Friday marked the beginning of the presidency of Donald Trump. Trump took the oath of office at roughly noon on the 20th, and then went on to give a sixteen minute presidential address. As the inauguration and the various events scheduled throughout the day unfolded, protests took place elsewhere in DC. Most of these protesters were peaceful, but a good number of them acted out violently. As the Inauguration ceremony, Trump’s signing of executive orders, and Inaugural parade took place, http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/19/politics/trump-inauguration-protests-womens-march/protesters were smashing windows and attacking police officers. Six police officers were injured, at least two of which were taken to the hospital. The protesters smashed storefront windows and bus stops and at one point threw rocks at police officers, as well as lit a limosine on fire.
There was one video of protesters http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/anti-trump-protesters-light-limo-fire-cops-cuff-90-article-1.2951293smashing the windows of a Starbucks. I think it is the vandalism of the Starbucks that speaks the loudest about what these protests are actually about. Starbucks is known to be popular among people with left wing views. Washington DC overwhelmingly voted for Hillary Clinton, with http://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/district-of-columbiaover 90% of the vote going to her. Breaking windows in a Starbucks and destroying property in DC doesn’t really harm Trump or his supporters, or conservatives in general at all. It harms democrats and liberals. The self proclaimed “anti-fascist” protesters are not actually protesting Trump’s inauguration. It’s possible that they don’t even really care, and it would surprise me if any of them paid attention to the election in any significant detail. The property these people destroyed is the property of people who are on their side. This demonstrates that what these violent protests are really about is blowing off steam. They are simply angry at the world. They just needed an excuse to go out and break something, and Friday’s inauguration gave them that excuse. They are people who are just filled with rage. If you asked them to rationalize their behavior, I can almost gaurantee that none of them would be able to do it.