On Oct. 18th, citizens from the Bay Area came to march and protest against the Trump administration. This rally was organized as the No Kings Protest, with other rallies taking place from Vacaville to San Francisco, with a total of 160,000 people participating in various events.
During the protests, people opposed voiced their concerns about the demonstrations being held, referring to the protest as the “Hate America” rally.
Immigration attorney Claribel Maduena expressed her emotional state as being “super excited” and the fact that “it’s important to unify as a community to show the administrations that we aren’t happy with a lot of their policies,”. Being a immigration attorney, she represents a lot of immigrants and their families. She finds what ICE is doing in Chicago is appalling, claiming it’s illegal, and very destructive for our democracy and due process.
Maduena does plan on attending more protests, while seeing these protests spark awareness. She furthered on the idea that there’s a lot of misinformation about protesters who are anti-american and they’re violent. Maduena thinks it’s important to show up in a peaceful and joyful way with the people in our community who want to defend democracy, although she doesn’t know what other marches she will be attending.
Maduena is a registered Democrat and does not support the president’s policies.
El Cerrito citizen, Elissa Federspies, mentioned that this was her second No Kings Protest this year, and plans to attend more protests held in the future. Federspies clarified that these rallies try to deliver a powerful message against the Trump administration to educate people on what’s really going on.
Federspies stated she “felt happy about these protests”, since the last rally she went to previously in Oakland “ was awesome”.
She went on to explain that these nationwide protests sparked mainly because the American people continue to see Republicans come together on issues they oppose, “even though we in the Bay Area stay in our bubble,”.
As a proud Democrat, Federspies supports none of the President’s policies, going on to admit that she couldn’t believe they pardoned George Santos after being sentenced to 87 months in prison for committing fraud and identity theft, as reported by The Associated Press. While in complete disbelief of how many other convicted criminals this administration holds, she calls on the American people to “stand up for what’s right to get these dictators out of office”.
Protesters, Hannah and Aliyah who were both from Alaska participated at the San Francisco rally. Though Aliyah and Hannah do plan on going to more protests while they have been to previous ones – such as the First No Kings Protest held in Portland. They also plan on participating in more protests whenever they can because they are from Alaska. They explained that they have spent half of their years traveling around the country and when they see a protest, they try to make a presence.
Both expressed that these protests are “incredible and we love seeing people come together,”
Mainly, they both explained that these protests sparked awareness because “it shows that there are more people in the country coming together in a very big way because people are still trying to stand for what’s right,”
They both stated that they are neither a republican nor democrat but want to be on the leftist side. They also don’t like that the democratic party is taking money from large corporations, and feels like they stand for the corporate and the wealthy. For that reason, people have different interests from political parties, according to both.
In the opinion of Hannah and Aliyah, it’s the poor against the massively wealthy. More than anything else, she claimed “we need to collectively stay together regardless and we need to get some action along that,”
On that account, they continued on with their opinions about the current administration continuing to separate individuals with mass deportations, as reported by the Associated Press.
“It’s going to be harmful for everyone,” according to Aliyah and Hannah.
“We can all come together with one common mind for support,” They both told me.
Hannah claimed that most of these powerful movements throughout history have been centered around lower-class communities, realizing that they’re in similar situations regardless if they’re in a red state or blue state.
Jade Haskins, an individual demonstrating at the No Kings protest held in S.F gave a background on why people are coming together; because the people don’t support the current president.
Haskins explained that it’s really good to see people just come out and support with all these signs and slogans. According to Haskins, he sees that these protests spark awareness because he sees a lot of families and kids here. It’s really good to spread a message and get people to see or hear that there is a lot of media coverage that is going on right now.
Therefore, “being inspired to be out here and to see people from all ages, and all colors, just brings unity,” Haskins insisted.
Kelsey Blseyboh and Stella Rubalcava who attended the Rally analyzed what they already know about the protests. They came to the conclusion that these protests are a representation of the general sentiment of the country.
Both also stated that any of the current administration’s actions are “very harmful,”.
Blseyboth noted that these protests spark unity because when you see thousands of people marching through the street, “it’s amazing,”.
She stated seeing thousands of people march looks like a war because they’re really mad.
While neither are democrats or republicans, they are both independent and rather follow their own hearts.
Both stated they feel like there’s already been a pushback against policies like sending in the National Guard into major U.S. cities. They both explained how citizens are scared in places like Chicago but mainly, we do not need the national guard in San Francisco “because it is so peaceful over here too and [we] haven’t seen anything, like, people coming together,”.
Our Revolution organization leads outreach to a huge list of supporters across the state, which can come in the form of contests. After the S.F march, he told me he wouldn’t be attending any other demonstrations but he will be following up with all the people that he talked to from the march.
Mata is registered as a democrat but he rarely does vote in the presidential elections but he does not support the president’s policies “he’s horrible and he should die” he stated.
East Bay area citizen Bella Gillespie made an appearance at the San Francisco march. This is Gillespie’s first protest and she is glad to be here.
She stated that all she knows is “Free Palestine,” and claimed no one’s illegal on stolen land.
Although she is here today because she strongly sympathizes with Palestine, she exclaimed “there’s so many latinos here that make our country amazing” especially in California.
Angelica and David Panno from Stockon came to the No Kings Rally to spread a message against the Trump administration. The couple stated they feel good about many people coming out to support and to address our rights as a community. Though they expressed that it is heart-breaking to even have to protest, they are glad that we can protest. Angelica encourages everybody to protest, while this is their third protest they are attending together. They do plan on going to more protests and have attended protests that were held in Modesto, Pittsburgh, Antioch, and San Jose.
Angelica explained that they are more liberal towards in their political views and do not support the president’s policies. though they believed that this protest is effectively spreading awareness. She believes it is really good and empowering to see so many different people coming together and hopefully moving towards something better. To add on, both David and Angelica honestly feel like there hasn’t been a lot of protests especially in the city but, Angelica thinks there were a lot of protests while growing up with having kind of changed in the recent years with people coming out and actually showing out. But she does think it does spread awareness rather than people ignoring it.
Justin Brower from Hayward , Joey Trujillo from San Francisco , and Miles Hicks from San Ramon; all three college students who took part on the No Kings rally came together in protest against the current administration. They explained that this protest sparks awareness because people are both posting about it and talking about it
“It definitely shows awareness,” Brower stated.
Additionally, both conveyed that they do not support the President’s policies but rather not identify who they support.
Bay Area resident Maya Kanungo heard about the No Kings protest through friends and co-workers. Kanungo feels like more people of all races, ethnicities, and gender – even more moderate Republicans are here too. Furthermore, she is a registered democrat, but considers herself as an Independent.
In relation to freedom of speech, “You have to fight for what you believe in to change the government” Kanungo stated.
She believes that it’s going to get really bad, but that’s why the people are going to wake up and realize how bad it’s gotten, specifically in the working class and that “we should rise up together and continue to create art constantly”.
Editor’s note: Some individuals who attended the San Francisco march requested their full names not be on record.
