Thousands of people lined the streets of South Florida on Saturday to protest the Trump administration as part of a third wave of \u2018No Kings\u2019 protests across the United States.<\/p>\n
They filled several blocks leading to Boca Raton\u2019s City Hall, crowded behind the barricades along Fort Lauderdale\u2019s \u201cfreedom corner\u201d and gathered at Hollywood\u2019s Young Circle among other locations, including Boynton Beach, Lake Worth Beach and Coral Springs. A separate group also had plans to march to Mar-a-Lago later in the evening.<\/p>\n
The latest wave of protests comes amid a war in Iran that has cost the U.S. billions of dollars and driven up gas prices, scrutiny over Trump\u2019s ties to Jeffrey Epstein and an ongoing ICE crackdown that has targeted areas with large immigrant communities such as Palm Beach County. Many of those same issues \u2014 among several others \u2014 drove protesters out of their homes and onto the sidewalks Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe economy, the corruption, the war, what is there to like?\u201d said Adam Levesque, 59, who said going to protests is \u201ctotally against my nature\u201d but felt compelled to join in Saturday. \u201cThere\u2019s no way we should be bombing women and children in Iran. No reason for us to do it. It puts the men and women in our military in danger for no reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
Levesque was among approximately 2,000 people who gathered along the sidewalk by Boca Raton City Hall on Saturday morning, carrying signs reading \u201cHealth care, not war\u201d and \u201cIran away from the Epstein files\u201d as cars honked in support. The crowd skewed older, though some young adults and families with young children also joined in.<\/p>\n
Paula Bloom, 72, a veteran who served in the Air Force, said her biggest worries were immigration, women\u2019s issues and veterans\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re taking away veterans\u2019 rights, they\u2019re taking away our benefits,\u201d Bloom said. \u201cOne of the things that was promised to us when we enlisted was we would be taken care of. And fortunately for me, I still am. But every time I go to a clinic, I\u2019m like, \u2018I\u2019m glad you\u2019re still here.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Friends Jackie Teneyck, 33, Alec Solaski, 31, and Alex Sarria, 32, came together from other parts of South Florida to attend the Boca Raton protest. Among their concerns: the war in Iran, women\u2019s rights and fascism.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just more lies from Trump,\u201d Solaski said of the Iran war. \u201cThe president of peace, obviously not. It really complicates our relationship with Israel. Who\u2019s pulling the strings on that one and how much are we in Israel\u2019s pocket? Why are we even there? What\u2019s the point of even being there?\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the protesters adorned themselves in the patriotic colors and iconography of MAGA, but with a twist. They waved giant American flags, dressed as the Statue of Liberty and wore U.S.A.-themed T-shirts and shorts. In Fort Lauderdale, some donned red caps that resembled MAGA hats but with white text that read, \u201cHe\u2019s on the list.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing that this man is doing right now is appropriate as president of the United States of America,\u201d said Lydia Norris, 65, who attended the Boca Raton protest with her 26-year-old son, Jack, 24-year-old daughter, Shelby, and Shelby\u2019s close friend, 24-year-old Naomi Nichols. \u201cFrom his demeanor to his grift, it\u2019s all embarrassing and not presidential at all. I\u2019d like to say it\u2019s anti-American.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nichols said her biggest concern was immigration. \u201cThe no-due process, the unlawfulness, all of that,\u201d she said. \u201cThe torture, imprisonment, the kidnapping.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack Norris joined several other protesters in criticizing the growing divide between the rich and poor and the role of money in politics, citing lucrative online bets tied to the war in Iran as an example.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the billionaires have way too much money,\u201d Norris said. \u201cIt\u2019s really a billionaire problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another few thousand protesters lined up behind the barricades along Fort Lauderdale\u2019s \u201cfreedom corner\u201d at East Oakland Park Boulevard and North Federal Highway on Saturday morning amid a cacophony of car horns and protesters blowing whistles. One woman dressed as Statue of Liberty walked down the sidewalk silently with duct tape over her mouth.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople need to rise up, and I think more and more people are waking up,\u201d said Robin Paneque, a New Jersey resident who attended the protest while on vacation in South Florida. Paneque said she saw ICE agents in the Newark airport while flying out on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir presence is almost a middle finger to the TSA people who are working so hard without pay while they\u2019re standing around doing nothing and getting paid,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Several protesters of all ages said they were personally worried about the cost of living, especially with the cost of gas going up.<\/p>\n
\u201cGas has gone up, and everything will follow because everything is dependent on the price of gas,\u201d said Ron Miller, 62, a veteran who lives in Fort Lauderdale. \u201cGroceries, clothes, housing, and even if it changes, it\u2019s not gonna change right away.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Cass Zangwill, 24, of Coral Springs, attended the protest with her partner, Orchid Zangwill. It marked the day of their four-year anniversary. But she and her partner worry they may be forced out of South Florida, where they are both from, due to the cost of rent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel like we have no future,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A beachy scene unfolded in the hot afternoon sun on the sidewalk along Fort Lauderdale beach near the intersection of Sunrise Boulevard and Jimmy Buffet Memorial Highway, where another couple thousand protesters listened to \u201cGet Up, Stand Up\u201d by Bob Marley and waved signs.<\/p>\n
The protests were largely peaceful by mid-afternoon, save for a few heckling counterprotesters. At one point, four people on a golf cart stopped beside the protesters in traffic. One of the occupants gave them a thumbs down while a woman shouted \u201cwhat kind of drugs are you on?\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearby, Mitshuca Parent sat under an umbrella to escape the sun with her husband, Kesny. She moved to the U.S. from Haiti in 1983 when she was 11 years old, she said. Kesny Parent, also an immigrant, said he previously worked for the Department of Defense while Mitschuca said she has worked in education in Broward for two decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis country has given so much to me, and I\u2019ve given so much to this country,\u201d said Mitshuca Parent, adding, \u201ceveryone in this country is an immigrant. We\u2019re what makes this country great.\u201d<\/p>\n
But she questions whether the public knows the actual impact Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown will have on jobs and the numbers of children attending school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we don\u2019t know how much we\u2019re hurting the country right now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of people lined the streets of South Florida on Saturday to protest the Trump administration as part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[97241,3337,16432,249,251,250,21539,9450,4458,97242,97240,807,87408],"class_list":["post-212674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-alec-solaski","tag-boca-raton","tag-boynton-beach","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-iran","tag-jeffrey-epstein","tag-lake-worth-beach","tag-lydia-norris","tag-naomi-nichols","tag-south-florida","tag-womens-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}