Milwaukee, Wis. — A few hundred protesters congregated at a nearby park before marching onto the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, where President Trump and his supporters were at a rally on Wednesday night.
Despite the weather, there was a large crowd to attend the "Protest Trump in Milwaukee" that was put on by the "Coalition to March on the DNC." The coalition is made up of different progressive and socialist groups that will protest the Democratic National Convention when it is in town in July to advocate for the party to move toward the left.
After a set of speakers spoke at Red Arrow Park, where they denounced Trump's "fascism," "racism," and "homophobia," they marched to the arena where the overflow of Trump supporters was since the venue had reached its capacity.
At first, Milwaukee made no attempt to get the two sides separate, leading to up close verbal spats and the two sides getting in each others' faces. But as the protesters moved closer to where a large screen was broadcasting Trump's speech, police were able to use crowd control fences and dumpsters as physical barriers to prevent the protesters from marching into the lot.
While regular police manned the barricades in the beginning, it was decided to have riot police, complete with helmets and shields, to be in between the two sides. Protesters, who had been booing at remarks said by Trump, were now booing the riot police. At least one Antifa member was arrested.
A member of Antifa is arrested by Milwaukee police. Credit: Julio Rosas/Townhall
The action did not stop once the rally was over, as now those who attended inside were now leaving, right into the counter protesters. Again, police were slow to move to get in between the two groups, but even as they changed positions, they were still unable to prevent the two sides from getting into altercations as they were unable to be everywhere at once.