Pepper spray flies during Trump protest clash in California An unidentified man listens as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event in La Crosse. — AP
An unidentified man listens as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event in La Crosse. — AP

An unidentified man listens as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event in La Crosse. — AP

Anaheim — Supporters and opponents of Donald Trump clashed on Tuesday outside City Hall, and five people, including two little girls, were pepper-sprayed by a demonstrator during the heated confrontation, police said.

No serious injuries and no arrests were reported in the clash as about 50 people confronted each other in the Orange County community.

Backers waving US flags and pro-Trump signs were met by opponents and a shouting match began.

At one point, an opponent unleashed a hand-held pepper-spray device on the pro-Trump crowd.

Five people, including two girls aged 8 and 11, were exposed to the eye-stinging spray, police officer Daron Wyatt said. Three were treated at the scene by paramedics.

The man fled, but police were looking for him, Wyatt said.

One woman wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat comforted the girls, whose faces were streaked with tears. The girls complained that their eyes and mouths hurt.

“I can feel it now, it’s pungent,” the woman, Lilia Zapatos, told KNBC-TV minutes after she was sprayed.

Linda Reedy of Laguna Niguel, a member of the pro-Trump group We the People Rising, pressed an ice pack to her face after being hit by the spray.

The anti-Trump group goaded her and her friends, and one man jumped on one of her friends, she said.

“I just think they’re so out of control,” Reedy told the Los Angeles Times. “I’m so sick of the anger in this country.”

The confrontation occurred before the City Council was expected to discuss a proposed resolution to condemn what the resolution called Trump’s divisive rhetoric.

The motion said Trump’s remarks — which have been perceived as offensive to Mexican immigrants, Muslims and other groups — are contrary to Constitutional principles and don’t reflect Anaheim’s “guiding principles of inclusiveness and kindness.”

But Reedy told the Orange County Register that she considers the resolution “un-American.”

“I’m a Trump supporter, but I’m here to support free speech,” she said. “Anaheim has more important things to worry about. What she’s doing is un-American.”

Meanwhile, Trump swept all five presidential primaries held on Tuesday, strengthening his grip on the Republican party race for a US presidential nomination, while Democrat Hillary Clinton raced ahead of rival Bernie Sanders.

Trump demolished Ted Cruz and John Kasich in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island – a stunning show of force by a candidate seen as a populist political saviour by millions despite being loathed by the party establishment.

Trump’s campaign “is moving slightly to the centre” in order to appease the Republican establishment, political strategist Morris Reid said. “Once he secures the numbers, I think you’ll see him nose dive to the centre,” Reid said.

“I consider myself the presumptive nominee,” the real estate mogul told a crowd at Trump Tower in New York, despite still being short of the 1,237 delegates required to win the nomination outright.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s over.”

Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton won in four states: Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Trump and Clinton were expected to do well in Tuesday’s five contests, which also included Rhode Island where Democrat rival Bernie Sanders won.

Sanders’ team has sent mixed signals about his standing in the race, with one top adviser suggesting a tough night would push the Vermont senator to reassess his bid and another vowing to fight “all the way to the convention” in July.

“Despite outspending Clinton in political ads in all five states, Sanders couldn’t overcome Clinton’s wall of institutional support within the Democratic party,” Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett reported from Baltimore.

Clinton was already looking past Sanders, barely mentioning him during recent campaign events. “What a great night,” the Democratic frontrunner told a crowd of supporters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“Let’s go forward, let’s win the nomination, and in July let’s return as a unified party,” she said.

The 68-year-old former secretary of state, however, deepened her attacks on Trump, casting the billionaire businessman as out of touch with Americans.

“If you want to be president of the United States, you’ve got to get familiar with the United States,” Clinton said.

“Don’t just fly that big jet in and land it and go make a big speech and insult everybody you can think of.”

Trump’s night was nothing short of huge, as he cleared 50 percent support in all five states, with nearly all precincts reporting.

In Rhode Island, he earned 64 percent, trouncing Kasich (24 percent) and Cruz (10 percent). Most importantly, the bombastic 69-year-old extended his lead in the all-important race for delegates who will officially choose the Republican nominee at the party’s convention in July. “Ted Cruz realises that his brand of conservative Republicanism doesn’t play particularly well in the northeast part of the country,” Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. – Al Jazeera and agencies

You Might Also Like

Comments