In a statement earlier, the DC police said protesters “acting in a concerted effort engaged in acts of vandalism and several instances of destruction of property. More specifically, the group damaged vehicles, destroyed the property of multiple businesses, and ignited smaller isolated fires while armed with crowbars, hammers, and asps.”

Police said there had been 95 arrests as of 2 p.m.

“Pepper spray and other control devices were used to control the criminal actors and protect persons and property,” police said.

Earlier, a few blocks from the White House, demonstrators shattered building windows, vandalized police cars and other vehicles, and toppled news stands. One business owner told CNN there were as many as several hundred protesters who swept through the area, some dressed in black.

At one point, police used pepper spray as a group of protesters, many of them wearing masks, ran down 13th Street.

“I think Donald Trump is a fascist, and it’s very easy for people, especially people who are in pain, to slip into fascism,” said protester Lysander Reid-Powell, a 20-year-old student from New Mexico.

At one checkpoint, about 50 protesters sat down in the street in an attempt to block Trump supporters from entering a secure area to watch the swearing-in ceremony and speech. Not far away, a group of immigration backers staged a “pop up” protest near another check point.

“We’re here to take a stand against the ideas that Trump spouted throughout the course of this campaign — sexism, Islamophobia, his bigotry and nationalism,” said protester Jed Holtz, from New York City.

In a series of coordinated demonstrations designed to cut off spectator access, protesters blocked or caused bottlenecks in front of at least a half dozen security checkpoints outside the National Mall in the hours ahead of the swearing in.

Three women were chained together at the neck on 10th Street, and more than 150 demonstrators organized by the DisruptJ20 coalition surrounded an entrance near the Canadian embassy. “This checkpoint is closed,” they chanted, forcing Trump supporters to turn back and walk along Indiana Avenue in search of a clearer path.

As Trump was being sworn in, a half-dozen protesters, each wearing a letter of the word “RESIST,” stood up from just behind the VIP area and began to recite the preamble of the US Constitution as Trump recited the oath of office…(read more)