Thousands rallied Saturday, June 14, in Detroit’s Clark Park, and more locations across the state, to protest Trump administration policies under the banner No Kings and to draw attention from a military parade in Washington, D.C., commemorating the Army’s 250th anniversary.
In 70 or so Michigan cities, from Midland to Muskegon and Milan to Marquette, thousands expressed their dissatisfaction.
Each event was different, some were smaller gatherings, like in Bedford Township, and in larger ones, like in Detroit, speaker after speaker addressed massive crowds. Later, the protesters marched to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.
Protesters vented and talked about their worries that America is moving toward authoritarianism, and, given the last week’s events, in which the president deployed the Marines and California’s National Guard against the will of the state’s governor, some even said they feared America could end up under martial law.
“We are protesting Trump,” said Elizabeth Williams, 35, of Detroit, who called President Donald Trump a fascist. “We are protesting his immigration policy because ICE is the new Gestapo. And one thing we are saying is that L.A. has shown the way.”
More: Skirmish at No Kings rally in Detroit
Meanwhile, thousands more protesters met at the Michigan State Capitol with a series of speeches and street performances with a carnival theme, organizers said, “to highlight the absurdity of the military parade Trump has planned on his birthday.”
The event included a drive to collect food, first aid supplies and clothing.
Rallies across Michigan
Susan and Steve Swaton, retired teachers from Marshall, said they went to Lansing to protest cuts to education and the Trump administration’s efforts to change school curriculum.
Steve Swaton, who taught U.S. history, said he was concerned that the changes were whitewashing history, emphasizing his view that students learn the “good, the bad and the ugly” of the past, in part, so they don’t repeat mistakes.
In Ferndale, hundreds more protesters lined both sides of Woodward Avenue holding signs that read, “Live, Laugh, Lock Him Up,” and “If there’s money for a parade, there’s money for Medicaid.”
They tried to keep the mood festive, blowing bubbles and wearing costumes from the TV show “The Handmaid’s Tale,” in which a totalitarian society is ruled by a fundamentalist regime that treats women as property of the state.
Activists held American flags upside down, a sign of distress, along the route, and cars driving through created a cacophony of honks. To make sure it didn’t get out of hand, police cars were parked on the median.
In Three Rivers, more than 350 gathered. In Gaylord, another 300 showed up at the Gateway Trailhead and fanned out onto Main Street downtown. They hoisted signs, many directed at the president, that expressed dissatisfaction.
About 200 showed up in Monroe, where a 78-year-old man, James Goodridge, held up a copy of the Constitution near Monroe’s Custer Statue, a monument to a Civil War general. He said: “Everything that’s going on is against the Constitution.”
Protesters even gathered from some of the more remote parts of the state, the Upper Peninsula, converging in downtown Sault Ste. Marie to participate in the No Kings protest.
Protests mostly peaceful
Early on in the day, protest organizers and Michigan’s political leaders called for peaceful protests. Attorney General Dana Nessel and the head of the Michigan Republican Party, Jim Runestad, a state senator from White Lake, urged groups to avoid violence.
For the most part, they did.
In Detroit, a protester got hit in the face by a biker and had to seek medical treatment.
In Palm Beach, Florida, marchers got as close to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate as police would allow, USA TODAY reported. In Philadelphia, where the Continental Army was formed, a rally kicked off. In Atlanta, protesters shouted down a group of Proud Boys.
And in Minnesota, officials urged protesters to quit their plans to rally after a Democratic state representative and her husband were killed, and another state lawmaker and his wife were shot.
No Kings flyers, police there said, were in the vehicle of the suspect.
But in Bedford Township, near Monroe, about 120 people gathered at the Government Center to take a stand for democracy, organizers said. The crowd — which held signs and chanted “Love not hate makes America great” — were united in one thing: decrying the president.
One protester, Grace Rabbitt, said she was pleased with the turnout, calling the community “a very conservative area,” and another, Justin McCullough, emphasized that the crowd there was made up of Democrats and Republicans.
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or [email protected]. Contributing: Nour Rahal, Natalie Davies and Sally Tato Snell, Free Press; Connor Veenstra and the Monroe News; Paul Welitzkin, the Petoskey News-Review; Matt Mencarini, Lansing State Journal; Dan Cherry, Sturgis Journal; Brendan Wiesner, Sault Ste. Marie News.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Thousands in Michigan protest Trump policies, military parade
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