The tens of thousands of “No Kings” protesters who hit the streets across the nation this weekend were vibrant and vocal but largely peaceful, with perhaps the biggest gathering drawing an estimated 30,000 people to downtown Los Angeles. Authorities reported around 500 arrests in Southern California as some evening demonstrations erupted into clashes involving tear gas and rubber bullets.
Across the U.S., an estimated 2,000 organized protests of Donald Trump’s immigration policies took place, according to media reports, even as the president presided over a massive military parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American armed forces on Saturday, which also happened to be his 79th birthday.
SoCal marches fanned out in Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Thousand Oaks, South Bay and points between. In Torrance, where a 9-year-old elementary school student and his father were detained and deported to Honduras last month, thousands of protesters lined Torrance Boulevard for roughly a mile, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“When I saw that fourth-grade boy taken from his family, it gave me chills thinking of how scared he was,” retired school librarian Laurie Pisano told the paper. “Democracy is important, and that’s not what’s happening.”
Much smaller gatherings of pro-Trump counter-protesters were also present, like in Republican-leaning Pasadena and Huntington Beach, where groups held signs in support of the president’s agenda to carry out mass deportations. The Times reported that one group held “Make America Great Again” and “Support Your Local ICE Raid” placards that included an epithet to describe undocumented immigrants.
