Protesters gathering downtown for Chicago ‘No Kings’ rally

Demonstrators have begun gathering in Daley Plaza for Chicago’s “No Kings” rally, part of a national slate of marches planned around the country to protest President Donald Trump’s policies and agenda.

Among those crowding into the Daley Center plaza Saturday morning were Theresa and Robert Hoban, retired attorneys who split their time between Chicago and Florida.

The Hobans said they attended to support their grandchildren’s future, and the throngs of others present for the rally gave them a sense of hope.

“We are doing this for our grandchildren’s future because we believe the country has taken a turn for the worse under this administration,” Theresa Hoban said. “We believe that standing up and people hearing our voices is the most profound way to get our message across.”

As the crowd grew, loudspeakers near the Picasso statue blasted songs by Beyonce and Rage Against the Machine.

The Chicago protest was planned to be one of more than 2,000 “No Kings” events nationwide, with organizers anticipating it would be one of the largest.  Tens of thousands were expected to march from Daley Plaza and coalesce in defiance and admonition of Trump near the downtown hotel tower bearing his name.

By just before noon, the crowd already had swelled outside the plaza and into surrounding streets.

Organizers described the protest as “a national mobilization to reject authoritarianism,” and was scheduled to begin with several speeches, including one from U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García, a Democrat from the Little Village Neighborhood.

There are also several other No Kings protests scheduled around Chicago, including ones in Evanston, Geneva, Naperville, Highland Park and Arlington Heights, among other suburbs. The protests, according to organizers, are in “direct response to President Trump’s self-aggrandizing $100 million military parade and birthday celebration, an event funded by taxpayers while millions are told there’s no money for Social Security, SNAP, Medicaid, or public schools.

Chicago police Supt. Larry Snelling could be seen in the Loop as part of a police presence around the crowd.

“Across all 50 states, communities will gather to declare: The president is not a king.”

The downtown protest comes after a week of tension in Chicago, where city streets have filled in recent days in response to the Trump administration’s actions in Los Angeles. There, Immigration and Custom Enforcement raids and the administration’s deployment of Marines and the California National Guard have led to fiery confrontations among demonstrators, ICE agents and police.

Earlier this week, in anticipation of a similar scene in Chicago, Johnson urged the city’s residents to “resist.” He described it as “a necessary fight for all of us to be able to push back” against ICE raids and the specter of the mobilization of troops in the city.

Planners said they intend to do just that.

“We could all just sit at home and scroll on our phones and be really worried about what’s happening with our country, or we can go out and be in the streets and, very visibly, say we are not OK with what is going on with this administration,” said Sally Schulze, a spokesperson for Indivisible Chicago, which is organizing the downtown protest.