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donald trump
Amnesty Condemns Trump Threat of 'Very Heavy Force' Against Military Parade Protesters
"For those people who want to protest, they're going to be met with very big force," Trump said, making no distinction between peaceful demonstrators and those who might be more confrontational or even violent.
"Now is a good moment to remind President Trump that protesting is a human right and that his administration is obligated to respect, protect, and fulfill the human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly–not suppress them," said Paul O'Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA, in a statement on Wednesday.
Trump's threat arrived after he overrode California Gov. Gavin Newsom to call up 4,000 National Guard troops in that state last weekend—and subsequently U.S. Marine forces—to confront large protests in Los Angeles that erupted in response to raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and the violent arrest of union leader David Huerta, president of SEIU California.
"The militarized response to protests, including the deployment of the National Guard and the Marines in Los Angeles, further escalates tensions and is a chilling preview of even more human rights violations that could be coming," warned O'Brien. "The U.S. military is not trained or equipped to police civilians. It increases the risk of excessive force, arbitrary arrests, and other violations of free expression and peaceful assembly. The Trump administration has already shown us that it will use any tool of the state, including ICE, police, and military forces to target immigrants, asylum seekers, protesters, and anyone who dares to defend their rights."
Over 1,800 coordinated 'No Kings' protests are being organized for July 14 to counter Trump's growing authoritarianism and to coincide with the military parade Trump is throwing for himself in Washington, D.C., at an estimated cost of $134 million.
A new poll released Thursday shows a majority of Americans believe the parade is a waste of taxpayer money.
Approximately 6 in 10 Americans also say Trump's parade is "not a good use" of taxpayer funds, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That number of disapproving voters includes a number of people surveyed who have no particular criticism of the parade itself.
Beyond the wasted cost, critics of the president warn that the more dangerous aspect of the parade is how the spectacle dovetails with Trump's broader authoritarianism, including his militarized response to dissent and weaponizing state power against his perceived political enemies.
"Make no mistake," said Amnesty's O'Brien. "President Trump’s response to protests has nothing to do with public safety. This is his administration’s way of stoking fear and suppressing opposition. By sending police, ICE, or the military into neighborhoods to silence voices calling for justice and human rights, President Trump is continuing to send a clear and chilling message: dissent will be punished."
Amnesty called for an immediate halt to Trump's "militarized response" to public protest.
"The task of any law enforcement is to facilitate—not to restrict—a peaceful public assembly," said O'Brien. "This must be clearly understood by all law enforcement officials taking part in the management of the assembly. Law enforcement must also not use violent acts of a few as a pretext to restrict or impede the human rights of others to peacefully protest."
Reclaiming the Flag for No Kings Day
The demonstrations send a message that even as Trump and his allies wrap themselves in their flags, they are betraying the best of America. They highlight a culture of corruption, where the only Americans who matter are allies of Trump at the top, and persons or institutions who would challenge this become subjects of attacks. Our flags make clear, in contrast, that we are defending Americans fundamental right to speak out, without which all other rights become meaningless. They’re a message to all who agree with us, but also to all those Americans who voted for Trump, or stayed home, rejecting both candidates. Because to change the direction of our country the support of at least some of these people will be essential.
Flags have long been part of the protest tradition, and may have even more impact when those speaking out are being marginalized or attacked.
As No Kings Day reminds us, “The flag doesn’t belong to Donald Trump. It belongs to us.” But at most anti-Trump protests, flags have been absent or marginal. I counted one when several thousand people marched in Seattle this past May Day, plus scattered Uncle Sam and Statue of Liberty images. That may be because carrying the flag feels uncomfortable, a false embrace for many who’ve marched to challenge American wars, call out racial injustice, or push back against corporate power. As a Korean-American activist once told a friend, “When you see other people waving their countries’ flags you think, ‘That’s nice, they love their country.’ When you see the American flag, you know people are going to die.” But the flag also stands for legacies of courage and sacrifice that should give us all hope, courage, and strength, like the classic World War II image of GI’s raising it over Iowa Jima.
The flag represents the imperfect but essential mechanisms of democracy that Trump’s regime so profoundly threatens, ones that allow us to keep working for justice. In defending these mechanisms and the rule of law, Thomas Jefferson condemned the very Alien and Sedition acts whose remnants Trump is now abusing. These acts created the power of kings, Jefferson warned, writing of threats to the “constitutional rights and liberties of the States and people… marked by the suspicions of the president, or be thought dangerous to his or their election, or other interests, public or personal.” These acts first targeted “the friendless alien,” Jefferson wrote, but “the citizen will soon follow.”
Flags have long been part of the protest tradition, and may have even more impact when those speaking out are being marginalized or attacked. American labor activists from the radical Industrial Workers of the World union carried them at the Lawrence Textile “bread and roses” strike. They fly next to Martin Luther King Jr. in photos from the 1963 March on Washington, and his talks at anti-war rallies. This year, demonstrators who helped defeat South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s dictatorial power grab waved South Korean flags along with their signs.
IWW members carry flags while on strike in 1912.
Some recent anti-Trump rallies have featured them. But they need to become protest staples to help take the flag back. And when people fly them at home alongside signs or flags indicating where they stand on Trump and America’s direction, they amplify that message as well.
A recent Vietnam trip reminded me of the power of national pride. Americans are welcomed now, even as museums, statues, and street names commemorate heroes in what they call “the American war,” and the related fights against the Japanese and French occupations. But Vietnam also honors 13th, 15th, and 16th century kings who resisted and eventually defeated repeated invasions by the Chinese and Mongols. The country’s leadership could have dismissed them as the embodiment of now-discarded feudalism. Instead, they present their stories as part of a continuing story of resistance, a history they highlighted during the war as Ho Chi Minh and other leaders talked of fighting for their country, not communism. Whatever the limits of Vietnam’s current regime in terms of democracy, this worked because the roots of national patriotism ran deeper than any particular ideology.
The threat to American democracy that those of us marching address is internal, of course (with help from white foreign-born billionaires Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and David Sacks). But the lesson of patriotism and national pride as a wellspring of resistance still holds true.
I’ve learned to appreciate those who bring flags to social justice protests. And I finally bought my own the other week at my local hardware store, to complement a “Don’t Putinize America” sign I plan to carry. The young woman at the counter’s initial look seemed to mark me, an older white man, as a likely Trump supporter. When I said I was buying it for the Trump protest, “No Kings Day,” she broke into a grin. Whatever our anger and disappointment about America failing to achieve much of what it should be, we need to defend what we have had and the possibility of what could be. Making the flag our own helps us do that.
An earlier version of this piece was published by the Fulcrum.
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