{"id":73043,"date":"2017-01-21T02:19:08","date_gmt":"2017-01-21T09:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/marchers-garner-cheers-disapproval-as-they-protest-trump-inauguration\/"},"modified":"2017-01-21T09:19:08","modified_gmt":"2017-01-21T09:19:08","slug":"marchers-garner-cheers-disapproval-as-they-protest-trump-inauguration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/marchers-garner-cheers-disapproval-as-they-protest-trump-inauguration\/","title":{"rendered":"Marchers garner cheers, disapproval as they protest Trump inauguration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><!-- gallery:311f30aa-ebf3-4b67-846e-38e67142f523 --><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9krHFlZdSfU\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Marchers flooded downtown Durango for a couple of hours Friday, disrupting traffic and garnering cheers and disapproval as they protested the inauguration of President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the snow, at its peak the march drew more than 100 people from a coalition of groups carrying signs with diverse messages including \u201cfascists out,\u201d \u201cstop hate,\u201d \u201cpeople over profits\u201d and \u201caffordable houses now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe man we have just elected and just sworn in, he stands diametrically opposed to many of these messages,\u201d  said Tse Chi \u201cChad\u201d Yen, an organizer and recent Fort Lewis College graduate.<\/p>\n<p>Trump was sworn in as the nation\u2019s 45th president about 10 a.m. (MST) Friday, then gave his inaugural speech and participated in numerous events, including the inaugural parade.<\/p>\n<p>The president\u2019s past statements on the environment, women\u2019s rights, immigrants, minorities and other issues brought some people to the protest. Some heard about it on social media and drove in from around the region, while others joined when they saw the crowd, they said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are here to remind the American people, we are the watch dogs, we need to keep pressing the American government to do the right thing,\u201d Yen said.<\/p>\n<p>Community members gathered at Buckley Park and they met at Main Avenue and College Drive with Fort Lewis College students who walked out of class at 10:15 a.m.<\/p>\n<p>Their chants promoted clean water, women\u2019s right and carried an anti-Trump message, as they walked in a loop from Main Avenue to Camino del Rio and back, before heading up to East Second Avenue and finishing their walk across from Buckley Park at the steps of The Durango Herald.<\/p>\n<p>Durango police officers worked to control the crowd and direct traffic. Portions of Main Avenue and Camino del Rio were intermittently closed.<\/p>\n<p>Police Lt. Ray Shupe said the marchers did not apply for a permit, which is necessary to march on a public street.<\/p>\n<p>But police allowed the march to proceed as long as it didn\u2019t completely block traffic, he said.<\/p>\n<p>The protesters were met with some encouraging honks and shouts, and also some disparaging comments. During their second stop at the intersection of Main and College, there was a tense moment when a woman in Honda Element tried to drive through the crowd. She eventually turned around after the police intervened.<\/p>\n<p>Environmental concerns such as climate change, Trump\u2019s nominee for the head of  Environmental Protection Agency Scott Pruitt and the Dakota Access Pipeline brought some people to the march.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMother Earth, she can\u2019t keep taking this abuse,\u201d Stephanie Dressen, an Apache and Navajo activist who addressed the crowd at Buckley Park.<\/p>\n<p>His leadership style also was criticized.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s actions mirror those of some fascist leaders in Europe, such as Mussolini, said Chris George.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we are going to need to be really on our guard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The coalition may plan other events, depending on what the Trump\u2019s new administration does, but there are no immediate plans, Yen said.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the inauguration was all but ignored at downtown businesses along Main Avenue on Friday morning. Two televisions near the front of Carver Brewing Co. showed the Australian Open tennis match while Trump took the oath of office.<\/p>\n<p>It was a marked difference from eight years ago when residents filled area bars and restaurants to watch President Barack Obama be sworn in as the 44th president.<\/p>\n<p>One of the three TVs in the back of Carver\u2019s was tuned to the inauguration, but the sound was turned off and only one person was watching it, Megan Lavigne, 46, of Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s history in the making, unfortunately,\u201d she said. \u201cI have hope that it\u2019s not going to be as bad as everybody says its going to be. \u2026 If he fails, we all fail.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lavigne said she\u2019s hopeful Trump\u2019s election will engage more people in politics. His candidacy certainly got her involved: She voted for the first time in her life in this election cycle.<\/p>\n<p>The flat-screen television was turned off at Steaming Bean Coffee Co.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was going to turn it on, and this lady was like, \u2018Oh god, please don\u2019t!\u2019\u201d said Jorge Lucero, a barista. \u201cNo one has been happy about it all day. I haven\u2019t heard one person stoked about it. People are kind of in mourning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Durango Mayor pro tem Dick White sat at a table in the coffeehouse, all but unaware of the inauguration. He said a march, called \u201cStanding on the Side of Love,\u201d planned for Saturday in Durango is more representative of where Durango residents stand on the current political climate than watching Friday\u2019s inauguration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTrump is a wild card of a sort we\u2019ve never known before, and his behavior during the campaign doesn\u2019t inspire hope,\u201d White said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>to tune out swearing in, inaugural festivities<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[314,132,13,265,315,316],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-73043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-downtown-durango","tag-fort-lewis-college","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-politics","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-video"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73043"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=73043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}