(Photo by ANDREW THOMAS/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Dear Commons Community,
In what’s expected to be a massive display of opposition to Trump’s brutal immigration raids and other policies, throngs of Americans are slated to turn out at “No Kings” protests today across all 50 states in communities large and small.
The event organizers ― which include Indivisible, the American Civil Liberties Union and 50501 ― say there are approximately 2,000 demonstrations in the works on the same day that Trump has arranged a military parade honoring the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, which happens to fall on his 79th birthday.
“No Kings is a nationwide day of defiance,” a website for the event states. “From city blocks to small towns, from courthouse steps to community parks, we’re taking action to reject authoritarianism — and show the world what democracy really looks like.”
Trump’s event is a “spectacle meant to look like strength. But real power isn’t staged in Washington. It rises up everywhere else,” it continues, adding: “We’re not gathering to feed his ego. We’re building a movement that leaves him behind.”
Trump dismissed the demonstrations in remarks Thursday.
“I don’t feel like a king. I have to go through hell to get stuff approved,” he said from the White House, adding: “We’re not a king at all, thank you very much.”
The protest’s website has an interactive map to help demonstrators locate events, each of which has an individual page with details about start times and locations. In Wyoming, the reddest state in the country, more than a dozen protests are planned.
People seeking to organize a protest in their area are asked to use this toolkit to register one, though there’s one city organizers have said won’t have protests: Washington, D.C., the site of Trump’s military parade.
“We’re making the center of gravity on June 14 everywhere President Trump isn’t,” organizers said. “So rather than coming to D.C. to conflict with his military parade, we’re going to be everywhere else to contrast against it.”
Philadelphia, which is expected to have one of the bigger protests, will host a livestream of the event, Leah Greenberg, co-founder of Indivisible, told The New York Times.
She wouldn’t say how many attendees were expected at the protests but did say the events had more RSVPs then Indivisible’s massive “Hands Off!” protests in April, which in D.C. alone drew an estimated 100,000 people.
The protests come as agents from Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement descend on immigrant communities around the country, rounding up undocumented people in raids. Those taken into custody include people showing up to immigration court hearings and young, asylum-seeking children.
YES to No Kings Day!
Tony
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