At least a dozen protesters at Donald Trump’s March 11 rally in St. Louis have been detained in a single coordinated protest inside the Peabody Opera House.

The action managed to shut down the rally for close to ten minutes — to Trump’s audible dismay. At one point, the chants of “USA” brought things to such a halt that Trump resorted to begging for police action.

“Where are the police? Get ’em out,” he says at one point. “Get ’em out.”

The protest, a coordinated effort involving an estimated 40-50 activists, began with the coordinated drop of a large banner from the balcony of the Opera House. One said, “Caution, racism lives here” and the other said “Stop the hate.”

The protest also included about 10-15 people on the lower level ripping off their shirts to reveal T-shirts they’d been wearing underneath with anti-Trump slogans. Others had signs denigrating the Republican presidential frontrunner, including ones comparing Trump to the KKK.

The protesters stood in the aisles and linked arms before being pried apart by multiple police officers. The protesters went limp or were yanked to the ground as police used zip ties and handcuffs to detain them in the aisles.

As best we can tell, the cuffed protesters were then taken to a holding area somewhere inside the opera house. We also witnessed protesters being led down from the balcony area in zip ties.

Even before the large coordinated effort, there were at least a handful of smaller protests featuring one or two people. They, too, were led away by police.

The larger coordinated protest featured many people who had been active as protesters in Ferguson.

…The candidate tells the audience, “These are not good people folks, just so you understand. These are not good people. And I heard this was going to happen, and they said, ‘Mr. Trump, would you like to cancel?’ I said, ‘absolutely not.’ These are not good people. These are not the people that made our country great, but we’re going to make it great again. But these are not good people. These are the people that are destroying our country. Get ‘em out. Get ‘em out. Come let’s go. Get em out.”

He later adds, “Missouri, I can’t believe this.” And, “Honestly, can I be honest with you? It adds to the flavor. It makes it more exciting.”

…Here’s some video from inside:

… the protesters have already been released from Central Booking. Among them was St. Louis Alderwoman Megan Ellyia Green, who participated in the protest and was among those removed from the rally.

Green confirms that she has been given a citation for disturbing the peace. We presume the other protesters were hit with the same citation; we’ll update this post if we hear more.

We’re told that around 30 people were arrested. They were released as a group. One of the protest organizers tells us that there may be three other protesters yet to be released. A Trump supporter who threw a water bottle at the protester was also arrested; we are unsure of his status.

This Full article:  http://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2016/03/11/protesters-just-shut-down-the-donald-trump-rally-for-a-full-10-minutes

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