Protesters descend on Burlingame to rail against Trump

Presidential candidate Donald Trump was forced to abandon his motorcade on the side of a freeway, scramble up a hillside and slip into a side entrance of the hotel hosting the California GOP convention Friday as hundreds of angry protesters surrounded the building and did their best to disrupt the Republican front-runner’s speech.

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Trump joked about his roundabout entrance to the convention, saying it felt like he was “crossing the border” — but the rambunctious demonstrators outside saw no humor in it all as they scuffled with police, threw eggs and blocked roads around the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame.

Antoinette Chen See, 34, one of several protesters who formed a human chain on Old Bayshore Road outside the hotel, said she came out to try to deny Trump a platform in the Bay Area for what she called his racist rhetoric.

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“We have a failed system in which someone who is so antiblack, so anti-Muslim and so anti-immigrant is allowed to be a viable candidate for president,” she said. About the chains linking her to her fellow protesters, she said: “They are not comfortable, but it’s worth it.”

Some Trump backers

Presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio were also scheduled to speak at the convention, but it was Trump who drew the most ire from demonstrators Friday before, during and after his noontime speech. Coming just one day after protests at one of the billionaire’s campaign stops in Southern California turned violent, police were on high alert.

“Hate has no place in the democratic process,” Bay Area activist Cat Brooks said in a widely distributed statement urging people to join the anti-Trump rally Friday. “Black communities and all communities of color deserve a democracy that respects our vote, our vision and our values.”

The throng of protesters didn’t dissuade at least a few Trump supporters from staging a small demonstration of their own. Cheryl Tapp, a 62-year-old flight attendant from Burlingame and longtime Trump fan, came out to the hotel to show her support.

“He treats women good. Look at his corporations,” she said, referencing Trump’s companies where females occupy some top posts. She blamed much of the controversy surrounding the candidate on the news media. “You only hear about the bad stuff,” she said.

The anti-Trump crowd began gathering around 9 a.m. and grew quickly as protesters waved signs reading “Dump Trump” and “Racist rhetoric not welcome here.” Rabia Keeble of Oakland held up an empty Trump piñata, which she didn’t fill to leave it as “empty as he is,” she said.

Burlingame police arrested five protesters for unknown offenses, according to Lt. Jay Kiely. A San Mateo County sheriff’s deputy also reported being kicked in the head by a demonstrator as he was trying to arrest a different protester.

While trying to get in to hear his candidate’s speech, one Trump supporter wearing a “Make American great again” hat was punched in the back of the head by a protester in a black hoodie. Other protesters yelled at the assailant to stop, and after a great deal of pushing and shoving, police escorted the Trump supporter into the hotel.

Speech delayed

Around noon, just as Trump’s speech was scheduled to begin, a group of protesters broke through the barricades set up around the hotel and tried to surge into the convention. Police quickly formed a skirmish line and pushed the crowd back. The commotion delayed the candidate’s speech for about an hour.

The protests were organized by several local activist groups including the Anti Police-Terror Project, Black Lives Matter Bay Area and the BlackOut Collective. The representation among the crowd, though all united around their aversion to Trump, was varied, with pro-choice groups mingling among Hillary Clinton supporters who stood alongside Bernie Sanders fans.

“There’s a lot of different organizations, different coalitions voicing their concern for the Republican Party and Donald Trump specifically,” said Adam Jordan, a 46-year-old chef and member of the Black Lives Matter Bay Area contingent from Oakland. “That’s why it’s so chaotic here.”

Burlingame police had been preparing for the chaos all week and called in help from law enforcement agencies around the Bay Area. Hundreds of officers in riot gear fanned out around the protest area, setting up barricades to corral the crowds as demonstrators chanted, “No more walls!”

By 3 p.m., only a handful of protesters remained.

Police were especially tense considering the raucous scene that erupted outside a Trump rally in Costa Mesa (Orange County) on Thursday night. Protesters who had been peaceful while that rally was under way grew violent after the event ended, night fell and they were confronted by police on horseback and in riot gear.

One demonstrator jumped on a police car, smashing its windows, while others spray-painted graffiti on another cop car and the marquee of the venue where the rally was held. At least one Trump supporter was bloodied and roughly 20 people were arrested.

Trump’s departure

Trump’s Burlingame appearance, however, ended with none of those fireworks. After the candidate finished his speech, he left the same way he came in: out the side entrance, down the hillside and into his sport utility vehicle, which was still where he’d left it on the side of Highway 101.

Asked whether Trump’s unconventional means of entering and exiting the hotel had been planned, Lt. Kiely replied, “Do we really want to take all these people into custody or is there a less intrusive way of getting him ingress?”

Kimberly Veklerov and Kale Williams are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com, kwilliams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KVeklerov, @sfkale