Tom Hill of Incline Village, who demonstrated against Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War as a teenager, found it hard to believe he was among 9,000 protesters at the Reno “No Kings” rally more than a half-century later.
“I didn’t think I’d ever have to (protest) again,” he said, but President Donald Trump’s actions over the last six months convinced him to go to the event, outside of Rep. Mark Amodei’s office on Kietzke Lane, on June 14. Hill, 73, a Navy veteran who spent 30 years in the Merchant Marine, said he is fed up with the lawlessness of the Trump administration.
“The oath I took was the same as Trump’s,” he said, “to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” The president, Hill said, routinely violates that oath, and Americans need to call him out.
“We expected four or five thousand, but never 9,000. … Trump and his henchmen helped us out a lot.”
Kimberly Carden, Indivisible Northern Nevada leader
The 2,100 “No Kings” rallies on June 14 drew about 5 million protesters nationwide, and helped counter what Hill called “Trump’s banana republic military parade,” held the same day in Washington, D.C. That event celebrated the 250th anniversary of the Army, which coincided with Trump’s 79th birthday.
“We don’t have to prove who the strongest country is,” Hill said.
Days after the event, organizer Kimberly Carden, a retired U.S. Army colonel and leader of Indivisible Northern Nevada, said about 15,000 people joined the “No Kings” protests in other parts of the Silver State, and about 3,500 joined rallies in communities around Lake Tahoe. Trump himself is the best salesman for boosting attendance, she said.
“The more atrocities Trump and his team committed in the week leading up to the No Kings rally, the more people he convinced to stop doomscrolling, get off their couches and get involved,” she said. “We expected four or five thousand, but never 9,000. … Trump and his henchmen helped us out a lot.”
The protests, she said, are important, because they “bring together those of us who can see how awful and dangerous this all is. They build community and establish coalitions,” Carden said. The events, she said, send a message saying, “We will not be bullied or intimidated!”
In addition, the events demonstrate in a very visible way that “millions of people oppose him,” Carden said. “(The protests) encourage others who typically do not get involved to stand up, and show our allies—or former allies—that Americans will not go gently into authoritarianism.”
Signs of the times
In Reno, the hand-lettered signs that people held on both sides of about a half-mile of Kietzke Lane didn’t pull any punches: “Lock Up Trump, demented, depraved criminal.” “Lies Lies Lies: The Grifter in Chief.” “86/47—Felon, Rapist and Insurrectionist.” “Trump=Traitor.” “ICE: At least the Gestapo showed their faces.” And—playing off one of Trump’s famous quotes—“IMPEACH him by the PUSSY.”
Many signs featured angry slogans, but the protesters who held them were enveloped in a festival-like atmosphere. The participants ranged in age from Baby Boomers to adolescents. Parents brought their children. Some protesters navigated the crowd in wheelchairs or while toting oxygen bottles. Music played, and people danced. Camaraderie abounded.
The majority of drivers who passed by the event honked their support, and many displayed their own protest signs. Police cars drove by occasionally, and protesters waved at the cops, who waved back. The crowd cheered and chanted slogans, including: “Hey, hey, ho, ho. Donald Trump has got to go!”
“Everything that (Trump) is doing is right out of the dictators’ playbook. We need to come out on the streets now. If we wait, it won’t be legal anymore.”
Andy Penrose, first-time protester
No counter demonstrators attended, but a few drivers gave the crowd middle-finger salutes.
Volunteers helped manage the parking and keep protesters out of traffic lanes. People handed out “No Kings” signs, small U.S. flags, bottles of water and free cookies. The rally was organized by Indivisible Northern Nevada and sponsored by the Nevada Labor Union, Third Act and Blue Band Alliance. The participants also celebrated Flag Day, with more than 500 U.S. flags waving—some flown upside-down, an international signal of distress.
Protesters held signs that were mostly directed against Trump, but some celebrated the Constitution, or were critical of billionaires. Many signs were aimed at U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE), whose agents have been issued a quota to arrest 3,000 undocumented immigrants a day. Trump’s campaign goal was to deport more than 15 million people—4 million more than the estimated number of 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
Targeting authoritarianism
Nearly all of the two dozen people interviewed by the RN&R said they were angry that Trump has deployed U.S. troops against protesters in Los Angeles—against the wishes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and local officials. The words “dictator” and “fascism” appeared on many of the signs.
For some, the gathering was a family affair. Robert Leon, who was born in Mexico but is now a U.S. citizen, was there with his wife, Luci, and her sister, Alena.
“I’m here to support us and our kids and everybody’s kids,” Leon said.
Molly Hobson, who helped organize the Reno Women’s March, held handmade signs with her daughters, ages 9 and 11. Hobson said Trump is criminalizing immigrants and illegally deploying troops in Los Angeles.
“I’m here for my children and other people’s children,” she said. “I think it’s important that we stand up and show we do not support the direction he’s taking in his presidency. I’d like to see him impeached.”
Several demonstrators, including Sofia Hendrix, 14, who will be a freshman at Reno High School next school year, said they had never joined a protest before.
“I’m here to stand up for my rights and those of everyone who can’t come out today to protest,” Hendrix said as she waved an inverted flag.
Andy Penrose, 42, works in health care. “I never thought that I’d ever take part in a demonstration, but here I am,” Penrose said. “Why? Because everything that (Trump) is doing is right out of the dictators’ playbook. We need to come out on the streets now. If we wait, it won’t be legal anymore.”
Claudia Kingsbury, 25, also a first-timer, said she doesn’t support anything Trump is doing.
“He’s taking our rights away,” she said. “He wants to be seen as a superior power. He deconstructs the Constitution, the First and Fourteenth Amendments, our rights to free speech and due process. ” She said the “tipping point” that got her out on the streets was “when ICE started pulling people from their homes.”
Mia Clay, 19, a student at the University of Nevada, Reno, said Trump’s mistreatment of immigrants was a major factor in getting her to join the protest, but, she added, “I’m not really for anything he has going on. Everything he does pisses me off.”
Jacob Finn, 24, agreed. “(Trump) doesn’t care about human rights. He only cares about himself.”
Trump threatens ‘blue’ cities
On June 15, the day after the “No Kings” rallies, Trump, via his social media account and with his usual random capitalization, directed ICE to prioritize deportations from Democratic-run cities.
“We must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social-media platform. “These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good-paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens. These Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities.”
Carden, of Indivisible Northern Nevada, said that no matter where the administration stages ICE raids, “they are destructive to communities, to businesses and, most importantly, to the families they attack.” She noted that the communities Trump is targeting also are some of the most economically successful cities in the country and contribute to the nation’s gross domestic product.
“Stripping those cities and communities of the hardworking people and families that keep them running and thriving will not just impact Chicago or Seattle or New York, but the whole country,” Carden said. “Not to mention the trauma inflicted on everyone. But the more he does, the more people turn away from him. We see it in the polls, and we saw it on June 14.”
Indivisible Northern will continue to hold rallies most Tuesdays at 10 a.m. in front of the Bruce R. Thompson Courthouse and Federal Building, at 400 S. Virginia St., Carden said.
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