This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Violent clashes broke out near a rally for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in St Louis on Friday. Thirty-two people were arrested and at least one bloodied person was carried into an ambulance amid demonstrations by supporters and opponents of the Republican frontrunner.

Trump campaign dogged by violent incidents at rallies Read more

Violence has become an increasingly common feature of Trump’s rallies. This week, a Trump supporter sucker-punched a protester being escorted out of a venue by police and Michelle Fields, a reporter for a conservative news site Breitbart, alleged that Trump’s campaign manager assaulted her.

Though Trump has said he discourages violence at his rallies, the Republican frontrunner has encouraged it at times. He recently responding to a protester by asking supporters: “Knock the crap out of him, would you? Seriously, OK, just knock the hell. I promise you I will pay for the legal fees, I promise, I promise.”

The clashes on Friday came as hundreds of people gathered around the Peabody opera house in downtown St Louis, many having been turned away from the over-capacity rally while others were there to protest. Videos posted to social media showed Trump supporters hurling racial slurs and anti-Islamic remarks at protesters and reporters.

St Louis police tackled and took away two men with their hands tied. One, who had a bloodied face, gave his name to MSNBC as Anthony Cage. He was taken into an ambulance, telling police: “I can’t breathe.”

Protesters held signs declaring Trump a racist, and alluding to his remarks that Mexico is deliberately sending “rapists” and “criminals” into the US as well as his support for a wall on the border with Mexico.

Trump supporters shouted back: “There’s nothing racist about him at all.”

There were 32 total arrests, a spokeswoman for the St Louis metropolitan police department said. One person outside the venue was charged with assault and 31 people were charged with general peace disturbance. Of the people arrested, 27 were issued summonses and released, and five were booked.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Protesters gather outside of Trump’s St Louis rally. Photograph: Michael B. Thomas/AFP/Getty Images

In several places, screaming matches nearly turned into violence. In one case, people dragged a white man away from a black woman after he became furious for having been touched and pushed her back. In another, a white man in a baseball camp gestured “come here” to protesters while shouting: “Do one of y’all motherfuckers want to go? C’mon: bring it! Bring it!”

Elsewhere, police broke up altercations and stray protesters on each side shouted at each other. Slogans included “No room for hate”, “fuck Donald Trump”, “fuck Islam” and “I’ve got 100 bucks for whoever knocks that bitch out”.

St Louis police appear to have been on high alert; recent racially charged protests against police violence in the city and its suburbs clearly colored protests against Trump: “black lives matter” signs and T-shirts were scattered throughout the picket lines.

“All he is, is the KKK in street clothes,” said D’Angelo White, 19 and from St Louis, of Trump. Though the Trump campaign was holding a rally in St Louis, White said, “he don’t give a fuck about nobody here”.

White and three of his friends were wearing blue-and-white starred bandanas over their faces as they walked away from the protest, which they said ended about 2pm. They said they had seen two or three protesters arrested, but the standoff was mostly screaming and tough-talking, not physical confrontation.

White said he was frustrated that Trump supporters kept telling protesters to get a job. He said he worked 40 hours a week for $9.77 an hour. At the protest, he said, “a 12-year-old told me to go get a job”.

“I got called a nigger five times,” said Najda Stroughter, a 20-year-old from St Louis. She said she was shouting “Fuck Trump!” and that men and women shouted “Shut up, nigger!” back at her.

“I’m sure we’ll be on the news, called thugs,” she said.

The surreality of an unusual campaign season also made itself felt: a man in a Spider-Man suit marched alongside Bernie Sanders supporters while a white-robed evangelist in a fisherman’s hat preached near a pro-Trump “Cardinal Cowboy”.

But a few dozen protesters, many of them black St Louis residents, lingered outside the opera house after the rally, engaging in heated but civil debates with a group of white Trump supporters from Jefferson City.

One of those supporters, Rudy Kelsey, 50, walked away from the conversation when one protester shouted that black people cannot be racist.

“I learned that black people still feel very discriminated against,” he said. “I told them them racism work both ways, and they said black people cannot be racist, and I said the dialogue’s over when you say that.”

Kelsey told the Guardian he had been discriminated against as a white man, because he was raised Amish.

“My ancestors fled Europe because of persecution,” he said. “My ancestors had their heads chopped off. They were burned at the stake and drowned.”

Growing up, he said, “we drove a horse and buggy instead of a car. We were Amish guys. We were the butt of every joke. My dad, he always raised us to be the best people that we could possibly be. Today I’m a successful self-made millionaire.”

Kelsey said he thought anyone could have that kind of success, “regardless of who you are or what your background is, but they obviously disagree with me very strongly out here. They say it’s still about color.”

While he was wearing a signed Trump hat, however, Kelsey said: “I’m not even sure I’m going to vote for him.” He said he had come to the rally out of curiosity; either way he was “absolutely” going to vote Republican.

In the aftermath of the protest, the only incident approaching violence saw a white protester grab a Make America Great Hat off the head of a Trump supporter, who was able to quickly retrieve it.

“That’s an autographed hat,” another white man said. “You know what I’m saying?”