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LAKEPORT, Calif. – An estimated 1,000 people came out to participate in several “No Kings” protests around Lake County on Saturday.
The protests, the latest in an ongoing series of such events held both locally and nationwide in response to the Trump Administration’s policies, took place from noon to 2 p.m.
The main protest was held at Museum Square Park in downtown Lakeport, the site of most of the events that have taken place in opposition to federal policies over the past year and a half. People lined both sides of Main Street for a few blocks around the protest site.
Other protests on Saturday took place in Clearlake, Clearlake Oaks and Middletown.
They were among an estimated 3,000 protests that took place across the United States and worldwide on Saturday.
Indivisible Lake County, the event organizer, estimated about 800 people attended the Lakeport event.
They carried colorful and direct signs expressing a range of concerns, anger and frustration.
The sign messages ran the gamut from speaking against Trump and calling for his removal from office to calls for Congress to do its job, protests against genocide in Gaza and warnings against sending U.S. troops into more foreign territory to wage war.
At Highlands Park In Clearlake, there were reported to be 40 protesters, with 53 at Nylander Park in Clearlake Oaks and more than 100 in Middletown, according to Indivisible Lake County.
Denise Rushing, an Indivisible Lake County leader and a former member of the Lake County Board of Supervisors, told Lake County News on Saturday evening that, overall, the Lakeport event was about 10% larger than the last one.
She said the larger Indivisible coalition estimated that about one million more people nationwide participated in events on Saturday.
National organizers on Saturday were estimating that the “No Kings 3” protest had drawn eight million people.
“The world is watching,” and wondering what the people in the U.S. are doing, Rushing told the gathering on Saturday afternoon.
She said that at the protests on Saturday, Americans were showing their neighbors that they are not abandoning them and also showing the regime that they are not afraid of them.
Rushing said people also need to demand truth from the media.
“There is an America worth fighting for. We don’t live in it right now,” said Nara Dahlbacka, chair of the Lake County Democratic Central Committee.
Dahlbacka said people have to show up in person and do the work that’s needed for change. That work, she added, isn’t happening in Facebook comment sections, on Twitter or other social media.
“This is bigger than political parties,” she said, adding that it’s for the soul of Lake County and its communities.
Hal Muskat, speaking on behalf of Veterans for Peace, said the group’s members use their experience with the military to advocate against militarism.
“War does not solve problems,” said Muskat, who advocates for nonviolence.
Muskat said the group opposes genocide in Gaza and U.S. troops in Iran. “We are not the cops of the world.”
He added, “As veterans, we understand the true cost of war.”
Muskat said building a mass movement through organizations is most powerful. That work is important, he said, because, “Fascism cannot be voted out.”
Email Elizabeth Larson at elarson@lakeconews.com. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, and on Bluesky, @erlarson.bsky.social. Find Lake County News on the following platforms: Facebook, @LakeCoNews; X, @LakeCoNews; Threads, @lakeconews, and on Bluesky, @lakeconews.bsky.social.
