Thousands Turn Up at Nationwide Protests, Again!

And Dom was there!

Thousands of peaceful protesters turned up in cities across the US to protest the Trump administration in on Saturday, April 19. People gathered in New York, Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Columbia, South Carolina, Concord, Massachusetts, and many, many more on the 250th anniversary of Lexington and Concord to protest the decisions of a mad tyrant imposing unnecessary taxes, stifling civil liberties, and unjustly imprisoning the innocent.

In Detroit, protesters gathered downtown at Hart Plaza as a cold morning rain began to drift across the Detroit River to Windsor, Ontario, Canada, less than a kilometer away.

Like many other protests against the Trump administration that have been popping up across the world in the lat few months, there was no single message beyond the Grand Unifying Theory of “Fuck That Guy.” (The national theme for this weekend was “No Kings.”) Socialists and communists stood beside anarchists and wealthy suburbanites; young activists shuffled along with aging veterans. Supporters of Palestine called for an end to the fighting in Gaza, pensioners demanded the protection of the social safety net, and others just wanted to see the restoration of the right to due process.

A number of marchers noted that this wasn't their first event. One group of elderly folks said they couldn't just sit around and do nothing.

A man who declined to be identified but said he served in the US Air Force stated, “As a veteran, I took an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. What they’re doing is just wrong. It’s not what we stand for.”

A woman with him complained about the attempts to erase history because the names, titles or places are uncomfortable. “They got rid of the the Enola Gay because it said, ‘Gay,’” she said. “And even when they bring it back — it’s like they don’t care.”

Protesters marched to the Patrick McNamara Federal building, home to the Detroit field offices for various federal agencies, including the GSA, FBI, HUD, the VA, and an office for Senator Gary Peters. When I asked why the group marched there, an organizer in a yellow vest told me it was the local field office for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Another photographer shooting for the Detroit Free Press seemed confused when I mentioned this. He said he'd never heard of the McNamara building; that he thought the local ICE office was elsewhere.

The local ICE field office is, in fact, two miles north of Hart Plaza. The confusion may stem from the McNamara building being a field office for the US Immigration Court and the US Marshal Service, the latter of which has been used for the Trump administration's snatch-and-grab kidnapping operations since January.

As the marcher stopped in front of the McNamara building, a man on a scooter wearing a MAGA hat approached. By the time I circled over to grab a photo, several organizers were attempting to keep him isolated as he shouted inaudibly over the crowd, the megaphones, supportive honks from passing cars, and the monorail squealing past.

Several people inside a small, America-themed cafe pulled out phones to film the hundreds of marchers passing. One patron and her friend noted commented about posting the video to social media before they went back to their burger and fries.

When the march circled back to Hart Plaza, two women with large signs that read “50501 Join Us” were blaring music from a speaker. Unable to place the melody, I walked up, snapped a photo, and asked why the melody seemed so familiar.

”It’s Les Mis,” she smiled. “‘Do You Hear the People Sing?’ It’s a song about revolution. It felt appropriate.”

[AP / NPR / Reuters / Chicago Sun-Times]