UPDATED: Nov. 13 at 11:05 a.m.

An upside-down United States flag was spotted at an anti-Donald Trump protest held in the city of Syracuse on Wednesday evening.

About 120 members of the Syracuse community gathered for a protest against Trump’s recent election as president of the U.S. The protest was held in the downtown at Clinton Square on Wednesday at 5 p.m. The theme was solidarity with immigrants, people with disabilities, women, people of color, Muslims and the LGBTQ community.

Many people held up signs with phrases including: We are all Muslims, stop blaming immigrants, standing for love and women against Trump. A few people also had signs from Planned Parenthood reading: Don’t Take Away Our Care.

Cars passing by honked their support at various points in the evening, but there were two instances in which people yelled out in support of Trump. The first chanted, “Let’s go Trump” as he passed by on his bicycle and the second was a driver yelling, “Get over it.”

“That’s exactly what they want us to do,” said Brian Escobar, a member of the Syracuse Peace Council. “I, for one, am not getting over it.”

The Peace Council invited representatives from different communities and organizations in the city to speak, among them was the North Side Learning Center and the Center for Community Alternatives. The majority of the protest consisted of audience members taking turns to voice their concerns publicly.

Nikeeta Slade, a representative from the Workers’ Center of Central New York, was one of the first to take the mic when the floor was opened up to the public. Her remarks were critical of both parties.

“My black, queer working class self saw no choices in this election,” Slade said.

Slade added that everybody already knows Trump’s rhetoric is unacceptable, but she is also disgusted by the Democrats’ and Liberals’ lackluster reactions to his election and the fact that they have not made any calls to action.

Ben Kuebrich, an activist in the Syracuse community, took the floor with his baby secured in front of him. Kuebrich, who has been involved in many protests in the city since moving there in 2010, spoke about the feeling of powerlessness that he knew many people felt.

He said Syracuse does not decide who the president is, but members of the community can decide how local politics affect their daily lives as long as they work together to make change happen and get involved in organizations based in the city.

“We can do a lot of work here to get rid of the Trumps of Syracuse,” Kuebrich said. “… We don’t have the power to take on Trump as a city, but there are a lot of mini Trumps here that we can fight to take out to make our city a better place.”

Immigration was one of the biggest topics covered toward the end of the protest. Some of the speakers commented on the overall environment of fear that Trump created for them, saying that they felt as if the U.S. was in a state of war and they would have to be careful of their every move. The language that Trump and his colleagues have used around the issue, specifically, the term “illegal immigrant” was discussed.

“People are not illegal … actions are illegal,” community member Rebecca Fuentes said.

The protest ended with a closing message from Escobar who reminded the crowd that Trump has emboldened the U.S. society to come out fighting, and although the Peace Council has the word peace in its name, they and others have no right to condemn any form of violent protest that come about because oppressed people have the right to resist their oppression.

He ended by leading a growing chant of “Stand up, fight back,” that slowly died out as the protestors dissipated into the night.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this article, Rebecca Fuentes was misidentified. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on November 10, 2016 at 3:20 am

Contact Stacy: sfern100@syr.edu | @StacyFernandezB