Ahead of Trump’s arrival in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, police arrested 14 people as they held a sit-in protest blocking a bridge near the Shale Insight conference. The protest was led by Jewish leaders who marched behind a banner reading “Our solidarity will defeat White Nationalism.” It came almost exactly one year after a gunman armed with an AR-15 assault rifle opened fire inside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, killing 11 worshipers. Just ahead of the shooting, the gunman posted a racist screed echoing President Trump’s language about an “invasion” of immigrants. This is Dove Kent of the group Jewish Action, who led Wednesday’s protest.
Dove Kent: “We know that the violence from the state that is separating immigrant families is connected to the vigilante violence that is killing Jews in synagogues, black people in churches, and Muslim people on the streets. We know, as a Jewish community, that our safety is dependent on the safety of all people. And that is why we are here, as Jews, in Pittsburgh, one year after the most anti-Semitic shooting that has ever happened in this country, to say that our safety matters.”