What started as a peaceful protest in downtown Omaha Wednesday night, by hundreds of people angry about the election of Donald Trump as president, got out of hand in the Old Market.
After hours of protests Omaha police fired pepper balls at demonstrators to disperse the crowd.
While the protest had profanity and a lot of shouting, two protestors tell KMTV Action 3 News Thursday that the night did not turn violent and the police response was excessive.
University of Nebraska – Omaha student Simone Smith says the movement carries both anger and fear over Donald Trump.
The “Not Our President” movement shows solidarity with refugees, Muslims and undocumented immigrants, Smith said.
"My class is doing a refugee campaign. It's supposed to show the refugee perspective,” Smith said. “We have had multiple people since Trump was elected into office drop from being interviewed for the campaign."
This Trump protestor and UNO student was nicked in the arm Wednesday night by a pepper spray ball fired by police.
"It sounded like when they got tired of listening to people, then they just had enough and they broke everything up," said Terry, who didn’t want to use his last name.
Despite a lot of shouting and profanity, and some say violence, the protestors we interviewed Thursday say violence within the night was limited to the pepper balls.
“There wasn’t any fighting,” Terry said. “It was just a bunch of people yelling about how they felt."
Two protestors were arrested Wednesday night.
One is identified as Thomas Parkinson, 30, who is charged with assembly to commit an unlawful act and failure to disperse.
