After several incidents of protesters crashing Donald Trump’s presidential campaign rallies, he’s finally decided to do something about it. He has vowed that he will press charges against future protesters who interrupt his events.
Protesters showed up at the Republican front-runner’s Midland Theatre event in Kansas City on Saturday, March 12. Following their removal, he told the crowd that he intends to begin having them arrested.
“I hope these guys get thrown in jail — they’ll never do it again,” Trump said. “It’ll destroy their record, they’ll have to explain to mom and dad why they have a police record and why they can’t get a job. And you know what? I’m going to start pressing charges against these people.
“I don’t want to ruin people’s lives. But the only way we’re going to stop this craziness is if we press charges.”
The Kansas City police said that outside of the venue, two protesters were pepper sprayed and a fogger was used, according to MSNBC. Four people were arrested, but there were no injuries reported.
“These are bad, bad people, and we’re going to take our country back from these people,” Trump told the cheering crowd, adding that the protesters were Bernie Sanders supporters.
He told security to treat the demonstrators “gently,” and added, “See, I’m a non violent person, did you know that about me?”
Trump’s announcement of his new plan of action came just one day after his rally in Chicago was canceled due to a major clash between protesters and Trump supporters. The incident included objects being thrown at protesters, fist fights, and verbal altercations including racially insensitive language.
Jedidiah Brown took the main stage to speak out against Trump, but was quickly dragged away by security. He told CBC News that the candidate’s supporters hurled slurs at Muslims, women and Black people at the Chicago rally.
“[They were] even telling us that we have to go back to Africa,” he said about the angry supporters. “It was a lot of racism. It wasn’t just racial slurs, they were physical. They were throwing things — liquids and objects. They were nasty, man.”
