Tax Day March Highlights Income Inequality (Multimedia)
Thousands across the nation rallied Saturday to demand the release of President Trump's tax returns and protest economic and tax injustice.Scroll down for multimedia updates from the rallies in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
4:31 p.m. PDT: Protesters took to the streets of downtown Los Angeles, Calif. during Saturday’s Tax Day march. Truthdig contributor Donald Kaufman spoke to numerous demonstrators — watch video below:
3:26 p.m. PDT: Thousands participated in marches around the country on Saturday. According to organizers, over 150 cities held a Tax Day march. While the main march occurred in Washington, D.C. (see multimedia at the bottom of this page), protesters also flocked to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida:
We were wondering why the president’s motorcade took a longer than usual route home from golf: to avoid #TaxMarch protesters pic.twitter.com/Y00d6ynvlJ
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) April 15, 2017
Scroll to the bottom of this post to see original multimedia updates from the tax day protests in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
2:02 p.m. PDT: Truthdig contributor Donald Kaufman shares live footage from the Tax Day rally in downtown Los Angeles. Watch below:
Earlier: A nationwide “Tax March” is expected to draw thousands of participants Saturday. The march, to be held in numerous cities, calls for the release of President Trump’s tax returns, but also is meant to draw attention to income inequality and tax injustice in American society.
As Truthdig columnist Sonali Kolhatkar writes, there are many reasons to march:
The grass-roots pressure of ordinary Americans is necessary to undermine the power of wealth. That is why on Saturday, organizations such as the Working Families Party are mobilizing Americans so that the voices of ordinary people can be heard as loudly as those of the rich. Among the organizers’ stated principles is the belief “that public servants must be accountable to the people who elect them,” and a call for “leaders to build an equitable and accessible economy.”
While Trump eyes the tax system, there is a huge, inescapable irony over how our tax dollars are being wasted on providing expensive security services for a president who travels to his own properties far too often, golfs every 5.6 days and whose wife and son live outside the White House. At this rate, Trump will spend more tax money on security in one year than his predecessor did over eight years. It is the ultimate expression of elitism that the richest president in history will suck up more tax money to finance his lavish style than any other.
Saturday’s event takes its place between the record-breaking Women’s March on Jan. 21 and other planned marches, such as the upcoming “March for Science,” set for Earth Day (April 22).
“Marchers in Washington are expected to be joined by those in more than 100 other cities across the country and around the world, including New Orleans, San Antonio, Nashville and London, organizers say,” the Washington Post writes of the Tax March. “In Washington, organizers have worked with government agencies, including D.C. police and the National Park Service, to obtain permits. The Park Service permit indicates that organizers expect up to 10,000 people.”
Truthdig is covering the tax rallies in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Check out live multimedia updates from the two marches in the story below, captured on Evrybit.
—Posted by Emma Niles
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