Thousands gathered throughout Orange County for the No Kings protest on March 28, the third national rally in opposition to Donald Trump\u2019s presidency since his election.<\/p>\n
The demonstration was organized by 50501 OC, Women for American Values and Ethics and OC Indivisible Coalition.<\/p>\n
Though the flagship protest was held in Anaheim, rallies were held in various parts of Orange County, including La Habra, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana and Westminster.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Participants brought signs spotlighting a number of issues, including U.S. participation in attacking Iran, Trump’s deportation policies and his involvement in the Epstein files.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Past No Kings rallies have generally criticized overreach in the executive branch, focusing on specific issues such as cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, Elon Musk’s involvement in the government and a historic government shutdown last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnaheim prides itself on being a welcoming city and that means that when you have calls to protest, like today at the No Kings rally, it is imperative that elected leaders show up,\u201d said Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken. \u201cWe are charged with being the voice for the voiceless, for standing up for our immigrant communities, and for protecting their basic civil and human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
The flagship protest was held in La Palma Park with the help of volunteers from medical centers, the police station and the grassroot groups. Organizers reserved and had a permit for the park. According to organizers, over 4,000 people were in attendance in Anaheim.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want people to do more than just protest,\u201d said Amy Luna Capelle, the executive director of Women for American Values and Ethics. \u201cWe want them to come protest, yes, but then also go work with one of these organizations that is doing the work every day. Find an issue that they are passionate about and go work on that issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pro-Trump demonstrators were present at the Westminster No Kings rally with signs in support of voter ID laws, but remained separate from participants in the rally.<\/p>\n
The Little Saigon Liberty Coalition assisted in organizing the Westminster rally, making it the first No Kings rally in the area according to lead organizer Skye Cervantes.<\/p>\n
“We noticed that there’s not a lot of protests in this area, but there are a lot of community members who want a platform to be able to use their voice and to be able to see that they’re not alone in this and the fight is collective,” Cervantes said.<\/p>\n
Though protests remained peaceful in Orange County, the Los Angeles Police Department reported 72 arrests in a statement released Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the day progressed, a small group within the larger demonstration engaged in violent assaults on police, acts of vandalism and other unlawful behavior that placed the peaceful demonstrators, bystanders and officers at risk,\u201d the Los Angeles Chief of Police wrote in a press release.<\/p>\n
A group of individuals reportedly began to vandalize the Federal Metropolitan Detention Center on Alameda Street, attempting to climb over the fence and throwing concrete pieces and smoke bombs at federal agents.<\/p>\n
Dare to Struggle Southern California released a statement on March 29 saying that an underage member was arrested and wounded by LAPD.<\/p>\n
In a press conference on March 30, a member read a statement released by the 17-year-old journalist, who is reportedly recovering from a broken shin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo cops grabbed my wrists, then two more grabbed my backpack, then they started striking me with batons. While they shoved me to the ground, my head was grabbed and repeatedly banged on the road as they continued to beat me with batons,\u201d reads the statement. \u201cThey told me to ‘stop being a b\u2014-‘ as my fractured shin was dripping with blood down to the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to the claims, LAPD said that they\u2019ll be investigating the mistreatment towards members of the media, but defends the use of force to \u201cstop violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe use of force by any LAPD member is subject to a comprehensive investigation, with accountability and transparency central to our mission. When violations occur, discipline follows; however, when force is used lawfully to stop violence, it protects the community and those who came to demonstrate peacefully,\u201d LAPD Chief of Police Jim McDonnell wrote in a press release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands gathered throughout Orange County for the No Kings protest on March 28, the third national rally in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,5015,7733,611,1519],"class_list":{"0":"post-254409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-lapd","12":"tag-no-kings","13":"tag-orange-county","14":"tag-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254409","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=254409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}