A 250th celebration and "No Kings" protests
A dichotomy of America on display between the Army's 250th and "No Kings"
Most of the nation celebrated the Army's 250th Birthday yesterday.
If you missed the festivities, here's the full replay:
One of the best moments was when President Trump swore in 300 new Army officers.
Elsewhere around the country "No Kings" protests, depending on the location, ranged in size anywhere from a few dozen to thousands.
The larger protests took place in urban, Democrat-heavy cities like Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and Seattle.
For example, an estimated 25k came out in NYC. The Seattle Times claimed "over 70K" turned out but the outlet doesn't tell you how it arrived at that total. For perspective, the Seattle metro area has a population of over 4.018 million, so the estimated "No Kings" turnout would be around 1.7% of that.
The large protests started out as chanting and marches through the streets.
But things did not stay that way and the police were mostly ready for the antics that ensued.
Night didn't even have to fall before law enforcement in some of those cities had to declare a riot or unlawful assembly, or what CNN would call a "mostly peaceful" protest.
Mostly Peaceful highlights
Chicago
Protesters marching through the city streets were met by police barricading them using bicycles, keeping the crowd from moving forward.
Elsewhere, a car being attacked by protesters drove through part of the crowd, striking some.
Los Angeles
An unlawful assembly was declared before the 8 pm citywide curfew after protesters began confronting police and getting physical. Tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs were deployed and more arrests were made. Law enforcement officers were assaulted with concrete, rocks, frozen water bottles and commercial grade fireworks.
Children in Los Angeles were also brought to the protest, where they hit a pinata of President Trump while adults cheered and yelled, "get him, get him!"
New York
The NYC protest was very large.
A protester wearing a ski mask was arrested near the courthouse.
Disney's Marvel brand took another hit, with actor Mark Ruffalo giving a speech, in which he said, "Sadly today Donald Trump and the administration of billionaires crackpots and ice brigades have taken over."
Philadelphia
The protest turned into agitation in the early evening as the police were surrounded by a mob, with one likely Antifa member getting tossed like a sack of potatoes.
North Carolina's Reverend William Barber showed up and gave one of his typical speeches. The video and full text are on his "Our Moral Moment" substack account.
The day before, Barber posted on X he was there to join the leader of Indivisible, the anti-Trump organization behind the "No Kings" protests alongside 50501.
Portland
A riot was declared by police outside the Portland ICE facility after several hundred protesters (Antifa) gathered and an officer was assaulted. Tear gas was used to disperse the bulk of the crowd and at least one arrest was made.
Salt Lake City
A woman was shot during the protest; a suspect was taken into custody.
Seattle
Anarchists took over the streets with police nowhere to be found.
Antifa set a fire outside a federal building, which was already covered in graffiti.
Arrests were made when police took on Antifa using tear gas and non-lethal rounds outside a Seattle ICE office.
A military vet was violently assaulted by Antifa for trying to stop reporter Brandi Kruse from being assaulted. Everyone was able to get out of there, per Kruse.
There were "wanted posters" with targets over the faces of President Trump and Vice President Vance posted around Cal Anderson Park.
Not to be left out, American Federation of Teachers Union head Randi Weingarten screamed about President Trump from the podium at the No Kings protest in Philadelphia.
While the large urban areas devolved into violence, other protests were actually peaceful and largely attended by the elderly.
One video that went viral with over 1.7 million views so far showed senior citizens with No Kings protest signs shuffling (and scootering) out of a Legacy Village Senior Living Community.
The video was posted by Phoenix2A_1980s on X
The location of this facility is hard to discern, but Legacy Villages operates in 18 locations, most of which are in the southeast.
The Minnesota State Patrol urged citizens not to attend "No Kings" protests after No Kings fliers were found in the vehicle of Vance Boelter, the man who assassinated the MN Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband in the early hours of June 14. Hortman's husband was a Raleigh native and UNC grad.
Boelter also had attempted to assassinate Sen. John Hoffman and his wife earlier that same morning.
Boelter was dressed like a police officer and wearing a truly creepy mask, as seen below in the images released by the FBI.
More To The Story
"Mostly peaceful protests" requiring pepper spray and arrests also broke out in Charlotte, which appeared to be the largest one in the state with several thousand showing up.
WBTV also has some of the pepper spray confrontation captured on Instagram. Check out WBTV reporter Joe Bruno's thread on X here.
Protesters in Charlotte marched up through downtown, chanting "let us walk" when they ran into a line of police barring them from moving forward.
Other chants included "no hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here," accompanied by a massive Mexican flag. Why is it always the Mexican flag? Why not Columbia? El Salvador? Chile? Peru?
Prior to the march through downtown Charlotte, the Charlotte Observer interviewed four attendees (three of which were elderly) that gathered in the First Ward Park. One of the elderly women was wearing an Indivisible t-shirt while another who was interviewed said Trump was "corrupt" and "getting rich off the presidency."
According to ABC11, "thousands" took part in "No Kings" protests in the Triangle area. Per the video embedded in the article, Chapel Hill and Durham's protests looked like the largest.
WRAL ran with an unnamed 50501 spokesperson's figure that 3,500 hundred showed up in Raleigh along Capitol Blvd.
WRAL also reported "North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton, congresswoman Deborah Ross and State Rep. Phil Rubin spoke to a crowd of over 1,000 in front of the Capitol building on Saturday afternoon."
Well, Clayton was in Chatham County just before 11 am, based on her X Post.
WRAL and ABC11 missed Democratic Rep. Julie von Haefen promoting the beheading of President Trump at the Raleigh protest.
von Haefen has since deleted her X account.
Her official Instagram account, JulieForNC, seems to be intact but that image is no longer posted. The account does have a reel from the "No Kings" Raleigh protest, which is also cross-posted to von Haefen's official Facebook page.
Her Facebook page does not include the beheading photo and has limited who can reply to the one of the most recent posts on her page.
In Asheville, it was a sea of signs and chants of "hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go."
(A less grainy version of the above video can be view via Matt Von Swol on X)
Per Matt Von Swol's X post, "Mexican, Ukrainian, Palestinian, and Pride flags are being waved downtown." So, every flag but the United States flag... on Flag Day.
The scene was different in the south Raleigh area where a handful of protesters showed up with American flags.
Elsewhere in the state, protests were small and attended by mainly elderly individuals, like the "350" in Clayton.
That’s all More To The Story has at the moment.
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads and granddad’s out there, including President Trump.
