A peaceful protest on the streets of Ybor City nearly turned into a street brawl if it wasn’t for the hard work of Tampa Police officers jumping in and quickly diffusing the situation.
(ABC)- Around 7:30 p.m., Thursday protesters began walking down East 8th Avenue chanting against President-elect Donald Trump. Their route took them past a lot of bars and restaurants but once they got to an Irish Pub that was one of the stops for a pub crawl that a lot of Marine Corp. members were a part of, things got dicey.
Anti- Trump protesters chanted “dump Trump” as people in the bar cheered “U.S.A” over and over. After some tense minutes the protesters kept on with their march the Trump supporters yelled “you walked into the wrong bar!”
Protesters told ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska they want to protest peacefully and let the country know they feel cheated by Tuesday’s election.
Tampa police used the street car and their mounted bike patrols to keep protesters from marching to the interstate. Except for the brief run in with the Trump supporters the rally was peaceful and there were no reports of any arrests.
Trump supporters having dinner in Ybor City shouted “go Trump” at the protesters. They think their marches are a waste of time and that people who voted for Hillary Clinton need to get over it and move on.