Thousands of soggy protesters peacefully marched down Fifth Avenue on Saturday afternoon as part of a national demonstration against President Trump just hours after a political assasination of a Democratic lawmaker in Minnesota.
The march followed a week of escalating tensions over the administration’s immigration crackdown after protests in Los Angeles ended in tear gas and demonstrations in lower Manhattan led to nearly 100 arrests on Tuesday.
“People should not be abducted, people deserve due process,” said Abby Levin, who walked the route while operating a large puppet that carried a sign reading “Monsters 4 human rights.” She joined the march because “the state of the country is abysmal,” she said.
Another protester, Sarah, who asked to be identified only by her first name, said she was here because of her 13-year old daughter. Wearing a crown that she fashioned to look like it was made of gilded Cheetos, she worried about the world that her 13-year-old daughter was growing up in.
“Will she be able to become a scientist? Or have an abortion? Or love who she wants to love?” she asked. An anti-Trump protester since the Women’s March in January 2017, she added that “all of the things we thought would happen are happening now.”
Dubbed the No Kings Nationwide Day of Defiance, the mass demonstrations were timed to coincide with a military parade for Trump in Washington D.C. The Manhattan demonstration was one of 100 scheduled events across the country.
Small groups of NYPD officers monitored the peaceful crowd along the route from Bryant Park to Madison Square Park with no visible interference.
Hours before No Kings kicked off, a gunman in Minnesota fatally shot one state lawmaker and wounded a second. Gov. Tim Walz called the lawmaker’s death a “politically motivated assasination.”
Earlier in the day, the Minnesota State Patrol posted on X asking people not to attend the local demonstrations out of an abundance of caution. The post included photos of flyers in the seat of the car with the words “No Kings” written on them, an apparent reference to the name of the protests.
“Even with the rain it was a great turnout, people are energized,” said Gale Brewer, a city council member who represents the Upper West Side, speaking from the end of the parade route.
Brewer said that she believed the killing brought out more protesters in New York. “It’s very safe here,” she said. “I don’t want anybody to tell us not to protest.”
