Hate not welcome here,” and “You are why”. The protesters accuse Trump of stoking violence with his anti-immigrant and racially charged rhetoric.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened an investigation into the incident, saying the shooter explored violent ideologies.
The gun assault in Dayton came just 13 hours after another gun man killed 22 people at a crowded Walmart store in the Texas city of El Paso, on the border with Mexico.
Trump visited hospitals where victims were treated in El Paso, Texas, on the border with Mexico, and in Dayton, Ohio, after massacres 13 hours apart that shocked the country and reopened a national debate on gun safety.
“The job you have done is incredible,” told police officers and first responders in El Paso. Following his two visits, Trump also told reporters, “We had an amazing day…the love, the respect for the office of the president…I wish you could have been there to see it.”
But in both cities that he visited, crowds of protesters gathered to confront the president and condemn his visit. Some held signs reading “Trump is racist,” “Love over hate” and “Send him back!”
“He has used our community as a prop in the past, misrepresented who we are, described us as dangerous city, a place to be feared, described people in my community, Hispanics, immigrants as people to be hated,” Democrat Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, told Al Jazeera.
“He needs to take responsibility.”
In Ohio, at least 200 protesters gathered outside the Miami Valley Hospital, where the president and first lady Melania Trump were meeting victims of the gun assault. At least nine people and the suspect were killed in Sunday’s attack, one of two mass shootings that shocked the country over the weekend.
The crowd set up a “baby Trump” blimp balloon and held signs reading “Do Something,” “Hate not welcome here,” and “You are why”. The protesters accuse Trump of stoking violence with his anti-immigrant and racially charged rhetoric.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened an investigation into the incident, saying the shooter explored violent ideologies.
The gun assault in Dayton came just 13 hours after another gun man killed 22 people at a crowded Walmart store in the Texas city of El Paso, on the border with Mexico.
