Large anti-Trump protest heads from MacArthur Park to downtown LA

UPDATE: The LAPD is estimating that the turnout for the protest is approximately 11,000 people.

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Thousands of people turned out for an anti-Donald Trump rally that began Saturday morning in MacArthur Park and headed to downtown Los Angeles. This follows days of protests in L.A. and other cities across the United States.

Approximately 11,000 people, according to the LAPD, turned out to protest the president elect. After speeches in MacArthur Park, the protesters began walking east toward downtown. They wound up near the Civic Center in the northern part of downtown L.A.

Anti-Donald Trump protestors at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016.

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Photograph by Libby Denkmann for KPCC

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KPCC's Libby Denkmann was there: "There has just been a massive number of folks out here protesting the election of Donald Trump. Many have signs proclaiming support for women's rights, immigrant rights and support for Muslim Americans. and people i talked to here, like Vincent Ranquillo, who lives in Venice. They're immigrants themselves and they say they're concerned their family members will be forced to leave the country." 

Responding to the protests, L.A. mayor Eric Garcetti tells KPCC, "A lot of people who have never been in a protest in their lives are out there. Young people, a new generation saying, we stand for love, we stand for unity, we stand for immigrants, we stand for what this city and what this country was really built on."

Anti-Donald Trump protestors at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016.

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Photograph by Libby Denkmann for KPCC

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The demonstration was peaceful with people chanting "Not my president" and "si se puede," Spanish for "yes, we can." Another popular chant was, "Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here." Other people sat atop their cars waving California flags. No arrests were made, according to the Associated Press.

"There were some police blocking the on-ramps to the 110 in downtown L.A. but there were also protestors stopping and shaking the hands of those officers and saying, 'Thank you for your service' and 'thanks for keeping us safe," Denkmann says.

Traffic in the downtown area remains snarled with many on-ramps to the freeway still closed.

Anti-Donald Trump protesters near 4th and San Pedro streets in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016.

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Photograph by Eric Zassenhaus for KPCC

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Describing the scene, Denkmann says: "It's a diverse crowd. A lot of young people, a lot of parents with their kids. We see folks with signs talking about LGBT rights. I talked to one gentleman who said he and his husband were happy to be able to get married but now they worry about the makeup of the Supreme Court and whether this could possibly impact whether folks in the future are able to marry their LGBT partners."

For Garcetti, the challenge is what happens next? "What do we do to both continue to promote a picture of progressive activism but also of work? Moving this country forwad, and making sure that people don’t live in the shadows, that we look at inequality, that we move forward the agenda that voters passed here in L.A."