Pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators face off in Collect Pond Park, shouting at one another from behind metal barriers. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib
Photos by Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib
Donald Trump’s historic arraignment on Tuesday turned tranquil Collect Pond Park, across from the courthouse on Centre Street, into a raucous sideshow of dueling demonstrations, and made-for-media theater. With Trump’s defenders on one side of the park, his denigrators on the other, and reporters and photogaphers everywhere, the scene was heavy with vitriol, but absent the violence that many had feared. If a demonstrator tempted fate by wandering into the opposite camp, NYPD Community Affairs officers often arrived to escort them away for their own safety.
Among the multitude of signs displayed that day was a lone non-partisan one meant to dampen the anger. Carried by Don Folden, a masked man who calls himself “The Truth Conductor,” it read simply, “Stop Hating Each Other Because You Disagree.”