New Mexico police rumble with Trump rally protesters

After Trump protesters rushed the barricades and threw burning T-shirts and plastic bottles at police outside one of the presumptive GOP nominee’s rallies in Albuquerque late Tuesday night, this happened:

ONGOING: Albuquerque police deploy smoke grenades after protesters threw rocks at police: pic.twitter.com/gsRXLl0psU

— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) May 25, 2016

Police said the substance floating in the air was smoke they fired into the crowd, not tear gas. The protest went on for hours until police declared it an “illegal assembly,” reported local TV station KRQE. Albuquerque police say protesters threw rocks. 

Several #APD officers are being treated for injuries as a result of being hit by rocks. At least one subj arrested from the riot.

— Albuquerque Police (@ABQPOLICE) May 25, 2016

The rally was Trump’s first in New Mexico, the most Hispanic state in the country.  “We need to make sure that he knows that we do not accept the message that he’s bringing and the hatred,” Juan Sanchez of Democratic Party of New Mexico told KRQE.

Read a good account of the protesters actions–and security’s reactions– inside the Trump rally here. MS