A rally in San Diego, CA for presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump took place last week, but reports and footage of the violence that took place there are just getting noticed now. Namely, photographs have come out that show Trump supporters hitting protesters with pepper spray, to accompany a video posted on YouTube of one such supporter gleefully pepper spraying a man at the same rally.
Gawker has featured the pictures of photographer Jimi Giannatti, who attended the May 27th San Diego rally, and got close ups of the victims after the pepper spray attack. One featured photo shows a woman closing her eyes in pain, with saliva dripping out of her mouth, while another shows a young man pouring water into his eyes to alleviate his discomfort.
Giannatti tells Gawker that anti-Trump protesters weren’t allowed to approach the San Diego Convention Center, where Trump held his rally, but that afterwards, supporters were allowed to harass the protesters without getting stopped by police. He also
provided commentary on his photos:
In my photo you see the aftermath to where some extremely passionate, Hispanic anti-Trumpers were defending their choice to protest Trump to the hating pro-Trumpers and were met by a sneak attack, completely acting in concert, spraying of pepper spray by the two guys in the pic. The pepper spray went everywhere – you cans see it’s direction bending in the shot by the strong winds that day – Several people, including myself, experienced an instant burning in our lungs an extreme burning to our eyes.
Another photographer, Eric Rosenwald, posted a slow motion video of the happy pepper sprayer. He smiles as he aims his canister directly at the protesters in front of him. A caption points to the Confederate flag on his camouflage hat. This stands in contrast to a Trump rally in San Jose, CA on Friday night, where anti-Trump protesters were the violent ones, punching people and even throwing eggs.
California residents vote in their state’s primary on Tuesday. Is it too much to hope for this insanity to end in the Golden State by then, even on through general election campaigning?