Thousands of people gathered in downtown Los Angeles Saturday for the largest of several \u201cNo Kings Day\u201d demonstrations against the Trump administration across Los Angeles and Orange counties.<\/p>\n
More than a dozen protests took place in the Southland as part of a nationwide day of action.<\/p>\n
The demonstration in downtown Los Angeles began around 2 p.m. Saturday, and featured a march down a nearly two-mile stretch of Spring Street and a rally outside City Hall and Gloria Molina Grand Park. Speakers were expected to include podcaster and MSNow (formerly MSNBC) contributor Brian Tyler Cohen, Assemblyman Issac Bryan, D-Los Angeles, and ex-Trump staffer Jessica Denson.<\/p>\n
Traffic was severely impacted in the area, with a section of Spring Street closed and motorists advised to avoid the Civic Center area. Alameda Street between Aliso and Temple streets was also closed, along with a handful of off-ramps from the Hollywood (101) Freeway, and bus routes were also being detoured.<\/p>\n
The L.A. protest was organized by 50501 SoCal and Service Employees International Union Local 721, in partnership with Black Lives Matter Grassroots \u2013 Los Angeles, the Removal Coalition, Working Families Party, Black Women for Wellness, Clergy Laity United for Economic Justice, the TransLatin@ Coalition, Democracy Action Network and the Human Liberation Coalition, among others.<\/p>\n
SoCal 50501 is the Los Angeles chapter of 50501, which bills itself as \u201ca peaceful, decentralized grassroots political movement with a mission to uphold democracy and constitutional governance.\u201d Its name stems from \u201c50 protests. 50 states. 1 Movement.\u201d<\/p>\n
The day\u2019s protests were peaceful but as darkness fell downtown, a small group of people who demonstrated outside the federal detention center at Alameda and Temple streets refused to leave even after the Los Angeles Police Department ordered them to disperse twice. A group of about two dozen people could be seen on broadcast video as officers first pushed them away from the detention center into Chinatown, then backed off to encourage them to disperse.<\/p>\n
LAPD Officer Drake Madison told City News Service some \u201cprojectiles\u201d were initially thrown. ABC7 reported at least one person was arrested.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s events were a follow up to the first \u201cNo Kings Day,\u201d held on June 14, which had more than 5 million people who participated nationwide, according to organizers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmerica has no kings and working Americans will not stand by as a wannabe dictator wages war on our rights and our democracy,\u201d said David Green, president and executive director of SEIU Local 721, which represents more than 100,000 workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnough is enough. We will stop this authoritarianism in its tracks and work to revitalize and enhance our democracy, our rights, and our nation. We will not accept a regime that aims to put the interests of billionaires ahead of our families, workers and communities,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Republicans have criticized the planned protests, describing them as \u201chate America\u201d rallies and claim they\u2019re exacerbating the federal government shutdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 1976, I landed in the United States of America as a legal immigrant,\u201d Roxanne Hoge, chairperson of the Los Angeles County Republican Party, said in a statement. \u201cIt was America\u2019s 200th birthday, a celebration of our original No Kings protest. It worked. The USA has no king. On Saturday, Republicans across the state will be working hard, enjoying their families, and taking time to stop the corrupt and unconstitutional power grab that is Proposition 50.\u201d<\/p>\n
Proposition 50, also known as the Election Rigging Response Act, is a proposed constitutional amendment that would temporarily set aside the state\u2019s Citizens Redistricting Commission and redraw the boundaries of California\u2019s Congressional districts to potentially create up to five new Democrat-held seats and counter a Republican-led push in Texas that would add five GOP seats. A statewide vote on the measure is set for a special election on Nov. 4.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir boring, predictable tantrums are now part of the L.A. landscape, much like the dilapidated RVs and dangerous encampments that their policies result in. We are interested in good governance and public safety, and wish our Democrat friends would join us in advocating for both,\u201d Hoge added.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in a statement earlier this week said she supports the right of Angelenos and others to make their voice heard through peaceful protest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect demonstrations this weekend to be safe, respectful, and consistent with the rights guaranteed to every resident under the Constitution. As always, the Los Angeles Police Department is expected to uphold those same rights \u2014 ensuring public safety while protecting the freedoms of expression and assembly and the rights of the press. We encourage everyone participating to stay peaceful and look out for one another.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of people gathered in downtown Los Angeles Saturday for the largest of several \u201cNo Kings Day\u201d demonstrations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,10681,6706,171,1410,10683,10998],"class_list":["post-12319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-counties","tag-kings","tag-orange","tag-place","tag-rallies","tag-taking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}