From Maine to Hawaii–from Florida to Alaska–six time zones-one nation indivisible-our team of dozens of reporters, producers and engineers will bring you the sights and sounds of what’s expected to be the largest mass protest in American history.
Eastern Time
Juliana Forlano
We’re going now to the news director, Rebecca for WBAI Rebecca Miles, who is here in New York City. Rebecca, are you with us?
Rebecca Myles
Yes, yes, I am. I’m standing in front of the main monument, which faces Columbus Circle. What’s going to be happening later, around two o’clock here is there’ll be a feed of protesters on the gathering of Central Park West. Now, for people who are not familiar with the layout of New York Central Park West, the start of it is Trump International Hotel. So this is all in the shadow of the Trump International Hotel. They will then be going along and then feeding in down Broadway and Seventh Avenue and heading towards 42nd street. And I understand the route then goes to 34th Street, and then people will disperse, and that’s expected about four o’clock this afternoon. So the rallying will start about 1:30 although I’m here now at this time, and people are already gathering. There’s signs saying, fight ignorance, not immigrants. Democracy is vital, no one is above the law. There’s a flag waving showing Free America. And there’s a choir that’s gathered the Yes Queen Sing Along, which is part of part of an organization called Sing Out Louise! @nyc.org they have a hymnal that they’ve been handing out and singing songs like America, the Pitiful, Amazing Disgrace, My Country Tis of Thee, God help America. Goodbye, Donny, which is a play on Hello, Dolly, Epstein and Epstein My Favorite Things.
Juliana Forlano
You gotta love New Yorkers.
Rebecca Myles
And they’re all decked out in bright shocking pink, standing in the shadow of the Trump International tower. And as I said, people are starting to rally here for a march. The gathering point is at 1:30 and then they’ll march down Seventh Avenue and Broadway.
Juliana Forlano
We spoke briefly with Arnie Arneson, who’s coming to us from New Hampshire. She mentioned that there were many, many, over 50, I believe, she said in her small state gatherings, protests, and those were happening earlier than the in the day. And then the rally in Concord, the larger city there, was happening, you know, in the later afternoon, so that those people could gather into the main protest is that sort of the same sort of setup that we’re seeing here in New York City. So people who went in their local communities could then come by 1:30-2:00 o’clock and get to a large rally here in Manhattan.
Rebecca Myles
Well, I understand there’s a march in place in some areas. I know there’s a march in place in Harlem and in Washington, Washington Heights, but there’s also a rally at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn today. There’s one in Staten Island. There’s several in Queens and, of course, in New Jersey, there’s dozens and dozens. So I think it’s more that people are rallying. Where is you know, there is the some people with mobility issues, so they want to be able to rally somewhere, but where do they go? So this one certainly will be large. There’s feeders starting from 100 and 10th Street, coming down Central Park West, and then joining the contingent that will be rallying at Columbus Circle, and then heading down to Times Square.
Juliana Forlano Can you talk about the sense of the feeling, the felt space on the ground?
Rebecca Myles
Well, considering where the economy is, the mood here is with this choir, everyone’s singing along, and there is a feeling of, it is, it’s, it wouldn’t be joy. It’s not that, but just people are empowered. You know, people power to rally to come. Together, they got a lot to say, which is evident from their signs and the feeling that hopefully this will, you know, register the descent and the protest at things you know how the intrusion of government and the collapsing of governments on people’s lives.
Juliana Forlano
Thank you so much. Rebecca, we know you’ll be there throughout the day, and we’ll be coming back to you. I appreciate you being there for us from WBAI news director Rebecca miles.
Juliana Forlano
Joining us from Sarasota, Florida is Ed James from Florida’s WSLR, thanks for joining us here on the Pacifica Coverage of the No Kings March.
Ed James – WSLR
Reporting from the busy University Parkway corridor: The protest just tapered down about 30 minutes ago. It started at 10am and it lasted to about 12pm this afternoon, there were hundreds, if not 1000s of people there for various reasons. You have folks from Equality Florida, which is a pro LGBTQ organization here in Florida that advocates for things like same sex marriage. You also had individuals who said they have just had enough with the authoritarian regime that is Donald Trump’s presidency. You saw folks from all walks of life, children, babies, even holding signs with their parents, grandparents, and in some cases great grandparents. So, there was a wide array of people here for a wide array of reasons, but the common focal point was the fact that they, you know, didn’t want a dictatorship anymore in the executive office. So there was a range in ages, but primarily it was our, what I like to call our seasoned community, or our senior citizens, you know, folks their 60s, 70s and even 80s, making their voices heard.
Spoke to a few veterans from the Vietnam War and some veterans from you know, the war in Iraq who were just concerned about the direction that the country was going in, especially with Operation Epic Fury going on. On the political scene that election in Florida is forthcoming, and there is a potential where Florida may see its first black elected mayor, I mean elected governor, with Byron Donald running on the Republican side, and former Congresswoman Val Demings husband Jerry Demings, who is running against David Jolly for the Democratic nomination. So you know, even in spite of everything that’s going on in terms of what people feel as a discriminatory administration against people of color, against immigrants, against LGBTQ folks, you know, there is a chance where you may see two African American men running for the highest office in the state of Florida this upcoming election season.
The interesting part is that when it comes to voter registration, you know, Democrats in Florida for a very long time had a higher registration than Republicans, but for whatever reason, it has been Trump country as of late.
Normally speaking, midterm elections are always a referendum on whoever is the sitting president. So you know right now, during this midterm election cycle, this is an opportunity for people to take a step back and critique what the first two years of President Trump’s administration has been like for them, and so oftentimes, what you find is there are seismic shifts in The representation in the legislature as being the differing party from what’s in the White House at that time. So, I think what we saw in that Mar-a-Lago congressional district was a critique of Donald Trump’s first two years in office in this term. And obviously it seems that people aren’t too pleased with his leadership or lack thereof.
Juliana Forlano
Ed James from Sarasota, Florida, from WSLR, thank you so much for being here with us today. We really appreciate you bringing us that perspective.
Ed James – WSLR
My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Gretchen Cochran – This is Gretchen Cochran from WSLR. I’m at the Democracy for All conference. It started with an idea 60 days ago as a complement of sorts to No King’s Day. It grew to nearly 500 people here right now, and I am going to be talking with Anna Drelios, one of its organizers. Anna, how did this come together?
Anna Drelios – Well, it came together because we felt that protesting was an amazing thing to do, but we wanted to take it further. We wanted to create an event where organization could be in the same space with people who wanted to learn more about what they could do to support our immigrant and other vulnerable communities, and also to protect democracy that is in so much jeopardy right now. So what we decided to do is not only provide information on what kind of action people could take right now, but also we named the conference Save Democracy for All for a reason, because we feel that we will save democracy. We are in a very perilous period right now, but if we gather together, if we mobilize, we will save democracy, and then we have to rebuild a democracy that will never be this vulnerable again. There’s something wrong with our democracy right now, when a fake populist can sway people to vote for him.
Gretchen Cochran – So Ana, you have five or six workshops to teach people how to actually take action? What are the names of those?
Anna Drelios – The names of the workshops are free and fair enough elections, civil discourse, protect, support our public schools, humane immigration and the separation of church and state. All of those are important because if they’re not, if we don’t support our immigrants, if we don’t protect our schools, if we don’t have free and fair elections, we don’t have a democracy. And we wanted to inform people about what’s going on right now, but what we can do to strengthen our democracy and our our schools and envision a future that is not vulnerable to this kind of oppression and this kind of fascism.
Noah Porter –
We’re getting a very good mix of people, from very young high schoolers all the way to retirees, where we are right now, Anacostia in the southeast. It’s the most densely African American neighborhood in DC . But right now I’m seeing people from all races protesting here. Everyone’s bundled up. It’s a little bit chilly here, but the sun is really uninterrupted.
There’s a lot of Code Pink signs. So, Code Pink is a radio program. The Producer and creator is Medea Benjamin. I’m seeing a lot of people here wearing pink and holding up the Code Pink signs, which are mostly anti-ICE. We’re also seeing a lot of people with Free DC signs. This is a really, really big issue for people here in DC, the fact that there’s still a federal occupation, and just last week, actually, additional legislation was passed through the house. It hasn’t become law yet, but it passed the House which would codify all of the changes and deployments President Trump has made.
Free DC flags are something you’re only going to see here, but there are a lot of them, definitely impossible to ignore here. There must be at least 1000 people who saw soldiers in the metro if they chose to come here through the metro system. So it’s on everybody’s minds here. It’s important for people across the country to remember the capital is still under occupation.
Juliana Forlano – We have with us now, Beth Russo in Asheville, from WPVM. Beth, thanks for being on with us today.
Beth Russo – Glad to be here. Thank you for having us. We’ve got a huge crowd, and there’s still people streaming in from all the side streets and major highways. We’re estimating about 7000 people thus far.
Here, it’s really upbeat. There’s some fantastic costumes. You know, Ashville is a of creative town so we have a lot of great costumes and a lot of great signs. You know, one thing that’s different about this protest is there’s a lot of young people here, and I’ve talked to several of them, and their number one concern is with ICE overreach and what’s happening to kids and students across the nation. That’s a little bit of a different flavor than previous protests.
I see a lot of people from faith communities interview some folks from multiple churches that are here, and a lot of people who identify as former Republicans who can no longer join with what the party’s done, because they believe in justice, they believe in the American principles that we’re not seeing.
So the guy I went to talk to said, ‘I used to vote red, ask me why I don’t anymore.’
This is a very patriotic crowd. There’s a lot of American flags out there. There’s a ton of veterans that are out here as well. It’s just a really upbeat and a very determined spirit, I think today. There’s a dragon, a unicorn, a statue of liberty coming out of a trash can, a frog. There are multiple unicorn costumes, actually, and as I go a little bit further, there’s some really creative interpretations of the Statue of Liberty.
It’s a year and a half since Hurricane Helene hit us. It was the biggest storm in our history, and it did untold damage, and we got less federal assistance than any other modern disaster in history. People are fed up with the lack of response from the federal government. They’re frustrated with what the GOP seems to do to impede getting help to the people. Our housing was already strained because we have a high cost of living, a high and low lower wages, and for the first time in our recent history, we’ve seen Asheville lose population. We just had a report come out a couple of days ago about that. People are tired. They want to have their neighbors back in their homes, back in jobs and and to get back to like what it was a before that storm came and devastated our community. Asheville is a blue city in a red area, and I think that people who live in the red area really believe what Trump told us right after the storm, that he was going to come and he was going to remove all the barriers to help, and instead, what we saw was funding kept in Washington.
So, lot of people, I think we’re becoming less of a red region and more of a purplish region, and that’s partly because people are frustrated with their government and the response to that storm. Well, you know, a couple of months ago, ICE made a big presence in North Carolina, and I think they didn’t expect quite the resistance from the North Carolinians that they got in Charlotte, Raleigh, and even in this actual western North Carolina region, we have a lot of immigrants that live here. North Carolina is a growing state. We have a big agricultural presence, and we love our immigrant neighbors.
And I think one of the things that people are really frustrated is seeing two sets of rules, two sets of laws being applied to them. And like I said, one of the things that’s been really starkly different to me about this No Kings rally versus other ones, is how many people who are here that are under the age of 30.
And every single person I’ve gone up to to talk to that’s a younger person said that seeing the videos of ICE snatching kids, grabbing moms, holding kids as hostage, this disturbed them so much, and they didn’t want to be part of that.
A lot of people are still streaming here, there’s lots of ways to get involved. And one of the things I keep hearing from people, if protest isn’t your thing, find another thing to keep moving our country back towards the democracy and the Republic that we all believe in.
Central Time
Juliana Forlano – Mimi Rosenberg in New York. Mimi-
Mimi Rosenberg- I want to start with Brooklyn, where there were 1000s before the line of march was scheduled to launch, that were there hours ago at Grand Army Plaza. From there, I biked over to Manhattan and passed a number of overpasses where there were smaller groups of people that had huge signs of No Kings, some of whom had No Emperors.
But where I am now, I happen to be with a contingent that has organized with the ACLU that is here getting ready to march with the 10s of 1000s who have been here hours before the launch. They’re all united around one thing, and that is no authoritarianism.
So what I’d like to do is put on some of the people that are here gathered, particularly with the ACLU contingent. We’ll start with my brother here, who’s here with a No Kings sign with a huge picture of a clown. So let’s find out who you are and what particularly brings you here, and what the messaging is.
Gordon Wasserman – my name is Gordon Wasserman. I’m here marching with the ACLU to demonstrate against the orange clown and the clown car he calls an administration. And in hope of reaching out to some member of Congress or persons of power to impeach this person and invoke the 25th amendment. The time is now.
Mimi Rosenberg – And we’re with Annette, who’s part of the ACLU contingent. Annette, your messaging today…
Annette – I’m the daughter of immigrants, and I don’t like what’s happening to our neighbors, and I march for them.
Peter – Hi, I’m Peter. I am Annette’s husband, and I am an immigrant. So, I feel for the people, and I’m here to protest this outrageous administration. The Republicans have to be voted out because they’re complicit in the terror of this campaign. Thank you.
Mimi Rosenberg – Thank you. Alright, and we’re here with two other folks.
Demonstrator – Hi, yes. We are here to make sure we make our name, make it known that what we want here is No Kings.
Mimi Rosenberg – Well, I want to know what do you mean by No Kings? Let’s be more specific about that.
Demonstrator – Well, in America, we made sure that, you know, we got rid of that system. So we don’t want any type of control or over people and getting rid of immigrants and making sure that they’re here to stay with all immigrants are here. All of them are welcome. And I’m here to ensure that I’m one of the voices to support them.
Mimi Rosenberg – And one of the exciting things is there are not scheduled speakers. This is the voice of the people. You have a sign that says Public Enemy Number One, you want to tell our radio audience why you have that sign?
Demonstrator – I think it speaks for itself. What does it speak to those who are listening over the radio, everything that’s good in America, destroying everything that’s good in America.
Mimi Rosenberg – Sir, can I just grab you for a minute to tell our Pacifica national audience who you are and why you’re here?
Joe Roberts – I’m Joe Roberts. I’m from Kansas City, and I’m here for No Kings-
Mimi Rosenberg – Wait a minute. What are you doing from Kansas City here?
Joe Roberts – I moved up here a couple of months ago.
Mimi Rosenberg – And what do you think about the protest as people are gathering, and how significant it is that potentially millions and millions of people will be out across the country.
Joe Roberts – It shows that we’re not alone, and it feels good to be out here with like minded individuals.
Mimi Rosenberg – And have you been to many protests before?
Joe Roberts – Three of them in Kansas City?
Mimi Rosenberg – Aha, okay, and how did the ones in Kansas City compare? Ah, they’re fervent. They’re smaller. This is the Big Apple.
Mimi Rosenberg – All right, this is the Big Apple. So folks, we just missed a moment ago. People who were here, Robert De Niro was here, and State Attorney General, Letitia James, people are on the move, on the March now. They’re glad to be because it really is quite chilly, but the spirits are enormously warm, and the signs that are here are very diverse, so now we got one due process for everyone. Imagine being afraid of diversity, but not dictatorship. Can you tell us why you have that sign?
Demonstrator – Yeah. We’ve got a lot of people everywhere afraid of just somebody that’s different from them and wanting to attack them, and yet they’re perfectly happy to live with dictatorship that takes away all freedoms from everybody.
Mimi Rosenberg – And you are from where?
Demonstrator – Connecticut.
Mimi Rosenberg – So you came all the way in from Connecticut. I’m curious, why did you come to New York?
Demonstrator – To feel the energy of the big crowd. We had a lot of people gather in there too as we drove by the train station. But up here, lot of energy.
Mimi Rosenberg – And one of the things I’m interested in, do you feel that it matters that people coming out here? You’ve got your sign? Regime change starts at home. I agree with that. We negotiate with our votes, not bombs. So your thoughts about how effective and how important it is for the masses of people, millions of people, to be coming out across the country,
Demonstrator – There are studies on activism that peaceful activity is when regime change happens, it only takes 3.5% of the people to be active, and we can make a change. That’s what it takes.
Mimi Rosenberg – I’m in Columbus Circle. Thank you.
Sean Kunan – I’m happy to be here reporting live from Gulfport. I’m Sean Canan. I’m the news director at WMNF.
Gulfport is a beach city of 11,000 people, and about 2000 people just showed up. The protest is winding down right now. They just sang, All we are saying is give peace a chance to wind down the protest, but there’s still hundreds of people, kind of milling around. You can hear honking in the background. 2000 is a really large outcoming for this number of for this size of city. And so the mood here is very, I think, upbeat and positive.
A lot of the signs said, you know, reminding people to vote. This is a very important election year in Florida. We’re going to elect a new governor in November. And there were a lot of supporters here of one of the Democrats. His name is David Jolly.
A lot of the the signs had to do with women’s rights. And I, when I asked people why they were here, some people said because they opposed the war on the US led war on Iran.
But you know, I think the most the key thing to take away from here in Gulfport is that 2000 people showed up in this small community to demonstrate on No Kings Day. Gulfport is kind of a hippie town in on the beach in next to St Petersburg. And so generally, people are more liberal, I guess, than than lots of places in Florida and but I think that the people I spoke to today, were really fed up with all the things that are happening out of Washington. One of the people I spoke to, she was dressed in a handmaid’s outfit. She waved a flag that said, defend the constitution, and she was concerned that her mother had more rights than she does. On the back of her handmaid’s outfit, it said an expletive I won’t say on Pacifica radio. So, you know, I think that having women’s rights was definitely one of the things that people are very concerned about here in Gulfport.
And other demonstrations that I’ve heard from some of the people here came from an earlier demonstration in St Petersburg, and they said that that one was even larger, and that there was a lot of energy at that demonstration as well. It’s definitely not just Democrats and left leaning independents who are showing out at protests like this in Florida. I only really did research on what’s happening in the Tampa Bay area, which is a metro of about 4 million people and 123, there’s about 10 different demonstrations going on just in the Tampa Bay area. We have demonstrations this afternoon in Brandon. There was one this morning in temple terrace, Sun City Center. So there’s quite a number just in the Tampa Bay area. Unknown Speaker 2:50 But I think that all around the state of Florida, people are really excited to be out on the streets today. That’s, you know, it kind of sounds funny just to describe it like that, but I would describe it as excited. People were very happy to be with their neighbors, to walk down or bicycle down to the park and wave signs and chants and get bunks from from passing cars. It was a festive atmosphere here today. And one thing that I haven’t mentioned yet, that I saw a lot in this protest today had to do with the Gulf of Mexico. And that’s a touchy subject here in Florida, because our governor, Ron DeSantis kind of outlawed that. That name. He changed, changed it to the Gulf of America. But a lot of people here are using Gulf of Mexico as almost like a show of resistance. And so that was on the shirts of dozens of people I saw and signs and the Gulf of Mexico is particularly important in a town like Gulfport, because in 2000 in the 2024 just about a year and a half ago, three hurricanes rolled through this town and essentially obliterated the business district and a lot of people’s homes on the waterfront. It was a real mess.
We’re still recovering, but there’s this opportunity for people today to come out and and celebrate the rebuilding of the town and hope for the future, rather than in opposing I guess what they would what these demonstrators might see as people who are trying to push them down or take away their rights. Thanks. Very happy to be reporting live from Gulfport for the Pacifica Radio Network.
Juliana Forlano – Going live now to Paul DiRienzo, who is in New York, Paul, thanks for being here with us.
Paul DiRienzo – Hey, Juliana, how you doing?
Juliana Forlano – We’re doing great. We’re learning a lot.
Paul DiRienzo – Oh yeah, there’s a lot to learn here. There is a vast, vast crowd that has now grown. It’s got 10 tentacles that are reaching out in every direction. But the main thrust is looking south, down Seventh Avenue from Central Park South. And it’s beyond the ability for me to count. It’s just amazing. The crowd starts where there’s a large crowd right now over at Columbus Circle, interestingly, surrounding a monument to the 1898 war- remember the main fake news war that was launched against Cuba and Spain in those days. And then along 59th Street, till you get to Seventh Avenue. And then it turns south on Seventh Avenue, and as high as I could get on a hill here in the park, I couldn’t see the end of it going all the way down. And people, it’s not even 2:00- people are still streaming in from every different direction.
Security is tight. There are these very large orange city trucks, salt trucks on the side, and they’re parked in all kinds of spots to prevent anybody from entering in a hostile manner to the area, let’s say with a vehicle or anything. So that’s a note of our day and but the signs, the energy that’s going on here. This is definitely not Donald Trump’s town. This might be the place where he made his billions first and lost them, but this is definitely not his town. This is the people’s town, New York City, right now today, here on 59th Street and Seventh Avenue at the corner, save our planet, indivisible America, take out the trash. I can’t say the rest of it. I lied to you. Remember, only you can prevent fascism. One was a lot of stuff referring to Epstein files. Release the Epstein files, Trump is a rapist. Several, several references to Trump as a rapist and associate of rapists, free Palestine. You see, politically, a great number of things. Here is this amazing Juliana, when you think about it, I mean the Vietnam War, the first protest is 65 when they sent in 50,000 troops are small, under 200 people, maybe not even that. And people thought they were crazy, and it was a long time before they got 100,000 plus demonstrations against the Vietnam War. Here is barely a month into the war, and we already got, like, hundreds and hundreds of 1000s of people who are not supporting the President.
Well, I think that would a lot of people used to say the 60s are dead. I used to hate that, right? The 60s are dead. You know what they said with the 80s and the me generation came in and everything. But it’s as if it started exactly where it left off after 50 years, like the 50 years didn’t even exist between the end of the last protest movement in American society and the beginning of the next one.
Police, though, are behaving. They’re doing a good job to keep it safe, and there’s so many people coming. Every time I turn around, I see another huge line of people coming from a different direction.
Jenna Flanagan – Right now we’d like to go live to our reporter Sabrina Artel in Monticello, upstate New York, coming to us by way of WJFF and The Laura Flanders Show. Sabrina, welcome.
Sabrina Artel – Hi. Thank you so much. I’m coming to you from Monticello, New York, which is in the Sullivan County Catskills, and I’m just off of Broadway, which is the main street here at the courthouse. And I have never seen this many people come together for a rally in the county. I’d say close to 1000 people, which for a county of full time residency of about 78,000-not bad. This is one of the most rural congressional districts in the whole country, and in 2024 was 58% vote for Trump/Vance.
So just an incredible day here with people lined up and down Broadway. Signs, you know, everything from of course, stop fascism, impeach him, melt ICE. No kings. I mean, lots and lots of homemade signs.
Very good cheer here. Friendly. Everybody working together in this town, including the law enforcement, a lot of marshals.
And this event, this No Kings 3 was organized by We Are One Sullivan and I hope that I’ll be able to introduce you to the lead organizer who I have with me here, Ken Wampler.
Jenna Flanagan – Oh, I’d love to hear from Ken and find out what the organizing process is like, especially in such a rural community.
Ken Wampler – Hi, you know We Are One Sullivan has been doing this since day one. You know, we did hands off in the pouring, freezing rain, and we’ve done every Indivisible protest since then. The cheer I’m hearing the most is love, not hate. Makes America great, and that’s the sense that we have here. You know, it’s a very, connected community. We’ve got a great group of people who work together for weeks and weeks to put these events on, and it gives everyone an opportunity to get on the street and say no to this authoritarianism, but it also gives us a chance to really feel like we’re not alone, we are together, and we have a chance to embrace one another and share our values and know that we are bringing those forward, because that’s what the country needs.
Sabrina Artel – And I also wanted, Ken, if you could share what you’re wearing today.
Ken Wampler – I’m wearing, you know, my vest for being a marshal. Armbands were Renee good and Alex Pretti and Liam Ramos. It breaks my heart for all of these, but it particularly breaks my heart at the way children are being treated right now. Children are so under attack, and it’s unbearable. It’s unbearable, and seeing Liam Ramos in that little bunny hat just goes right through me. You know, I’ve been doing this since the Vietnam War, so, and what I was saying to Sabrina earlier is it’s never over, and it’s kind of reassuring to finally get that I’m 72 now, and to finally get that the battle is never really over, and sometimes there are flare ups, and we’re in a flare up right now, we need to have everybody-everybody on the street standing up for each other and ourselves and our Constitution.
Sabrina Artel – And I think to note is this No Kings 3 in Sullivan County, New York -the emphasis has been nonpartisan, because it’s been about taking care of each other here, regardless of your affiliation, I think really, to send that message out there to decrease the divides that are here and also throughout the country that we know about. But I’ll turn it over to Ken.
Ken Wampler – You know, part of what I’m hearing is that this is nonpartisan insofar as it’s in defense of our Constitution, and the Constitution is not Democrat or Republican or Independent, it’s the Constitution, and that’s what’s being torn up. And I think people have a decreasing level of tolerance for witnessing that.
Jenna Flanagan – Thank you both. So much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Pacifica for everything.
Jenna Flanagan – We have got Amy coming to us from, WERU. Amy, where are you coming to us from? Specifically?
Amy – Hey, yeah, from WERU FM which is out of Orland Maine, but I’m in Belfast, which is in mid-Coast Maine. And we’ve also had people in Ellsworth, in Down East Maine, and Bucksport.
The turnouts actually been really great at Ellsworth. Maggie Garfield, one of WERU’s people, was in Ellsworth, and has estimated that there were about twice as many people there as at the last No Kings rally. There were cars just backed up trying to get into town.
And in Bucksport, which is a smaller town, one of the locals told our John Greenman that it was the largest rally that they’d ever seen in the town, the cars passing by were very supportive. This is in a former mill town, and these are small towns where you don’t normally see large protests. And then here in Belfast, in Waldo County, where the last of the inflatable lobsters are shedding their shells, right now, we estimated, with sort of a informal count, that there’s somewhere between 600 to 1000 people, and to see the organizers have a drone that’s supposed to confirm those numbers later. It may be about equal to the last No Kings rally in the fall, but we’re waiting for that number finally.
But it was very lively. Lots of people here, great messages, lots of great posters. It’s, you know, the messages are kind of all over the place. There were a couple, maybe three, police just kind of keeping people on the sidewalk, but otherwise just pretty bored, kind of summarized by one of the signs that I saw today that said, there’s no sign big enough to list all the reasons why I’m here. And then they did try to list they went, but there were quite a few. There was a lot referring to Epstein as they were here in Maine and Bangor the last No Kings rally. That’s a theme that a lot of people, obviously are not going to forget about. One person’s sign said, you can take the you can take the Ayatollah out of Iran, but you can’t take the Trump out of the Epstein files.
There were 50 protests across the state of Maine, one way, way up on the border with Quebec, one on the border with New Brunswick. I mean, places that may not have had a protest, at least not in decades, not that I’ve heard of. So a lot of people turning out in a lot of different places and keeping it local. Now there, there’s a lot happening in these small towns that normally would never see something like this happening, and they do seem to be growing. And there are also people at them that you wouldn’t typically see at a protest, that we definitely weren’t seeing.
When people were trying to stop the Iraq war from happening. I think now that there are a lot of people who realize that the folks who were speaking out against that were actually right. Susan Collins, is the Senator for this area. We’re in congressional district two, which is kind of a purple area, and you know, 25 years ago, people were getting arrested in her office trying to tell her there were no WMDs. And those folks are still around. But now there are other people who, at that time would have been saying, you know, thinking that supporting our troops meant to just send them out unquestionably to be killed. Now more people, I think, are starting to be skeptical about what’s happening in Iran.
And I need to say before we wrap things up- There were so many people today who wanted to send out a shout out to Minneapolis, especially the rest of the people as the coverage continues to the west, from from Maine to people across the country who are listening on this historic day.
Jenna Flanagan – We are joined by Jonathan Petrick, who is news director at WBDY-lp in Binghamton, New York, part of Bundy Community Radio.
Jonathan Petrick – Well, it is bitter cold in No Kings. It is 32 degrees with a wind chill of 12. It was snowing earlier. People have been here for about three hours. There was about 5000 people at the beginning of the rally, probably down at about 3000 now.
Binghamton is about halfway between Buffalo and New York City, close to the Pennsylvania border, like smack dab in the middle. If you go off 17, you come right to Binghamton, if you’re going towards Buffalo.
There’s many people here, and it’s been rowdy, people have been yelling. There’s many, many signs. People are protesting. A lot of Epstein signs, a lot of No Kings signs, a lot of ICE signs specifically, and many no war signs.
There’s pretty much zero to no law enforcement present here. There’s like two police cars. Nobody’s being too rowdy, just yelling, a lot, a lot of singing. People are very passionate, but nobody’s getting out of control.
I’m here with a veteran, William Dean, who I thought I might interview, so he’s here with me. William, do you want to come here?
William Dean – My name is William Dean.
Jenna Flanagan – Okay, and William, I understand you’re a veteran.
William Dean – I am veteran.
Jenna Flanagan – Do you mind me asking of what branch of the armed services and where and when you served?
William Dean – Joined the Army in 1968. I was 17, and I served on North Korean South Korean border.
Jenna Flanagan- So with that in mind, what was it that brought you out to this protest.
William Dean – I don’t think we need another war. We’ve had enough wars. There’s no doubt about that. Everybody would have to admit we’ve had enough wars. We’ve had enough young men go and die.
Jenna Flanagan – I also want to let you know that I do have two co-hosts with me, Katie and DA from your perspective, are there any questions that you have? And B, veterans must have a very visceral reaction to seeing us get involved in another armed conflict overseas.
Katie – Yeah. Thank you for your service. And I’m curious, have you participated in any protests before this one?
William Dean – Yes, I’ve been in all these protests. No Kings protests, and I went to the protest in 1971 to DC to stop the Vietnam War.
D.A. Bullock – Do you feel as though the energy from that time versus the energy to this time? Like, are these comparable?
William Dean – It is not comparable, unless we go to DC, May 1 this year.
D.A. Bullock – Wow. Okay, and going to DC would be significant in your eyes because
William Dean – It’s the only way it’s going to get done. Everybody has to go. Everybody has to go there May 1.
D.A. Bullock – What, do you think would it would take for our elected officials to listen to veterans like yourself who have that real world experience and understand the cost of war and and the values that you’re bringing to this this conversation?
William Dean – Well, if you think that 50,000 people died in Vietnam, that 50,000 men committed suicide since then, that were in Vietnam. I mean, really, war should be. I mean, we, we can’t fix anything. We take out a dictator. What happens? We get a terrorist out of it, just like we’re going to get more terrorists out of Iran, let’s get the heck out of there.
D.A. Bullock – And just to sort of paint a little bit of a further picture on Binghamton, can you give us an idea of what industry is like there?
Jonathan Petrick – Because Binghamton is directly Endicott place where IBM started, is about 10 miles away, so we’re right next to each other. You can drive from one through Johnson City to the next. And so IBM began there. And so the industry was basically evolved around IBM and technologies like that. For a long time lack. Martin has a place in the area. Boeing is in the area. But small industries print, not really much employment anymore. A lot of it has left this area.
Jenna Flanagan – Wondering very quickly before we go, is there any indication of how many younger people that you’re seeing because, of course, with all of these pressures that you’re talking about, it’s also the younger generation who are going to be left trying to figure out how to untie this knot that we’ve got ourselves in.
Jonathan Petrick – Yes, the younger generation definitely showed up this time in much more force than they did last time. They were definitely all much. They were much more vocal about very progressive issues is universal income as well as the war. There was definitely people supporting Palestine that just showed up, and those were many young students.
Maeve Conran – We’re checking in with folks from Jackson Hole Wyoming. It’s Evan Robinson Johnson, and he’s with radio station KHOL in Jackson Hole.
Evan, for listeners who aren’t familiar with Wyoming, can you give us a sense of the political landscape of Wyoming, and then Jackson, within the state’s political landscape?
Evan Robinson Johnson – Wyoming went 75% for Trump in the last election, but Jackson’s kind of a unique corner of the state. Some folks from the rest of Wyoming will say Jackson’s not even part of the state, but politically, there’s a lot of people from all over the country who call Jackson home, and they’ve had pretty consistent No Kings rallies throughout the past year.
Maeve Conran – What were some of the issues that people were talking about at the No Kings rally that you were at earlier today?
Evan Robinson Johnson – We are right at the base of Yellowstone National Park, and there were many people with signs asking to protect our public lands. There’s this real sense that national parks and other lands that make this region so special are under threat by the current administration, and they came out in force, really, from all over the country. We have visitors from California to Massachusetts to New York City who came and said, you know, they were grateful to be vacationing and visiting here, and they wanted to protect this place, as well as a 90 year old resident who said, you know, she’s lived her whole life right outside Grand Teton National Park and is worried that it’s now at risk.
Maeve Conran – I think that’s what’s so interesting about some of these, what we call gateway communities, that you do have this mix of locals, people who live and work very often, and their lives are very connected to the park. But you also have this interest from folks from around the country, indeed around the world, who come especially iconic parks like Yellowstone, in terms of the actual direct threats to the park. Of course, we’ve seen massive defunding of the National Park Service. But, you know, were people talking about maybe other things, like the impact of the climate crisis on national parks or public lands in general? Were there specific areas of concern around the national parks?
Evan Robinson Johnson – There were. I mean, part of the concern is that this administration has denied climate change. And there are these two little boys who are vacationing here, visiting their family, and they come every year to ski, and there have been noticeably warmer conditions across our region, really bad skiing across the board. And one of the boys, who is just nine years old, said, You know, we need to actually acknowledge that things are getting warmer and do more about it. Another example is a guide who makes his living here, you know, taking people out on trips. And there’s a concern that billionaires are buying up land and basically their other being private sales to corporations and companies. And this sense that you know, part of the West is for sale.
Maeve Conran – I know that you explained some of the political landscape. Wyoming is a very conservative state. Jackson is quite a blue dot in that red landscape. So were there any tensions with folks who didn’t agree with the No Kings rallies, because I know there were tensions at the No Kings event back in October.
Evan Robinson Johnson – Yeah, back in October, there were hecklers who drove by and actually, you know, brought the exhaust from their pickup trucks across the crowd, or screamed and hollered. Today, it was nothing but support honks of enthusiasm and many of the people who came out, even though they were frustrated to have to keep doing No Kings rallies, they really were enthused by the fact that the community comes together around these issues and seems to demonstrate that they care.
Maeve Conran – Were there any other issues that you saw people talking about or saw on signs? I know that Wyoming is also at the center of what’s happening with reproductive rights, with the governor of the state just earlier this month signing what is effectively an outright abortion ban. And but that has been something that’s played out in the courts, that also has something that also has significance nationally, where folks talking about maybe some other issues
Evan Robinson Johnson – People really came with all over all manner of issues. There’s a big frustration with how the local sheriff’s office is working with ICE and, you know, from their perspective, not protecting the immigrants who are within our communities. There was also a general sense that the administration is challenging democracy, and there are people who, you know, have a variety of rights that they want to see protected, and they were frustrated by everything they’ve seen, really over the past year.
One of the individuals I spoke to was out here advocating for trans rights and hoping that transgender individuals could not be demonized in the way they’ve been. So it really was across the board. But when I asked them if there was something that kind of unified everyone coming out and coming together, it really was a sense that they’re looking out for their neighbors.
Maeve Conran – I know at the last No Kings rally back in October, there were about 500 people that gathered in Jackson’s Town Square. Did you have a sense of if that was comparable today, if it was smaller, if it was bigger, I can hear some honks there behind you.
Evan Robinson Johnson – It was certainly a little bit less than 500 but people were encouraged by the turnout during a spring break week, typically a quieter time in town, in between the ski season in the summer rush, and they were enthused to still see a couple 100 coating the square. This is town square, where the antler arches sit at each corner, and we had a crowd that stretched all the way between them.
Maeve Conran – Well, Evan, thank you so much for joining us and telling us what’s happening in Jackson Hole Wyoming today.
Evan Robinson Johnson – No thank you for the opportunity to share.
Maeve Conran – And that was Evan Robinson Johnson, who’s with KHOL reporting there from the No Kings rally in Jackson Hole Wyoming.
Mountain Time
Maeve Conran – Laura Jones from KRCL, Hi, Lara,
Lara Jones – Hi. How you doing? Maeve, happy to report here from Salt Lake City.
We’re at the city county building and just getting started with the No Kings Rally. They’ll be marching up to the Capitol in about 20 minutes or so. Lots of great signs- a checklist for fascism with all the boxes checked off and lots of signs that I can’t even tell you about, I guess the famous one would be, stop p*ssing off librarians. Hope I didn’t violate any FCC rules.
There was a lot of meaningful resistance. They’ve been handing out their pamphlets and songs, and they’re getting ready to go across the state of Utah. Today, there are 18 planned notes and rallies in Salt Lake City. The last one a year ago attracted about 10,000 folks, and, of course, tragically ended in the death of Afa Ah Loo, he was a peacekeeper, they really emphasize nonviolence and more sense of joy moving up the march route.
But politics in Utah, Salt Lake City, the blue dot in a red state, but with 18 events across the state, from Logan to Washington County, Salt Lake City, the capital to Fillmore, the original territorial capital of Utah. We’re seeing a growing movement, even in Zion, as Utah is often called.
Maeve Conran – One of the things I find very interesting about Utah is your congressional representation there, and particularly Senator Mike Lee, who has really been spearheading an effort to offload public lands into private hands. Are people concerned about that at the No Kings rally today?
Lara Jones – Yes, folks are concerned about that. But I think overarching is just call for unity in the cause, but also just concerns about fascism and authoritarianism. So that’s kind of what we’re seeing on the ground here.
I’m seeing people quoting 3rd Nephi, for verily, verily, I say unto you, he’s a half a spirit of contentious, not of Me. So a lot of folks who aren’t religious, are at least calling out Utah’s history as the capital of Mormonism, There’s a sign here saying Malloy hates public lands. So I think they’re starting to spread that from just Mike Lee to our entire congressional delegation
Maeve Conran – Utah as well has been interesting in terms of what’s happening with some of the redistricting. Of course, a lot of attention paid to redistricting efforts in Texas, also in California, but Utah, you’ve had your own situation there as well.
Lara Jones – Yes, yes, and former US Attorney General Eric Holder, releasing a statement in just the last day or two in support of what has happened here on the redistricting fund and the failure to put an anti prop four ballot initiative forward in November that would have repealed the voter approved fair boundaries redistricting ballot initiative that was approved in 2018 and that the super majority the GOP has been fighting ever since.
Maeve Conran – Anything else happening in the Salt Lake City, No Kings rally that you think would be of interest to the national audience. What else is going on out there?
Lara Jones – Well, it’s an interesting mix of church and state that people are calling out. I’m seeing some signs right here. It’s like they aren’t even listening. Says George Washington, holding a pamphlet that says, We the People, and next to him Jesus Christ, saying, dude, I know. So there’s humor, there’s politics, there’s religion, and that is Utah, the state of Deseret in a nutshell.
Maeve Conran –
I think we have Dave Ashton with KGNU, who’s at the largest rally in the region in Denver. Dave, are you with us?
Dave Ashton – Yes, hi, sorry, Maeve. There’s lots of excitement out here. So many people in Denver. Thanks for having me on.
Maeve Conran – I know Denver has consistently seen huge crowds showing up at No Kings. Do you have a sense of how big today’s rally is.
Dave Ashton – Yeah, it’s 10s of 1000s of people. It’s hard to know if it’s 40 or 60,000 when you’re in the middle of it, but it is just a huge turnout. Downtown is shut down two different routes, two different marches, you know, one that’s like more of an accessibility march. So, yeah, there’s a lot of people here.
There’s certainly some hyper local things happening here. You know, Colorado has such a robust activist community that a big win being celebrated by some of the speakers here on the State Capitol would be the Palantir data mining companies and militarists, you know, information service which fuels ICE being really forced out of Denver by the activist community and relocating to Miami without even notifying our elected officials before they left. And that left, you know, the governor and all of them kind of sad to see big money like that go. But Palantir was an issue.
Also Tina Peters, the Mesa County Clerk, held now in jail in Colorado. You know, people are discussing her being let go in order to put Colorado back into the better view of the president. But people are really saying that can’t happen, Tina Peters needs to stay in jail and serve the sentence that she has earned.
Maeve Conran – Yeah, just to give some context. So Tina Peters was a county clerk and recorder in western Colorado, and she was found guilty of election fraud back in 2020 and was convicted, and Donald Trump has made this a real point of contention, wanting the governor of Colorado to overturn that and release her. And there’s a huge amount of pressure being put on, certainly here in Colorado, on the governor to not do that. And a lot of people feel that Trump has really targeted Colorado for like, defunding lots of different projects as a result of what’s happening with Tina Peter so just to let folks know who aren’t familiar with Tina Peters.
Dave, what else are people upset about in Denver?
Dave Ashton – Well, militarism is is front of mind for a lot of people in Denver. And, you know, just really a return to basic morality. You know, this is largely families, family friendly. You know, I we saw a kid carrying a sign that said, My mom gave me permission to say F Trump with the whole word.
So, you know, really, I think this emphasis is on better ways to spend money publicly that all of the you know, military adventurism, the Iran war, of course, is very much a focus for people here in Colorado. Because, of course, you know, when we talk about Raytheon or a Lockheed Martin, we are talking about massive private defense contractors here in Colorado. And so that is that is very present here today as well.
Maeve Conran – Well. Dave Ashton is with KGNU. He’s reporting live from Denver, which is the region’s largest no kings rally. Thank you so much for being with us.
Jenna Flanagan – We go to one more reporter, Joy LeClaire, who is coming to us from Bozeman. Joy, are you there?
Joy LeClaire – Yeah. Hello, Maeve and Jenna. I’ll be quick, because we’re running out of time.
There were 21 rallies registered on the Indivisible website throughout Montana, with many more happening in towns and highways along the way that weren’t registered in that I have some crowd estimates. In the town of Havre near the Canadian border, there were about 150 today in Red Lodge, population 2600 there were 250 so that’s 10% of the population, and it’s spring break. In Great Falls, there were about 1500 which was more than in October, and a really big turnout. In Missoula, there were 15,000 with more still arriving. In Billings, they say that there were 5000 to 7000 and here in Bozeman, there were eight to 9000 lining Main Street from the county courthouse to the public library.
The focus of the signs and the chants here reflected events since the last no kings event in October, lots more about the ICE atrocities and as well as military actions in Venezuela and especially Iran.
And of course, as you were saying, Maeve, climate change, some of the signs included, don’t talk about illegal if you voted for a felon, fight truth, decay, war crimes can’t hide sex crimes. I’m confused which crimes get you deported and which get you elected. And our brave military deserve a real leader, not a draft dodger.
There were also numerous people here, and they’re passing out pocket constitutions with signs saying, Get Your FREE Antifa guides here. And another sign said, the Constitution is not optional.
Jenna Flanagan – Well, Joy. Can you tell me? Because when you mentioned, you know how ice is one of the big subjects. We have heard that the mass deportations have been heavily affecting ranchers in ways that perhaps weren’t considered when people went to the ballot box.
Joy LeClaire – Yes, that’s true. And even more than that, I would say in terms of the effects on agriculture are what’s happening with the closing of the Straits of Hormuz because a planting season and the problem with fertilizers, and also how much more expensive diesel fuel is at this point. And as you know, ranching and other forms of agriculture are a very low profit margin business, unless you’re some, you know, major corporation, and of course, they get subsidies and things. But I’m talking about the local folks. As far as I know in Montana, we have not been seeing the same dragnet that ICE has been doing elsewhere. Who knows? Could that be? Because the entire state is run by Republicans, I couldn’t speculate. But there is a correlation, shall we say, if not causation.
Jenna Flanagan – Alright, well, Joy. Thank you so much for joining us and bringing us that update on the no kings rally taking place in Bozeman, Montana. That was joy. LeClair, thank you for joining us.
Joy LeClaire – My pleasure. Thank you so much.
Pacific Time
Jenna Flanagan – We have a reporter on the line who can give us a sense of what’s going on in Spokane, Washington. So I’d like to welcome in Lynnea Kaylor from KYRS, in Spokane. Are you with us?
Lynnea Kaylor – I am here. It’s actually KYRS Medical Lake Spokane, here for the Pacifica network in Spokane, Washington. The turnout here has been absolutely bonkers. We have had 15,000 here, easily, maybe as high as 18,000. I have never seen as many people here for mass mobilization at Clark Park than I have had today.
What is particularly interesting about this one, there is a theme behind it that is called, take action, do something. So the organizers didn’t just put a protest. Here, they have people from the various politically aligned organizations with boots up, and they are talking about what they do to try to get people involved, get people into the political process.
Jenna Flanagan – You know, that was something that we heard from people who were involved in no kings the first time around. But I’m starting to wonder, is getting people to get engaged, is that, are you getting a sense from people, at least, who are running those those register to vote tables that that is becoming easier, or do people still feel the need to be convinced or to help them understand what’s at stake?
Lynnea Kaylor – Well, the people here apparently understand and almost every table that I have been to as I’ve been working my way around the park. There has been deep lines of as many as 15 people waiting to talk to the people in those booths, and that includes the voting sign up, because we have those here too.
Jenna Flanagan – Oh, really. Okay, and yes, what one of the things I’ve also been trying to get a sense of is the diversity of the crowd. And of course, we know diversity can show up, not just in racial terms, but what I’m really interested in is age diversity. Are we seeing a depth and breadth of different ages of people showing up?
Lynnea Kaylor – Yes, I’m seeing all ages here, from the kids clear on up to adults. Some speaker have included Black and Latino people. I have seen such people here in the crowd. I spent some time among some of our Indigenous folks here from the Spokane Tribe, people that I knew. And boy, what a reunion there.
The mood here is pretty much set of a love fest, although we find American flags here just all over the place, much more than any of the others.
Jenna Flanagan – Okay? And so also one of the other big points that’s been brought up a lot this whole afternoon is the importance of mutual care, that there’s got to be something that helps to keep these movements sustained, to keep people going here.
Lynnea Kaylor – Here, it was even broader than that, even looking at the choice of speakers, because Spokane indivisible, who is a chief organizer of the protest actually put out a survey asking, ‘What are the issues that are important to you’? And what came back was environment, affordability, voting rights, immigration, racial justice, corruption, and also, there’s a there’s a speaker, Voice of the Future, which is was a high schooler that was speaking. So, yes, we are involving the youth.
Jenna Flanagan – Well, speaking of corruption, have you gotten any sense that there’s any concerns, or perhaps fears, of the midterms being reliable and trustworthy?
Lynnea Kaylor – We’ve heard a lot of bluster coming from the Trump administration about, you know, rigged elections and things of that nature taking place or even possibly canceling the election in order to hold on to power. There’s more of a concern around here about that than anything else.
When it comes to issues of corruption, a lot of people, including speakers, have turned their attention to our own congressperson for the Fifth District of Washington, Baumgarten, because even though he has advertised to be for the people, he has voted straight in line with Donald Trump.
Jenna Flanagan – Really. And do you know if there’s been speaking of again, registering people to vote, getting them involved? Is there any concern that we might be seeing?
Lynnea Kaylor – I mean, we already see ICE agents in our airports, that we might be seeing ICE agents at the polls, because we know the Trump administration keeps insisting they want to make sure the non-citizens aren’t voting. It seems to be less on the mind of people here in Spokane, because Washington is a vote by mail state now. Before the No Kings event, I did go up Division Avenue to scope out to see if there was any staging of law enforcement or military vehicles. I saw none of that.
Jenna Flanagan – Okay, all right, so then it sounds like you said it at the very top of your report, like almost like a love fest, if you will.
Lynnea Kaylor – It really is. Lots of good feelings all around and of course, it would get really noisy. You could probably hear some going off in the background and people screaming along. In fact, there was a trucker of a big rig that was honking his way through, and people just went nuts.
Jenna Flanagan – We have another reporter on the line as well. That would be Casey Adler. Casey, where are you coming to us from?
Casey Adler – Hi there. I’m in downtown Los Angeles, right across from City Hall. It’s an incredible turnout today.
Jenna Flanagan – So describe the incredible turnout.
Casey Adler – My gosh, yeah, we have unions from UNITE HERE to SEIU 99 and UTLA, which are currently bargaining with LAUSD for fairer wages and better working conditions. We have a boost for Black Lives Matter white people for Black Lives Matter loads of individuals from every race, creed, religion, gender, here, protesting, verbalizing, vocalizing their anger and terror at what’s been occurring over the past year. We have many, many individuals here in Los Angeles, which was the ground zero for the ICE raid a year ago, expressing consternation and anger at ICE specifically.
Jenna Flanagan – I was going to say, I mean, rightly so. A lot of attention has been focused on the Twin Cities. But like, as you said, the city of Los Angeles has been where ICE seems to have started. And so I’m wondering, is there any indication as to how the communities are holding up? Is there the same sense of resolve that we’ve seen in the Twin Cities and in other parts of the country?
Casey Adler – It’s been an incredible amount of unity over the past year. There’s a Home Depot strike, there’s Union Del Barrio, there’s teachers that gather right after school to keep their friends, family and community members safe.
I’ve spoken with a number of individuals today, discussing friends or people in their neighborhoods who’ve been “disappeared”, specifically vendors. We have quite a few fruit vendors in Los Angeles that use small carts and cut up fruit for for people who are searching for a tasty little dessert or respite from their day, and they, a number of people, have talked about these vanishing carts, if you will, people who are vendors and taken by ICE and their their fruit stand just melting away.
Jenna Flanagan – Wow, wow. Well, Lauren, I understand you also have some questions from further north in California.
Lauren Schmitt – Absolutely. You know, while we’ve seen these brutal immigration enforcement operations across the country, you know, you highlighted Minneapolis, I think it’s important to note that Los Angeles also saw 2000 National Guardsmen also deployed due to the level of protests that unfolded in LA. Can you talk about how Los Angeles really kind of was ground zero, and following these crackdowns. I mean, what the what has changed since the first No Kings to today.
Casey Adler – Not much has changed in the sense of solidarity, unity and action. Everyone I’ve spoken with, activists, the leaders in union, they’re still extremely motivated to maintain their action against ICE, against President Trump, against the actions of this administration. They’re still on ongoing boycott Home Depot patrols that are constantly on the lookout for undocumented individuals and there to help people and families, whether there’s a number of food banks and food networks to provide food for families too scared to actually go to the market themselves and venture out of their home. It’s, I would say there’s quite a bit of unity.
Lauren Schmitt – Absolutely, you know, No Kings is kind of the phrase of this protest. And going back to the National Guardsmen, you know, I think that was one of the first moves we saw from the Trump administration to usurp local control. Right? Like traditionally, a governor has control over National Guard deployment, and I think Californians kind of felt helpless in that moment. And you know, while folks are eager to see Congress get more involved, you know, people really felt that about local lawmakers and even our governor, who has become an emerging figure as resistance against the Trump administration. So, does Los Angeles feel support from the local representatives, or is the power really in the grassroots movement, in the streets, with the people?
Casey Adler – A great question. I would say the grassroots and rank and file are quite a bit different than the political leaders. You still see quite a bit of organization with LAPD, which in many activists, you are just another extension or an adjacent law enforcement agency of ICE. Black Lives Matter has talked about this extensively on how LAPD has assaulted them and assaulted their rights over the past, certainly over the past few years, but all the way dating back to the Watts riots in the 60s, and of course, going further back. But in addition to No Kings in ICE, there’s quite a bit of people who are extremely mad at our international conflicts. A number of people have brought up what’s going on in Iran, our invasion and war in Iran, our war of aggression A number of people have brought up the genocide in Palestine, a number of people have brought up the kidnapping of Maduro from Venezuela. So No Kings and many people’s views here doesn’t just relate to domestic politics, but also international politics.
Lauren Schmitt – One other thing of note in in LA, you know California, not only you know the governor here, Gavin Newsom, but the state itself has been trying to write legislation to combat what we’re seeing across the country, including San Francisco State Senator Scott Weiner and State Senator Mark Gonzalez, you Know, wrote legislation to say that ICE cannot wear masks while doing operations in the state of California. That is actually currently being debated, the legality in court, is my understanding. But the LAPD chief stated, regardless of if this gets codified into law, he would not enforce that law, which to me, you know, as as lawmakers write the laws, and law enforcement enforces the laws. Why does the LAPD chief think he gets to choose which laws he’s enforcing and and is this a part of that theme of of, you know, the sheriff’s office, maybe not going beyond their press releases saying they’re standing with the immigrant community. Maybe on the ground is something different?
Casey Adler – That’s a great, great question, why is the LAPD dictating the laws to the Governor of California? You should definitely interview the chief of police here, but one can possibly surmise that it has to do with solidarity with enforcement agencies across the federal landscape. There have been a number of problems with “cop gangs” in LAPD specifically, and you could make the assumption or that LAPD is also in collaboration and solidarity with I, who they might think as their brothers and sisters.
Lauren Schmitt – Absolutely and Casey, You’ve been on the streets in downtown LA and speaking with folks. What are you hearing from people?
Casey Adler – Primarily anger towards Trump, primarily anger towards the economic landscape, healthcare, genocide in Palestine, ICE raids, union not getting their fair shake. People are sick and tired of seeing friends family, scared to exist. A number of people that have talked about themselves as Americans are scared of ICE rounding them up. People are here from all walks of life. We’ve seen impersonators of Donald Trump in in white under dirty white underwear, standing next to an impersonator of George Washington and Uncle Sam on giant silk to everyone in between, yeah, and Casey, it’s my understanding. We actually have some audio from those folks.
Casey Adler – That’s right, that’s right. I’m also standing with an individual briefly. His name is David Mathers. He’s an artist and an activist with incredible quilt talking about activism itself. Do you have a moment to hear his voice.
Hi. This is Casey Adler. I’m reporting for KPFK 90.7 Los Angeles, downtown. LA for the No Kings Rally. We’re standing with an individual who has a shirt that says sacred resistance. Tell us your name and why you’re here.
Cindy Renee – My name is Cindy Renee. I’m a longtime resident of LA I’m a member of sacred resistance, which is an organization that is supporting immigrant rights right now, and it is all laity across the city, all different denominations gathering together, not just laity, but then people can be in our group, and we are supporting our immigrants.
Casey Adler – What prompted the creation of this organization?
Cindy Renee – It was started in 2016 when they started separating families and putting kids in cages, is when the first iteration of sacred resistance started.
Casey Adler – What has changed over the this past decade that has pushed you into more activism, radicalization?
Cindy Renee – I come from a small town in Oregon, and everyone in my family is MAGA, and I am currently reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich to better understand how we are, why we are and why America is this way, trying to understand more and learn more and learn about history so I can be better informed and fight for our democracy.
Casey Adler – Have you been able to bring any individual from your family who is MAGA to your side or understand?
Cindy Renee – No, not, not one individual. They bait me. They give my kids Trump coins at Christmas. I talked to my birth mom, and we kind of reason with her. But then she goes back with her friends. She’s wishy washy. So my father is a member of the Heritage Foundation, so he’s for years. It just makes me crazy.
Casey Adler – So Well, then how did you deradicalize yourself from that perspective?
Cindy Renee – I grew up in this place. All my high school friends are pretty much MAGA they think I’m crazy, but I went to University of Oregon, and I was an art major, and I met gay people and Jewish people for the first time when I was 17. And so I’m never going back. So now I have, you know, a bi daughter, and I support. I’m an ally, and I will fight till my last breath against all this crap.
Jenna Flanagan – All right, voices from downtown Los Angeles, with Casey Adler of KPFK. How is it going? Casey, anything else you think our listeners should know, as it’s reported that 50,000 plus folks are gathering in the downtown Los Angeles, No Kings 3 alone, not to mention the dozens of other events across Los Angeles and across the state.
Casey Adler – I would. I would say that this is a moment of extreme an extreme civil rights movement across multiple spheres, and standing right now in front of City Hall is an incredible amount of solidarity, from unions to local activists to individuals who are fed up, even including conservatives I spoke to who are sick and tired of what’s happening over the past year, there is hope, and that hope is wrapped in a shell of anger.
Lauren Schmitt – Absolutely. Thank you so much. Casey Adler, with KPFK in Los Angeles, will continue to stay in touch and update.