Anti-Donald Trump protesters march amid tear gas, flash grenades

Portland: Police hurled tear gas and flash-bang grenades in response to rowdy protests in Portland, Oregon, as people around the country once again took to the streets denouncing Donald Trump's presidential election victory.

Early today, Portland police said on Twitter that they were investigating a report of a shooting and a possible injury on a Willamette River bridge that protesters were heading toward. They asked the public to leave the area. It wasn't immediately clear if the report had anything to do with the protests.

On last night, they reported, again on Twitter, that tear gas was used in response to "burning projectiles" thrown at officers. Hundreds of people marched through the city, disrupting traffic and spray-painting graffiti. Authorities said vandalism and assault had taken place during the rally, which organizers had billed as peaceful earlier in the day.

In other parts of the country, spirited demonstrations on college campuses and peaceful marches along downtown streets have taken place since Wednesday.

Hundreds joined a yesterday afternoon "love rally" in Washington Square Park in Manhattan.

Leslie Holmes, 65, a website developer from Wilton, Connecticut, took an hour-long train ride to the demonstration, her first protest since the 1970s, when she hit the streets of San Francisco to oppose the Vietnam War.

She described herself as an armchair liberal but declared, "I'm not going to be armchair anymore."

"I don't want to live in a country where my friends aren't included, and my friends are fearful, and my children are going to grow up in a world that's frightening, and my granddaughters can look forward to being excluded from jobs and politics and fulfilling their potential, so I'm here for them," she said.

Evening marches disrupted traffic in Miami and Atlanta. Trump supporter Nicolas Quirico was traveling from South Beach to Miami. His car was among hundreds stopped when protesters blocked Interstate 395.

"Trump will be our president. There is no way around that, and the sooner people grasp that, the better off we will be," he said. "There is a difference between a peaceful protest and standing in a major highway backing up traffic for 5 miles. This is wrong."

More than a thousand protesters took to the streets across California after night fell including downtown Los Angeles, where over 200 were arrested a night earlier. In Bakersfield, where Trump is far more popular than in most of the state, some held signs reading "Anti-Trump, Pro-USA."

Small protests also were held in Detroit; Minneapolis; Kansas City, Missouri; Olympia, Washington and Iowa City. More than 200 people, carrying signs gathered on the steps of the Washington state Capitol. The group chanted "not my president" and "no Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA."

In Tennessee, Vanderbilt University students sang civil rights songs and marched through campus across a Nashville street, temporarily blocking traffic. A protest also occurred in Minneapolis.
In Chicago, multiple groups planned protests through today.