‘No Kings’ protests draw thousands to CT and across the U.S.
From Dayville to Hartford, Torrington to Stamford, Connecticut residents turned out to participate in an international day of protest against the Trump administration dubbed ‘No Kings’ on Saturday.
Thirty-three such protests were planned across the state. In Hartford alone, thousands of people crowded the north lawn of the Connecticut Capitol, many holding hand-made signs under light rain.
Though no official number was released, Cpl. Thomas Mull of the Capitol Police in Hartford said he estimated 9,000 to 10,000 people had been in the dense crowd that filled the north lawn in every direction.
Outside of Connecticut, No Kings rallies in every U.S. state and more than a dozen countries drew scores of protesters. The events came in response to a military parade slated to take place Saturday evening in Washington, D.C.
The Washington parade, part of the 250th anniversary commemorations of the U.S. Army, drew criticism in part because the U.S. doesn’t traditionally stage such parades during times of peace. It coincided Saturday with Flag Day, which was also President Donald J. Trump’s 79th birthday.
There were no arrests at the Hartford protest, according to the city’s interim police chief James Rovella. “No problems, period. Nothing,” Rovella said.
Connecticut State Police said they had not made any arrests connected to any demonstrations on Saturday.
In Georgia, though most rallies appeared peaceful, some protesters were met with tear gas.
President Trump told reporters earlier in the week that, “for those people who want to protest, they’re gonna be met with very big force.”
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., responded to the president’s remarks in a video on social media Wednesday. “What Donald Trump is saying there is scary,” Murphy said. “In the United States of America you get to peacefully protest, and the president of the United States cannot threaten you with violence if you’re coming out and protesting his policies.”
The day of protest comes after an uneasy week of increased immigration enforcement across the U.S. and in Connecticut.
In Los Angeles, demonstrations against arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spurred President Trump to call in the National Guard, despite California leaders’ opposition to the deployment.
Protests against ICE also took place earlier in the week in Connecticut after a woman was detained while taking her kids to school in New Haven, four men were arrested while working at a car wash in Southington, and a high school student was also detained.
The Trump administration shifted its immigration enforcement strategy Thursday, directing agents to suspend their activities at hotels and restaurants. But speakers at Saturday’s Hartford protest, like Executive Director of CT Students for a Dream Tabitha Sookdeo, told those gathered to remain alert.
“Connecticut is not exempt, it’s not safe, families are being torn apart in our neighborhoods, and it’s time to say, ‘not on our watch,’” she said. Sookdeo led the crowd in a chant that nearly rose to a scream: “ICE out of Connecticut!”
Members of Connecticut’s Congressional delegation, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Rep. John Larson, also spoke at the Hartford rally.
Blumenthal said he’d never been so proud to represent Connecticut.
“For all the great laws — and they are great — that we have here in Connecticut, no one is safe from King Trump today,” Blumenthal said. “We have to make sure that we defend democracy.”
The president’s military parade faced criticism in recent days, particularly from veterans groups and other organizations that expressed frustration with Trump’s embrace of military imagery and symbols.
“At a time when the world is on edge, with escalating conflict between Israel and Iran and other serious threats abroad, we should be laser-focused on military readiness and defense,” Janessa Goldbeck, a Marine Corps veteran and CEO of the Vet Voice Foundation, a national group encouraging veterans to become civic and policy leaders, said in a statement provided to CT Mirror ahead of the weekend events.
“I served to protect our nation, not to see the military turned into a prop for domestic theater,” she said.
Standing across the street from the Capitol, former Army platoon leader and Vietnam War veteran Richard Foster agreed.
“If he succeeds in politicizing the military, this country may never get it back,” Foster, who lives in West Hartford, said. “The military is supposed to be nonpolitical, and he’s turning it into a political body loyal to him.”
Handmade signs and interviews with Hartford protesters revealed many variations on a theme: anger and fear about the Trump Administration’s actions and where the country is headed under the president’s leadership.
But many said they felt hopeful to see such a turnout.
Aisha Mohammed, who came from Manchester to attend the protest in Hartford, said, “It’s awesome, actually,” to see so many people united. “This scene alone!” she said as cars passing the Capitol beeped their horns in solidarity.
A man named Henry, who declined to give his last name, held onto an American flag. He said he moved to the U.S. decades ago to escape civil war in Peru. He called his fellow protesters “the moral reserve of America.”
“What’s happening here in the United States is the result of years and years of failing education. People in power, they want people ignorant,” Henry said. “The billionaires are doing a very good job confusing all of the people, destroying the existing alternatives and just making people follow a charismatic clown, fascist who confuses people.”
Janice Williams of New Hartford said she worried if she doesn’t fight back now, her kids will one day suffer the consequences. Williams said she was grateful to live in a state where she felt safe exercising her right to protest.
“It’s so nice to be around this many educated, like-minded people,” Williams said. “In other states you don’t have the same safeties even if they say you have freedom of speech.”
Hartford school teacher J.M., who declined to give her full name citing concerns of online harassment, attended the protest with her spouse, holding a sign that read, ‘No Ignorance. KNOW FACTS. No Kings. KNOW HISTORY’. As someone who is deeply concerned with national events, she said attending the protest felt like the least she could do.
“How do we tell our kids that they have to do the right thing when their leadership is just doing the wrong thing consistently and showing that meanness and money always win?” she said. “I was really sad coming here today. I was sad that this is something that’s necessary.”
As the protest began to wind down, Branford resident Clarice Begemann stood with her niece and nephew, watching as people waved their signs at passing cars along the street in front of the Capitol. She said many things had motivated her to show up, but she was most concerned about immigrant communities facing increased arrests and separations in recent months.
“It’s just the brutality — the horror of separating people, sending teenagers away, there’s no due process,” Begemann said. “Everyone should have due process in this country.”
Protests across the nation
Demonstrators crowded into streets, parks and plazas across the U.S. to rally against Trump as officials urged calm and mobilized National Guard troops ahead of Saturday evening’s military parade.
Atlanta’s 5,000-capacity “No Kings” rally quickly reached its limit, with thousands more demonstrators outside the barrier to hear speakers in front of the state Capitol.
Intermittent light rain fell as sign-carrying marchers gathered for the flagship rally in Philadelphia’s Love Park, and shouted “Whose streets? Our streets!” as they marched down Ben Franklin Parkway to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Karen Van Trieste, a 61-year-old nurse who drove up from Maryland, said she grew up in Philadelphia and wanted to be with a large group of people showing her support.
“I just feel like we need to defend our democracy,” she said. She is concerned about the Trump administration’s layoffs of staff at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the fate of immigrant communities and the Trump administration trying to rule by executive order, she said.
No protests were scheduled in Washington, D.C., the site of the parade, but Saturday afternoon some demonstrators had gathered in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House.
In some places, organizers handed out little American flags while other demonstrators brought larger versions to wave amid signs that ranged from pro-democracy and immigrant-rights messages to a variety of anti-Trump sentiments.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, crowds cheered anti-Trump speakers in the city’s First Ward Park and chanted “we have no kings” before marching behind a “No Kings” banner.
In Los Angeles, people gathered in front of City Hall as a drum circle began and marchers in downtown Little Rock walked across a bridge over the Arkansas River.
The 50501 Movement orchestrating the protests says it picked the “No Kings” name to support democracy and speak out against what they call the authoritarian actions of the Trump administration. The name 50501 stands for 50 states, 50 protests, one movement.
About a thousand people gathered on the grounds of Florida’s old Capitol in Tallahassee, where protesters chanted, “This is what community looks like,” and carried signs with messages like “one nation under distress” and “dissent is patriotic.”
Organizers of the rally explicitly told the crowd to avoid any conflicts with counterprotesters and to take care not to jaywalk or disrupt traffic.
Organizers said one march would go to the gates of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis warned demonstrators that the “line is very clear” between peaceful demonstration and violence, and not to cross it.
Calling out the National Guard
Governors and city officials vowed to protect the right to protest and to show no tolerance for violence.
Republican governors in Virginia, Texas, Nebraska and Missouri were mobilizing National Guard troops to help law enforcement manage demonstrations.
There will be “zero tolerance” for violence, destruction or disrupting traffic, and “if you violate the law, you’re going to be arrested,” Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin told reporters Friday.
In Missouri, Gov. Mike Kehoe issued a similar message, vowing to take a proactive approach and not to “wait for chaos to ensue.”
Some law enforcement agencies announced they were ramping up efforts for the weekend. In California, state troopers were on “tactical alert,” which means all days off are canceled for all officers, while West Virginia’s governor put the state police and National Guard on standby.
On social media, Washington state Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, called for peaceful protests over the weekend, to ensure Trump doesn’t send military to the state.
“Donald Trump wants to be able to say that we cannot handle our own public safety in Washington state,” Ferguson said.
In a statement Friday, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, urged protesters “to remain peaceful and calm as they exercise their First Amendment right to make their voices heard.”