Where to begin. Eventual Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump came to Costa Mesa last night and delivered an ADD-fueled rambling speech loaded with red meat for his supporters and light on facts. But the appearance and lies were secondary to the protest and violence outside of the OC Fairgrounds.
Trump tweeted that 31,000 people attended his rally in a venue that only holds 18,000. His rambling story about General Pershing and radical Muslims just makes me shake my head. Protests started well before the 7PM event started and continued long past Trump’s departure. Protesters shut down traffic; Police arrested 17 people for unlawful assembly and one Costa Mesa police car was severely damaged.
The LA Times, the OC Register, and CrooksandLiars.com did a great job of covering the event. Links are here, here and here.
Costa Mesa Council member Katrina Foley puts the blame on the situation squarely in the Trump campaign:
“No matter if you support Trump or not, his campaign was irresponsible in failing to have a better event management plan,” said Foley. “We have police resources from all over the county, property damage, and a complete disruption of our community. Why did the Fairgrounds even agree to this so close in time to the OC Marathon which is a huge undertaking already?”
And its still April. Imagine what Trump rallies will look like in October?
Say what you will about Donald Trump, but at least he doesn’t stand on a corner witha sign saying “Hello”.
Costa Mesa Council member Katrina Foley is way off base here. There were PLENTY of cops there last night. Police cannot instantaneously appear at a particular incident – the Fairgrounds is a very large venue. She should rather direct her ire at the protesters – not the Trump campaign.
I was there last night, my daughter and I was stuck in the traffic jam for more than 2 hours. The lights were not functioning properly for an event of this size and we could have had some help with directing the traffic. Both the City and the event failed to control traffic.
I had tickets and by the time I arrived at the gates they had shut down. No event coordinators or police – not even a sign stating that the event had shut down. We were there 2 hours before the event began.
People were angry because there was no assistance on the streets to handle such crowds. The trouble makers were at another corner at a gas station far enough from the event .
Its really unfortunate that we missed an important event, at least an important event to us. Because of the failure to direct traffic during a very large event where the City could have done a better job working with the event staff to get everyone moving.
Get people moving – Disney does a great job of this when they hold large events.
We arrived at 5:30 – had no problem getting in & seated. The funny thing is that they did not check tickets at all.
“Trump came to Costa Mesa last night and delivered an ADD-fueled rambling speech ..”
Dan – This comment is unkind and hurtful to ADD sufferers and their families.
I have family members with ADD; Trump rambles and goes off on tangents never to return to his original point.
I work directly across the street from the venue where this event was held.
In fairness to the city, the police the number of people was simply overwhelming. This was not a concert, a swapmeet, but a political rally.
In my view, the protest area, should have been set up in a corner of the facility, with parking. Meanwhile event staff, could have directed “ticket holders” to a lot where security screening was performed.
As always a few bad apples, loud mouth degenerates hijacked other peoples rights. Sounds like Greg Diamond and companyat a comittee meeting.
Love the Mexican flags – nice touch.