No Kings Special Coverage

Protests in Boca Raton, Florida

I noticed various start times to protests in South Florida and wanted to hit a couple that would get less coverage than the one in Miami would (or at least I thought would). So, I got up early, drove over an hour to Palm Beach County to find what was labeled a "caravan" for No Kings Day. I didn't understand what this meant, but I wanted to see what it was.

What I found was half a mile of cars lined up waiting to coordinate with another convoy to arrive at Mar-a-Lago at the same time.

Clever of them to coordinate like that.

Here are some of my favorite photos from that line of cars.

Yes, there were lots of dogs there to protest the policies of the sitting US President at James A. Rutherford Park. In the video later on you'll see the boisterous honking of the cars and another dog! Yay dogs!

See, I keep this positive, right?

The Miami Herald posted a link to an Instagram account, which has people at Mar-a-Lago after the caravan arrived.

I left this protest and headed back to Miami but along the way, about 1.8 miles from Rutherford Park, I found another protest in front of the Boca Raton City Hall.

This one had counter protesters! Yay democracy! Yay freedom of speech!

I'd guess that at about 10:30 they had 200 people there, but I didn't stop to count.

Here is video of both the car caravan start and the protesters in front of Boca Raton City Hall. The video includes some other counter protesters.

Miami Torch of Friendship No Kings Protest

Of course the big protests were expected in Broward County in Fort Lauderdale (which I did not get to, btw) and at the Torch of Friendship in Miami in Miami-Dade County. While the protest on Hands Off Miami in April was big, the protest on Saturday, June 14, was something else altogether.

I tried counting people in April. On Saturday I wasn't even sure how I could try to count all of the people. While as I write this on Monday June 16, at noon, the Miami Herald still has a blog post up saying "a crowd of about 200 people."

Granted, higher up in the story I'm upset about with The Herald it says that the crowd had swelled into the thousands, but with no time stamp on the apparent blog entry, and with a sub-headline that still reads "A Look at the Miami Protest" suggesting a look at the whole protest, not just the start of it, it reads as if the protest had a paltry few dozen people.

Organizers estimated that between 6,000 and 8,000 showed up to the event.

It should be noted that the heat index was about 100 degrees on Saturday. Miami heat is no joke.

Judge for the crowd size yourself in this one minute video. Does that look like the word "hundreds" was a fair descriptor?

What's more, while the Associated Press had a photographer at the Hands Off protest in April, they appear to have skipped this particular protest.

While in April it could be argued that Miami is "Trump Country" now because of his decisive win in November, there is a story about the hours of continuous honking in support of the protest and the perhaps quadrupling in size of the attendance.

At previous protests such as the Hands Off event, which was held in the same place, the honking was steady, but far from continual. A few honks per minute, perhaps. On Saturday it was incessant.

Here's a longer video from the protest I cut to illustrate this. Note, there are also counter protesters in this footage that I'll get to in a moment.

Here are photos from the event that I took.

Here are (excellent) photos by a photojournalist working for the Miami New Times. Photographer Michelle Eve Sandberg captured some counter protesters I did not see.

Photos: The Best Signs at Miami’s ‘No Kings’ Protest

Miami protesters expressed dissent on issues ranging from ICE’s immigration raids to DOGE cuts to Trump’s military parade.

Miami New TimesMichele Eve Sandberg

Counter Protesters

I've seen photos of a number of counter protesters at the Miami No Kings Protest, including the founder of Proud Boys, who helped organize the January 6 assault on the US Capitol building in 2021. While counter protesters in Boca Raton, so far as I can tell, were in vehicles, some protesters in Miami were certainly on foot and in the crowd, including the former Proud Boys leader.

A group of men with signs that read "Blacks for Trump" engaged the crowd on foot. I applaud the courage to stand in a crowd where you're outnumbered 1000 to 1. So far as I saw, everyone in Blacks for Trump and engaging Blacks for Trump used their First Amendment Rights in a way that should be commended– no violence or threats of violence.

Another fellow on a scooter circled the streets lined with protesters, engaging protesters, blowing them kisses. He was draped in the flag of Israel and carrying a flag that said Trump won. Again, while he was certainly trying to be provocative, as far as I could tell, this is just someone exercising their First Amendment rights in a creative way. He managed to stand out in a crowd of thousands. Bravo.

There was one person who was also circling the streets. He had no identifying symbols, signs or flags, so it is hard to know what his position on anything was. That said, he kept bringing his motorcycle around and revving the engine loudly. Was he trying to drown out the horns? Was he trying to essentially honk himself? He sure seemed to be revving the engine more when protesters were crossing the street while he was waiting for green light. That would appear to be a threat of running protesters over. Not cool. Not cool at all, especially given a state representative with progressive views was assassinated along with her husband that morning and protesters were in fact struck by vehicles at other No Kings protests.

He's in the longer of the videos above.

The police at the No Kings Protest in Miami

Miami Indivisible co-chair Raquel Pacheco was adamant that the police in Miami were there to protect the protesters, not to harass or intimidate them or blast them with tear gas. The police presence, perhaps due to the murders in Minnesota, was huge, obvious, and otherwise unremarkable. The only thing as consistent as the constant blaring of car horns at this protests was the droning of the police helicopter overhead.

While police cars were scattered throughout the event, a platoon of officers on bicycles rode around the event in the blazing Miami heat. Generally, the police were as they should be, apparent, but not apparently involved other than to offer protection. You know, they were there to serve and protect.

Other coverage of the event

I'm particularly fond of 23yflagler's coverage of the Miami political scene. Guena Rod does great work and is worth a follow on all social media platforms. He took some amazing photos too.

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Carting around multiple cameras and microphones in the intense Miami heat to capture events like this is, in fact, for me, quite rewarding. I enjoy it a great deal. That said, it isn't free for me, nor is it even cheap. If you appreciate any of this work please consider signing up for the free weekly newsletter.

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