MOUNT VERNON — The second national “No Kings” protest brought about 900 people, according to event organizers, to Mount Vernon’s Public Square on Saturday, up from the roughly 300 present in June.
Folks from across Knox County expressed a variety of concerns with President Donald Trump’s administration and the recent federal law enforcement operation in Mount Vernon via signs and chants.
Some Trump supporters were present, but the majority were anti-Trump and anti-ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).
A few Mount Vernon Police Department officers patrolled the square on foot, but things remained peaceful throughout the afternoon.
Knox County Indivisible and Signs on the Square specifically orchestrated Mount Vernon’s “No Kings” protest, while about 3,000 locations across the nation took part in their own “No Kings” protests.
“It is such a display of democracy and what this country was built on, the people we are gathering together and using our voices to speak love and hope through our signs and our chants; it’s amazing to see so many people here,” said Charlotte Worth, public relations director for Knox County Indivisible and senior at Kenyon College.
Knox County Indivisible member Meg Galipault said the Knox Socialist League (KSL) did receive an invitation to Saturday’s protest, but she wasn’t sure if the group made it.
KSL conducted a protest on Oct. 12 against the federal law enforcement operation conducted in Mount Vernon on Oct. 9.
Worth’s reason for speaking up
Knox County Indivisible started in April, according to Worth and Galipault, and Worth quickly realized she wanted to step up in her new community.
Originally from Massachusetts, Worth set out to bridge the gap between what happens inside Kenyon College and its surrounding community.
Worth said she thinks the disconnect between the “two lines” needs to be blurrier, and thus not so disconnected.
Relating the protest to the recent federal operation
With federal special agents recently conducting an operation in Mount Vernon in mind, Worth said Saturday’s protest was more of “a broader sense of frustration” with the operation and Trump’s administration as a whole.
“This protest in connection to that [the federal law enforcement operation], is more just a general response to the Trump administration’s attacks on members of our community,” Worth said.
(Below is a video and photo gallery from Saturday’s “No Kings” protest. Credit: Jack Slemenda)
