In preparation for former President Donald Trump’s Wednesday rally in Downtown Asheville, city police designated three separate areas for counter-protesters to gather.
These areas, dubbed demonstration zones, were a first for the city and were a response to violence during a 2016 Trump rally.
Asheville police introduced the zones with a goal of helping people avoid conflict, but the spaces remained mostly empty throughout the afternoon.
Instead, about two dozen anti-Trump protesters gathered across the street from thousands of Trump supporters who lined up outside of the Thomas Wolfe auditorium. The protesters pressed against a tall chain link fence set up to keep the groups apart.
Bob Carson and his wife Sandy were among them, holding signs that read “dump Trump.” The nearest demonstration zone was about 100 yards uphill, in a fenced off parking lot.
“I think it's a real mistake to try to separate the factions…because it's necessary to be here to see exactly what the opponents look like. They should see us and we should see them and hopefully learn something,” he said.
From the demonstration zone uphill, protesters could hardly be seen or heard by those down on the street in front of the auditorium. The other two protest zones, at Pritchard Park and Pack Square, were even further from the crowds of Trump supporters.
The group of protesters that gathered across from the line outside the auditorium were mostly older people who held signs and occasionally chanted anti-Trump chants. Things got heated at times, with both groups shouting insults at each other from either side of the fence.
At one point, a Trump supporter caused a scuffle with multiple elderly women protesting the rally by knocking signs out of their hands and trying to block their signs with a t-shirt that read “Veterans for Trump.” Things settled down when city police intervened.
Tony Bayless was one of the few people who chose to stay at the demonstration zone. He and his partner Chris Tinkler held a up a heart shaped sign that read “Hope Over Fear” that was attached to a tall pole.
“I think it's really smart. That way we're not spitting on each other, you know across a line or throwing things or screaming and shaking a fence like in a riot zone. So I get it. It's just smart. They were the city was being very wise,” he said.
By the time Trump took the stage inside, most of the people waiting in line outside the auditorium had dispersed, and so had counter-protesters.
There were no arrests made, according to Asheville city police.
