Ever wonder what 10 percent of Seattle’s population looks like?
If you came out to the No Kings rally on Saturday, you found out. An estimated 70,000 protesters gathered at Cal Anderson for a rally, where Rep. Pramila Jayapal, labor leaders, immigrant rights advocates, and federal workers all spoke. “This is gonna require a lot of us. We have to adjust ourselves. We have to dig even more deeply,” Jayapal said. “I’m not ashamed to say I’ve got moments of fear. Of course I do, and so do you. But you and I are more than afraid. We are furious.”
After the speeches, the rally snaked down Pine St., spanning almost two miles from end-to-end. The “No Kings” branding was strong, but less memorable than Seattle’s handmade signs: “I hate big crowds up I hate fascism more;” “ICE=Gestapo (btw that’s bad);” “Aspire to live like a Tsar, plan to go out like one.” One woman carried a head on a bloody pike wearing a rubber pig mask, crown and blonde wig.
It’s true that the Hands Off and No Kings marches are easy and accessible. They’re not radical whatsoever. At the same time, they’re undeniable evidence at least 5 million Americans find Trump’s policies intolerable: Americans head-to-toe in black, with keffiyehs around their necks, in yoga pants, or with children on their hips, all acting as a single counterpoint to Trump’s failed show of authoritarian military power in Washington DC. Crowds were so sparse and quiet the squeak of tank wheels could be heard on livestreams of the parade.
Now, if the marches really are just a pretext to raise funds for a toothless Democratic party, or these signs are left to collect dust like all the pink hats from the record-breaking Women’s March, they very well may be meaningless. But they can also act as an invitation for people to do more than show up once, post on their Instagram story, and call it a day. Marches like this are nice, but they’re the beginning of resistance, not the end.
From a stage at Cal Anderson, King Youngblood’s Cameron Lavi-Jones told the crowd voting in local elections could help protect their neighbors, but their “presence cannot just stop at the polls.”
“For those that are able—we need you to show up and disrupt the spaces where injustices are taking place in front of our eyes. Including the rallies and protests that are not as comfortable as this one,” the 26-year-old rock musician said.
One of those protests was happening 10 miles south of the park: In Tukwila, protesters made a blockade across the facility’s exits out of homemade shields, no parking signs and their own bodies, hoping to keep two immigrants from being taken into detention in Tacoma. Around 3 pm, Tukwila police and the ICE SWAT team used at least two different types of chemical weapons on the small crowd in order to break through.
As the march made its way from Cal Anderson to Seattle Center, Marsha, 78, told The Stranger she was visiting family in Seattle from Tuscon, and joined the march. Before No Kings, the last two protests she’d been to were the 2017 Women’s March, and Selma. “What’s happening is appalling,” she said, “that you arrest and trample on the rights of the poorest people, the people that have the least resources, and that you demonize them.”
Daniel, a chef, showed up because he isn’t able to keep his employees safe. He says he feels powerless, but “I feel like if we unite as people we could do more.”
Hibi, a Somali immigrant who came to the US as a young child, and has lived in Seattle for more than a decade. “Once he left office, we felt like things were going to get better,” she says. But she wasn’t too surprised when he was reelected. She and her immediate family are documented, and have been for years, but she says two family friends were detained at the Tukwila ICE office less than two weeks earlier. They came to the US seeking asylum, she says. “I’m not really hopeful a lot will change,” she says. “But I’m hoping.”
Nationwide, the ACLU estimated that some 5 million people marched in all 50 states. Most were lowkey and peaceful, but there was still a backdrop of violence across the country.
Earlier that morning, a gunman approached two state lawmakers’ homes wearing a latex mask and a police uniform. He shot and killed former Democratic State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark; He also shot Democratic State Senator John A. Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, who both survived. When Boelter was arrested, authorities found a list of about 70 potential targets, including politicians, civic and business leaders, and Planned Parenthood centers. In Utah, a man entered the crowd with what appeared to be an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, and when armed “peacekeepers” fired at him, they shot and killed a bystander, 39-year-old fashion designer Arthur Folasa Ah Loo. And in Texas, law enforcement arrested one person connected with a credible threat of violence against local politicians that planned to attend the No Kings march in Austin, the state capitol.
Meanwhile, federal law enforcement cracked down on anti-ICE protests. In Los Angeles, police fired flash bangs and tear gas into protesting crowds, and at federal buildings in the city, US Marines guarded federal buildings with rifles, and ICE SWAT teams reportedly tackled at least one protester to the ground.
Stranger Staff Writer Vivian McCall contributed reporting.
A Slog comment posted last week stated: “If you don’t march, I’ll assume you support Trump.”
I guess 90% of Seattle supports Trump. Who would have guessed?
Yet again missing from the description of the Tukwila event: protesters threw frozen water bottles and rocks at officers, and protesters also beat and assulted multiple journalists.
As for the No Kings rally, an intriguing take by Ben Landau-Taylor:
“Protests are an effective political pressure tactic to the extent that they demonstrate the capacity for violence. The capacity can be open, like when you’re sacking stores and brawling with cops, or it can be latent, like when you have large groups of men marching in organized columns and taking direction from their superiors.
Protests which do not demonstrate any capacity for violence—very old, female-dominated, disorganized, using handcrafted signs expressing marchers’ wit and individuality rather than mass-produced signs demonstrating logistical capacity and hierarchical mobilization, etc—do not exert any political pressure.”
“Democrat party”? Ugh.
@2, What to make of the two contrasting statements you posted? You think Tukwila was effective because it got violent? That giant albeit female led, peaceful protests are weak? Bro, tuck your nihilism back into your pants, please.
Whoop! I am very proud of Seattle, Washington State and communities throughout the not-so-united-states. We stood up and declared No Kings and we did not let the Head-Pig-in-charge to bait us with his dogs.chrehn@msn.com Resistance-Forever-More!
@1 That guy raised a good point. Silence speaks volumes.
Was Kristofarian there?
I was out of town but knowing that people as adamantly against trump as I am couldn’t go and we still had those big numbers makes me pretty happy.
In an article referencing the assassination of a prominent Democratic Party elected official who shepherded through significant legislation in her state that was signed into law by a Democratic governor, The Stranger can’t help but shit on the Democratic Party by calling it “toothless.” There’s absolutely no self-reflection, ever, about whether The Stranger’s constant narrative that Democratic and Republican presidents are the same is true even while in the midst of a giant protest against all the bad things that are happening under Donald Trump that didn’t happen under Democratic presidents. Millions of people have health insurance and are kept alive because of that supposedly “toothless” Democratic Party that Trump and the Republicans are doing everything in their power to take away so that they’ll die.
I guess 2028 is going to be the same playbook for The Stranger: do everything in their power to get Republicans elected. I just wish instead of doing that you’d shut up and get the fuck out of the way of those of us that are actually opposed to this madness and trying to stop it.
@4 The next part of the quote:
“There is a common belief that protests will cause the state to take account of the popular support behind the cause. This is not true. In fact we already have better mechanisms for taking account of popular support: the election and the opinion poll. Protests add nothing to this, in practice.
The steelman of protests with no capacity for violence is that they are pep rallies for the participants. It indulges the need to Do Something. It’s a big festival and an opportunity for people to have fun and get hyped up for the cause. I’m not sure whether this is actually very important, or even net helpful to a cause’s prospects. Mostly I think the people participating in events like this are confused. They are cargo-culting (a curated subset of) historical protests without understanding why they worked.”
@9 You give far too much credit to a free entertainment newspaper. Nobody outside of Seattle knows this site or paper even exists except for the viral stuff Dan Savage does. It has zero to do with who wins the presidential election in any other state…
You’re also assuming that most Trump supporters can even read.
@11 Take that back! Several anonymous “movers and shakers” diligently peruse these articles and comments. “As The Stranger goes, so goes the nation”!
I know TS thinks DSA / Sawant are viable political parties but they truly aren’t. So if you want to enact / elect a firewall to Trump, then you need to support Democrats (sorry we live in a 2 party system but it’s a 2 party system). Please stop with the crap that folks like Jayapal are the same as folks like Newhouse.
@9 Not at all true, since when did the Stranger turn Republican? Did they switch just recently in the last 6 months? Because I use them to vote, I Value the democrats that they pick. I also live in a red county in this state and use them so your statement that no one uses them outside of Seattle, also wrong. I’m fact I wished they had the newspaper out here, I love their articles.
@13 Kshama Sawanr is viable, she started the whole nation raising minimum wage because of what we did in Seattle because of Sawanr and our group. If that’s not a huge accomplishment then you might of either been out of town for that or I don’t get your mindset. The two party system is broken and can’t be repaired, it’s time to vote for democratic socialism! Don’t be afraid of socialism, you’ve been mislead about what its about. Socialism give the people the people of what government looks like not politicians, that is why they mislead you about it because they want the power. Democrats or Republicans weren’t going to give you a pay raise it was socialism that gave you that.
@10 Protests do count, I get what you said to vote to do polls. Problem is those do not get seen by the public, you have to go find those polls and their results, but protests you see with your eyes on TV. You see the masses and it gives hope, I know of many who are uplifted by what they saw in the last protests and it was due to them that made them want to be present at the next protests. Sitting on your arse does nothing, on your computer does nothing unless your active on your computer which many arent. I actually am active on everything, protests, voting, internet and in changes like the $15/hr minimum wage everyone got.
People go to protests, join the movement, empower yourselves. When you go to a protests it will empower you, the emotions you feel inside when you go to a protest with like minded people makes you feel hope that change is possible, it’s very moving in your soul and will make you want to do more. Go protest and do your part. If you get trapped and arrested do not resist, resisting gets you a court date, not resisting gets you released in 3 hours. Do not fight back just let them arrest you and give you a ticket for obstructing traffic. If you even get a ticket at all.
Actually about 2 percent of the greater Seattle population (3,500,000) participted, still impressive! Considering how few were arrested during the riots (sorry, protests), it sounds like the SPD used a great deal of constraint.