A Donald Trump campaign event at an amphitheater at the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa was quickly overshadowed Thursday night by hundreds of protestors who flooded the streets outside the venue and clashed with police officers in riot gear and on horseback.
By 8:15 p.m. a mass of demonstrators had nearly filled the intersection of Fairview Road and Fair Drive, stopping traffic in all directions on the two major roads just outside of the event center's parking lot. Many carried anti-Trump signs and voiced their fervent disdain for the Republican presidential front-runner.
"Racists go home!" yelled one group of protestors.
"United we stand!" chanted a group that had gathered on top of a fairgrounds marquee. It's leaders were two men who held up American and Mexican flags.
The most common form of protesting,, however, was more concise: A simple expletive aimed directly at Trump.
Some protestors became violent and destructive within an hour. Someone spray-painted the same anti-Trump expletive on the marquee and scaled a traffic signal to scrawl it across the metal pole. Others wrote messages on police cars and vehicles parked at a neighboring gas station.
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As a few drivers revved their engines and spun their tires, clouds of smoke and the smell of burning rubber filled the air. The actions drew applause.
One man jumped on top of a Costa Mesa Police Dept. patrol car and stomped dents in the roof, smashed the windshield. Others kicked the sides of the car and later attempted to flip it. Some protestors threw plastic water bottles and small rocks in police officers' directions.
As the chaotic scene continued to unfold, officers from the Orange County Sheriff's Dept. and other local police departments began staging to disperse the crowd. A row of mounted officers formed a line that stretched the width of Fair Drive, and they slowly moved forward to push most of the protestors out of the middle of the intersection. Another group of officers, which was wearing armor and wielding batons, riot shields and tear gas launchers, then lined up in front of the mounted officers. Several helicopters circled overhead, one occasionally shied a spotlight on the crowd.
For several minutes, protestors continued to gather in the street while the line of police officers held their ground. Some in the crowd, which was mostly made up of Hispanic teenagers and 20-somethings, posed for pictures in front of the officers.
"It's just stupid," remarked a Trump supporter watching from the sidewalk. "Immature."
When police were ready to move, they pushed forward deliberately, yelling at protesters to go home and forcing the group east on Fair Drive.
By 10 p.m., the crowd had substantially thinned. Police officers stayed on surrounding streets until after 11 p.m.
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Costa Mesa police arrested 17 people on suspicion of unlawful assembly, according to the Los Angeles Times. No major injuries were reported, but at least one Trump supporter was left with a bloody face after appearing to scuffle with a protester.
Leading Up to the Protest
In the hours before Trump's 7 p.m. campaign event was scheduled to start, thousands of people lined up in the parking lot outside the amphitheater for their chance to see the billionaire businessman speak. They were met by scores of anti-Trump protestors, who had gathered next to the start of the line.
Immigration and the candidate's perceived attitudes toward Mexicans was one of the most contentious points between the two sides.
According to the United States Census Bureau, as of April 1, 2010, 35.8 percent of Costa Mesa residents identified as "Hispanic or Latino."
As protestors passed by the line, they held signs and yelled slogans that accused Trump and his supporters of being racists. The supporters in line would often yell back.
"Go home!"
"Build a wall!"
"No free handouts! Why don't you just vote?"
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When the arguments got too heated, Orange County Sheriff's deputies would ride in on horseback to separate the two groups, which often drew applause from the pro-Trump crowd. During one of the times law enforcement intervened, one of the supporters yelled, "You just got walled off!"
One young Hispanic boy on a skateboard held up two small signs reading: "Love Trumps Hate" and "Trump is the symptom; White supremacy is the sickness."
Brenda Kittle, a 62-year-old, Trump supporters fired back. "Maybe if you're very nice, President Trump will get you a one-way ticket back home."
Kittle, who was born and raised in Orange County, said she has witnessed Costa Mesa deteriorate over the years. She blamed people who immigrate to the United States illegally to have a child, but she added that she thought children should be allowed to stay in the country as citizens while their parents are deported.
"We have a foster care system," she said.
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Greg Schmidt, a 67-year-old heating and air conditioning contractor from Yorba Linda, said deporting the millions of people who are in the United States illegally just wouldn't be practical. Instead, he said, employers should refuse to hire anyone not authorized to work in the country.
"Being an employer, actually enforcing the employment law would be a big help," he said.
As Trump took the stage inside, tensions continued to increase outside.
The 8,200-seat Pacific Amphitheater was filled to standing room only capacity with nearly 10,000 people. Thousands more remained outside. Many of these people were Trump supporters who were upset they were not allowed in, even though they registered for tickets online.
"It was terrifying," said 25-year-old Timothy Strausser of Pennsylvania, who found himself being squeezed into a crowd by mounted officers when he tried to leave after being turned away at the amphitheater gate.
Strausser and his father flew out from Pennsylvania to visit his brother and go to the Trump event. Strausser said, however, that after witnessing what he believed to be poor planning and unsafe crowd control, he's considering switching his allegiance to another Republican candidate, possibly Ted Cruz.
As Trump supporters were turned away at the gates, some ended up in the midst of increasingly agitated protesters. At times, this led to pushing and shoving as well as a couple of short skirmishes.
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"He's trying to get you to hit him," yelled 17-year-old Jason Will to a group of protesters who were beginning to surround a man wearing one of Trump's signature "Make America Great Again" hats.
"I think this should be a peaceful protest," said Will, who tried to defuse the situation by engaging the Trump supporter in a verbal debate and discouraging protesters from making physical contact with him.
"It's supposed to be a democracy; everybody should get the chance to get their ideas out, but I think it's ridiculous that he's coming over here trying to get somebody to act violently towards him."
Despite the violent ending to the night, some people were peaceful.
A group of seniors from Dana Hills High School in south Orange County laughed and joked with one another in line. One of them had a textbook with him; he said they had an AP U.S. Government exam the next day.
"California's a Democratic state, so not many [Republican] presidential candidates come down to campaign," said Lukas Klause, one of the students. "So when a Republican or conservative candidate comes down here – I'm not a huge Trump fan – but it's the appeal to see him here. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
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A contingent of anti-Trump protestors, organized for the most part by the Democratic Party of Orange County and Orange County Young Democrats, staged a more peaceful protest outside the event entrance. Unlike many of the other protesters, they mostly refrained from yelling at the Trump supporters. Instead, they held up signs with slogans like "Dump Trump" and "Stop Hate."
Jeff LeTorneau, co-chair of the DPOC LGBT Caucus, waved a large, rainbow-striped flag in the air.
"Trump is someone who I think causes major division in the country with his rhetoric, and I don't think we need that right now," said 53-year-old Greg Ridge, a member of the Costa Mesa Democratic Club.
Reach contributor JaredServantez here.
Annenberg Media