Thousands of protesters lined busy streets across the Inland Empire on Saturday, June 14, carrying signs, U.S. and Mexican flags and chanting in protest against President Donald Trump and his policies.
The demonstrations were part of a massive, nationwide “No Kings Day of Defiance” protest targeting the Trump administration that capped a week of unrest in the region stemming from immigration raids and coincided with a military parade in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday.
Saturday morning, cowbells rang out from a busy corner in downtown Redlands, the site of one of the earliest demonstrations planned for the day.
Protesters were lined up along Orange Street and Redlands Boulevard by 9:50 a.m. Before the crowd dispersed around noon, it had swelled to more than 1,000 protesters, some waving American flags while others carried signs with sharp words directed at the president.
“I’m here because we can’t allow this to happen … one man cannot dictate,” protester Tim Clark, a 74-year-old Army veteran, said as he carried a sign reading “No bogus bone spurs here. Proud veteran against Trump.”
“We have to stand up for what’s right,” Clark said. “We have the Constitution, we have the rule of law … not what one king, Donald Trump, wants to do.”
Seventeen protests were planned for the Inland Empire on Flag Day, and more than two dozen more were planned throughout Southern California.
Locally, protests were scheduled in Beaumont, Big Bear Lake, Cathedral City, Claremont, Corona, Fontana, Hemet, Idyllwild, Joshua Tree, Menifee, Palm Springs, Rancho Cucamonga, Rancho Mirage, Redlands, Riverside, Temecula and Victorville.
Demonstrations held early Saturday in the Inland Empire were largely peaceful, with little to no visible police presence. Protests were planned into the evening in some cities.
Police in helicopters circled sections of Sierra Avenue in Fontana, where more than 1,000 protesters marched midday as the temperatures climbed into the high 80s. Police announced they “respect and support” everyone’s right to protest, but asked protesters to get out of the street.
Most complied, continuing their march as some played mariachi music on boom boxes and motorists drove by honking their horns support. Signs carried by protesters made clear their support for the Latino community and their objection to recent raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
Priscilla Gonzalez, 23, from Corona, joined the Fontana protest with friends Fatima Cabrera, 24, of Eastvale, and Ariel Sanchez, 25, of Hesperia, carrying a sign reading “California melts ICE.”
“We are not afraid to stand behind what we believe in,” Gonzalez said, “and we believe that the administration is abusing its power and it’s forgetting that we have a Constitution, not a king.”
In Claremont, more than 1,000 protesters gathered at Foothill and Indian Hill boulevards in the early afternoon Saturday.
Upland resident Miguel Castellanos said he joined the Claremont protest in support of his mother, who worked on farms as a child, and his father, a Vietnam veteran.
“I am allowed to do this, and I want to do this,” he said. “This is human power.”
More than 1,500 “No Kings” demonstrations were planned across the U.S. after progressive organizations Indivisible, 50501 and a coalition of like-minded groups announced them on May 6.
The protests coincided with a military parade the Trump administration organized in Washington, D.C., to mark the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday. June 14 is also Trump’s 79th birthday.
There were no “No Kings” protests scheduled for Washington, D.C. on Saturday. Organizers had said they wanted to shift the focus of the world away from Trump and to the rest of the United States.
The “No Kings” protests bookend a week of rising tensions in the country. Protesters have taken to the streets in communities across Southern California and beyond in response to federal immigration efforts in the Los Angeles area that started June 6 and were followed by Trump deploying the California National Guard — over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom — and the U.S. Marines to the city to support those efforts.
In Riverside, several thousand protesters began gathering at 5 p.m. at Market Street and University Avenue. A woman blew bubbles as a way to spread joy, and two men riding horses held a U.S. Marine Corps flag as car horns blared in support of protesters. The group marched on Market while chanting “The people united will not be divided.”
Protesters made their way to the Riverside Historic Courthouse, their chants keeping time with a drumline before Dez Manuel, a United Automobile Workers member, called out to the crowd.
“We got a warmonger as a president who said the criminals are our neighbors, the criminals are our mothers,” Manuel said, calling out Trump for the detainment and deportation of women and children.
“When we fight back they tell us that we are criminals. Trump is trying to send in the National Guard to intimidate our people,” Manuel said.
“Are we afraid?” he asked. The crowd shouted “no.”
Elsewhere, protests in Los Angeles, Long Beach and other cities drew massive crowds.
By 9:50 a.m. at Grand Park in LA, just before the protest’s scheduled start time, the crowd had grown significantly — thousands filled the park and spilled out onto both sides of North Spring Street.
Around 4 p.m., the rally – with an estimated 200,000 protesters – switched from peaceful to chaotic, as some people reportedly threw rocks, bottles and fireworks at police. Officers issued a dispersal order and unleashed flash-bang grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at the crowd.
Confusion broke out as police on horseback pushed people away from an area near the 101 Freeway and traffic was diverted on city streets. Protesters ran past businesses that had been boarded up ahead of the demonstration. Reporting from a KTLA helicopter showed people were trying to rush away from the rubber bullets and horses but did not know exactly where to go.
Up until that point, the downtown LA rally had been peaceful. The 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for a one-square-mile section of downtown Los Angeles after a week of protests against federal immigration raids remained in place Saturday night, officials previously announced.
Among the demonstrators in LA was Alicia Bleier, a retired business owner from Silver Lake, who said she joined out of “outrage at how the federal government is overstepping their bounds and politicizing what shouldn’t be politicized.”
“This is not who we are,” said Bleier, who held a sign reading, “Immigrants are the backbone of American exceptionalism.” She added, “Everyone here — unless they’re American Indian — is an immigrant. Immigrants built this country.”
A planned protest in Huntington Beach drew a heavy presence of Trump supporters Saturday morning, an hour before the scheduled noon start time.
By 11 a.m., dozens of vehicles flying Trump 2024 flags had lined the streets near the pier, with supporters waving flags, honking horns and walking down Main and PCH. The counter-presence appeared to outnumber early arrivals for the protest.
Trump supporters shouted “USA! USA! USA!” The smaller group of protesters shot back with “No kings!”
By 1 p.m., the line of “No Kings” protesters – thousands of them, by some estimates – stretched as far as the eye could see in both directions from the intersection of Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway.
Back in Redlands, recent University of Redlands graduate Vivian Reukauf wore a T-shirt saying “The only dangerous minority is the rich” and carried a sign reading “Nazis, I hate those guys.”
“I’m feeling very safe and feeling like I’m protecting our democracy,” she said from a shaded sidewalk as temperatures began to climb.
Andres Montalvo, 29, who traveled from San Bernardino to Redlands to join the protest, draped an American flag over his shoulders and carried a sign reading “No hate in our state.”
“I’m here standing up not only for my parents but for a long of people that come here to this country looking for a better opportunity,” said Montalvo, whose parents immigrated from Mexico.
“I’m fortunate enough to be an American. A lot of people don’t have that,” Montalvo added. “But we’re all human beings and we need to get treated like a decent person. I know there’s people that are here that aren’t doing the right thing but you can’t use some people’s actions and justify (taking action against) everyone else.”
