Congratulations, San Diego. Reviews Are in for the No Kings protests.
20,000? 60,000? 80,000? Who said what? Did they love it? Ignore us?
Sorry, evil spinmeister, No Kings protests in every corner of the country exceeded expectations.
Downtown San Diego was big, with 60,000 (cops) or 80,000 (organizers) people, although the stated time for protests was 10am, it was more like an all-day event. Bus service was interrupted at times due to overcrowding.
I counted 16 people headed for the No Kings protest at our North Park stop for the 215 express at 9:15am. As was true with my observations throughout the morning, there was an all-of-the-above make-up of ages, races, and sexual expression among the participants.
The after-effect for the day was a level of hopefulness that’s been scarce lately. Maybe our Democracy can be saved after all. But you wouldn’t necessarily have that understanding if you didn’t participate, given the weak sauce coverage of much legacy media.
The New York Times did a lovely pictorial, but left any and all of San Diego’s dozen gatherings off its map of cities with confirmed No Kings events. Damn those NYC snobs. I hope they elect a democratic socialist as mayor.
At the Washington Post, the Dear Leader’s military parade was portrayed as a reason for protests, with an opinionator's discussion starting with ‘was the president’s parade a success?’
Fox News apparently thought the event was a great way to spend $45 million on military recruiting. Left unsaid was anything about the constant display of racism and misogyny by military leaders willing to appear in legacy media.
At Politico, they quoted Indivisible’s Ezra Levin, before going on to cover the “massive parade.” :
“Rather than give [Trump] the excuse to crack down on peaceful counterprotests in downtown D.C., or give him the narrative device to claim that we’re protesting the military, we said, OK, you can have downtown D.C.,”
Left uncovered, generally speaking, was the shitty turnout of spectators to watch the array of historical troop recreations, armored vehicles, and close-in flybys. Seating for the public was two-thirds empty, and photographs of the mall confirmed the lack of interest.
AL Jazeera led with the President’s co-optation of the Army’s 250th anniversary, but moved on to coverage of the No Kings protests around the country:
The demonstrations came on the heels of protests over the federal ICE raids which began last week, and Trump’s order for the US National Guard and Marines to be deployed to Los Angeles, where protesters blocked a motorway and set cars on fire.
“Today, across red states and blue, rural towns and major cities, Americans stood in peaceful unity and made it clear: we don’t do kings,” the No Kings Coalition said in a statement on Saturday.
The Guardian’s photo collage of all events on June 14 was powerful, with a vibe that actually reflected the day. Their analysis of the day included the observation about the President’s birthday party being underwhelming, and the fake news claiming No Kings protests around the country were held as a reaction to the military display.
Locally, the Union-Tribune (which just fired its editorial director for daring to be critical of ICE raids) had Jeff McDonald & Tammy Murga covering the downtown marches, and they did a credible job of capturing the sentiment of participants. There was a mention of the thousands gathered in Escondido’s Grape Park, and of the non-confrontational nature of marchers.
They even quoted Waterfront moderator Allison Gill, what I think is a first for coverage of non-celebrity protest speakers:
The San Diego protest opened just after 9 a.m. with a family event at the playground outside Waterfront Park. A half-dozen local Democratic elected officials spoke about why they came before a bank of television cameras.
By 10 a.m., Allison Gill of the “Mueller She Wrote” political podcast, addressed the swelling crowd.
“Democracy is a muscle we have to exercise,” she said. “Our guardrails are crumbling. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. It’s up to us now to protect us. The world is watching and we need them to see we are here peacefully.”
I’d say the best job of local reporting was to be found at Times of San Diego, with reporters James Miller and Alexa Vazquez, who had the audacity to include the breadth of issues represented.
Many demonstrators waved and wore American flags — some upside down, typically a distress signal. Their signs criticized Trump and ICE, and celebrated immigrants. “Hate will not make us great,” one said. “I like ICE in my coffee, not in my city,” according to another. “So much wrong. So little sign!” one bemoaned.
Some protesters wore keffiyehs and masks, while a pair dressed as clowns. A papier-mache puppet head of President Trump with a pig’s snout floated above the crowd.
Coverage on local tv stations NBCSanDiego, ABC/10news, CBSNews8 and KUSI/Fox was mostly short and sweet (although somebody should tell CBS8 there were more than 20,000 participants).
The KPBS website coverage gets a nod for avoiding distractions (violence in LA, Dear Leader’s parade, and assassinations in Minnesota) in reporting focused on an event deserving of coverage on its own. They even listed all the No Kings events held in San Diego County.
At Breitbart News, the President’s parade was a top item of the day, along with Hollywood Celebrities Turn Out for Chaotic ‘No Kings’ Marches: ‘We’re Disgusted and We’re Scared’ and Anti-ICE Activist’s Testicle ‘Shattered’ by Rubber Bullet Fired by Police in L.A.
There’s your fair and balanced, folks.
What’s next, you might say?
Two thoughts…
We are living at a pivotal moment for our democracy. So many people around us still seem unaware. Many Americans went about their business today, not knowing about the No Kings rallies (as hard as that is to believe with the ever-present coverage this past week) and unconcerned that there are Marines on the streets of Los Angeles detaining American citizens. Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance
The last word goes to Indivisible, whose many chapters are doing more than organizing protests:
But a single day of protest -- even historically large protests like today -- will not alone defeat the fascist takeover of our government.
We need to ensure that the incredible organizing and inspiring courage of today’s protests continue to spread. We need to do the hard work of organizing those who turned out today and those who were watching into a sustained, broad-based movement that’s prepared for the hard work that comes ahead.
With a call to action:
Thanks for the shout out to the brave Borregans. I joined them one weekend while visiting, but before it turned really hot. Nine out of ten cars that passed on the circle honked or waved.
This was by far the biggest march I’ve seen in San Diego. I was helping with crowd control at the start of the march. There were so many people that the line was still going as the first marchers came back. It was glorious.
PS - happy belated birthday