Protests against Donald Trump broke out in California's Bay Area late on Tuesday after the Republican candidate won the US presidential election, a witness and local media reported. Demonstrators set fire to a likeness of Trump, smashed storefront windows and set garbage and tires on fire in downtown Oakland, across the bay from San Francisco. A few miles away, University of California, Berkeley students protested on campus. A demonstration also unfolded at the University of California, Davis where students blocked streets as they marched and chanted anti-Trump slogans and "You are not America, we are America," according to Twitter posts. One protester in Oakland was struck by a vehicle after blocking a highway, local media reported. Meanwhile, many of the Clinton supporters were dumbfounded at Trump's victory. Los Angeles teacher Laura McCutcheon gathered with like-minded friends on Tuesday night for what she thought would be a celebration of Hillary Clinton's presidential win. McCutcheon said she was left struggling to understand what had happened. "I had worried there were voters out there the polls were not catching," she said. "But I cannot understand how people think Trump is the solution. If they are disgusted with the system, how is he the alternative?" In Las Vegas, local resident Mary Durgram was near despair. "For the first time in my life, I'm ashamed to be American and I never thought I would say that," she said at a local resort and casino. "I'm a veteran, I served my country for a lot of years and I'm ashamed of my fellow Americans tonight." In San Francisco, Joey Nunez, 29, said he was having trouble processing what had happened. "The shocking realization is that this is what people wanted. They wanted Trump," he said. "After everything he said, how could he get people to buy into his brand?" Nunez, who works as a clinical lab scientist, said he and his wife had spent the evening in shock. "We just can't consider him our president," he said. "It is just too surreal. In the L.A. suburb of Glendale, children's author Amy Goldman Koss said she started the day on Tuesday by donning a pantsuit in solidarity with Clinton and went to the polls with her adult daughter to participate in what they thought would be an historic moment: electing the first woman president. "It feels humiliating on several fronts," said Koss, 62. "How much we miscalculated, how pissed off the Trump voters were. It didn't matter what the hell he said." Many Clinton backers talked about how their social media feeds had been filled with support for Clinton, and that they had little contact with Trump voters in an increasingly polarized political climate. — Reuters
