Elderly attendees of the final night of the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Washington DC were accosted and berated by BLM activists, who screamed in their faces as they left the White House.
US President Donald Trump gave a speech to a live audience of more than 1,000 attendees and formally accepted the Republican nomination for president on Thursday evening, to a backdrop of fireworks, GoGo music and Black Lives Matter chants. It wasn’t long before protests and peaceful demonstrations turned ugly, however.
As a group of elderly attendees attempted to leave the RNC, activists screamed in their faces, hurled insults and flipped them the bird in a torrent of vitriolic abuse.
pic.twitter.com/ocTZ6MJeph
The anti-racist protesters didn’t discriminate, however, and hurled abuse at any and all attendees who happened to cross their paths.
An elderly white man was struck in the head amid claims he assaulted a female protester, though he insisted he was just there to see the fireworks. Elsewhere, demonstrators decapitated a Trump effigy with a guillotine, while others pretended to shoot a person in a police officer costume.
an elderly man was just assaulted. he was punched in the head and fell on the pavement pic.twitter.com/PkJsdddQGa
Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky) and his wife Kelley were surrounded by a baying mob of protesters who chanted Breonna Taylor’s name and engaged in scuffles with police.
Senator Rand Paul and his wife Kelley are surrounded by Black Lives Matter protesters after leaving the White House secured perimeter. DC Police formed a human wall around the couple #RNCConvention2020#DC#DCProtestspic.twitter.com/q4ttIvhXxs
However, provocateurs and agitators did arrive to further inflame the situation with the protesters, including a white man dressed in blackface who was punched in the face by an unknown assailant as he was being removed from the area by police.
Chaotic scene just erupted in DC after a man in blackface showed up at Black Lives Matter Plaza #DCProtests#DCpic.twitter.com/Q18TAli073
A crowd swarms DC Police officers as they try to make an arrest near the White House #DC#DCProtestspic.twitter.com/c1kiIKqvmD
Earlier this week, DC Mayor Bowser decried the abrasive and inflammatory tactics employed by protesters in the city to intimidate people into showing support for the BLM movement.
“What I saw in those videos was highly inappropriate,” Bowser said of the viral scenes outside DC restaurants shared online this week.
“It was likely against the law if they were on private property but more importantly, I don’t think it had anything to do with demands for social justice.”
She added that she didn’t think anyone should be “bullied out of living their everyday lives.”
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
