Media coverage of crowds in the larger American cities Saturday mostly had the same estimate: huge. With smaller municipalities, the emphasis was on the number of total places: some 2700 registered events in all 50 US states, with more in Canada and staged by Americans in Europe. According to its organizers, No Kings Day on Saturday brought out some 7 million people. Some speculated and some (like Senator Bernie Sanders) simply stated that it was the single largest one day protest in American history.
Organizers estimated 200,000 in Washington DC. New York City police announced their estimate of more than 100,000 across the five boroughs, "with zero arrests."
After days of Republicans predicting violence and small isolated crowds, characterizing protestors as terrorists and people who hate America, claiming they were all being paid, the official White House response to the actual events Saturday was: "Who cares."
Besides larger numbers than No Kings in June, there seemed to be more participation by labor unions, and protests spread deeper into MAGA territory. Charlottesville, Virginia saw crowds double in size from June.
Atmosphere in most places was described as festive, with the colorful animal costumes that went viral from recent anti-ICE protests in Portland, Oregon. Protests in Jefferson City, Missouri were joined by American Revolution re-enactors. There was no violence to speak of anywhere, which must be at least partly due to the organizers training participants in de-escalation and safety. Every registered event was required to have a safety plan.
In Seattle, the line of marchers was one mile long. No surprise that there were notably huge crowds in Portland and in Chicago where there have been anti-Gestapo protests every day, eventually in every part of the city and every suburb. But I don't remember this ever happening: there was a No Kings protest in my hometown of Greensburg, PA.
Media stories often interviewed participants. They were nearly as articulate as their signs. Who cares? Apparently a lot of us.
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This photo and top photo: Chicago
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| Portland, OR |
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| Washington, DC |
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| Pittsburgh, PA |
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| Atlanta, GA |
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| Kalamazoo, Mich. |
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| West Palm Beach, FLA |
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| Sioux Fall, South Dakota |
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| Cincinnati, Ohio |
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| Bozeman, Montana |
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| Chicago |
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| Hartford, Connecticut |
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Clearwater, Florida
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| Greensburg, PA (or maybe Pittsburgh) |
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| Berlin, Germany |
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| Rome, Italy |
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| Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina |
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| Seattle, Washington |
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| Waxhaw, North Carolina |
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| Eureka, CA |
