Plaza protesters aim to agitate

Sub: The largely anti-establishment, anti-Trump group marched through the Country Club Plaza, broadcasting signs and chants that denounced the president-elect to shoppers and diners.

The protest began with a rallying cry, amplified by the electronic peal of a voice emitted from a megaphone.

“Smash the system, smash the state. America was never great,” chanted one man, and the protesters behind him shouted his words back in unison.

The chant was a direct rebuttal to President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign slogan — to make America great again.

A red banner, carried by three protesters who concealed the lower half of their faces with bandanas, reinforced the message being chanted.

“America was never great,” it read in thick capped letters. Below it, reasons were given for the declaration: indigenous genocide, African slavery, deportations, incarceration and wars of aggression.

Earlier, the protesters gathered at the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain on a chilly Saturday evening. Many fashioned masks from bandanas to conceal their faces. Signs and banners were held aloft. One banner displayed a quote by Martin Luther King Jr.: “He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

“We wanted to come here to agitate and be in the face of Trump supporters,” said one protest organizer, who wished to remain anonymous.

Though their specific grievances varied somewhat, many of the protesters were spurred to march through the Plaza to make public their antipathy for the president-elect.

“From a labor perspective, I’m very worried about deregulation and the killing of unions,” said the protest organizer. “And I’m extremely worried about undocumented and documented (people). There’s a threat to brown people in general.”

Another protester criticized Trump’s treatment of women.

“Our voices matter and we’re not going to accept this as normal,” said Riley Wolfe of Blue Springs. She cited as untenable reports of Trump barging into beauty pageant contestants’ changing rooms to catch them in various stages of undress. An audio of Trump with radio talk show host Howard Stern reveals Trump bragging about it.

“That’s not OK,” Wolfe said. “You can’t be peeking at girls like that, publicly admit to it and then be elected president.”

The protest organizer expressed incredulity as she spoke of a lawsuit alleging Trump raped an underage girl in the ‘90s.

“That’s insane. That’s insane!” she said. “We just elected a president who’s going to court for rape before he’s sworn in.”

The protest organizer said aside from Trump, capitalism was another of the group’s targets.

Capitalism, she said, has led to the oppression of “people of color, women, LGBT (people) and immigrants, and that’s not OK with these people out here tonight.”

At the beginning of their march, the protesters blocked all lanes of traffic on one side of 47th Street. They were met with utterances of support by some. Others opposed them.

“He’s the president now so get over it,” said one passerby.

The protesters yelled back angrily.

“No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA,” they chanted.

A police vehicle followed behind, its emergency lights off. At one point, an SUV appeared to drive abnormally near to a cluster of protesters. Protesters responded by pounding on the vehicle’s windows.

One protester who saw the incident said the vehicle appeared to be trying to get through before the protesters — who were rounding the street’s median to come back through the Plaza — blocked the entire street.

“Even if (the driver) was trying to go past people, that’s not safe,” she said.

After the incident, the police vehicle turned on its emergency lights and an officer warned the protesters to get out of the street or face arrest. The protesters complied, moving onto the sidewalk.

Two officers followed behind them on foot. One said they were there to ensure everyone’s safety. Four police cars and a security vehicle tracked the protesters from the street.

Sean Eagan admitted he wasn’t sure the protest and others like it in cities throughout the country could change anything.

“But at the very least … I think people should stop and know how people feel,” Eagan said. “I want it to continue to be known that people are concerned and care.”

Another protester said she feared the normalization of discrimination during a Trump presidency.

“People seem now able to say things to women and minorities and children that maybe they thought before but didn’t say,” she said. “It was bubbling under the surface, but now they’re so bold and brazen. They’re like, ‘Oh, I can say whatever I want because (Trump) says whatever he wants.’”

The organizer said the goal of the protest was to send a message to Trump and his supporters.

“We’re pissed, and this is not acceptable,” she said. “And now we’re going to be in your face for as long as we need to be.”