MUNCIE, IN — It was an active Saturday morning in Muncie.
The morning of June 14 saw the grand opening of the city’s new skatepark at Westside Park.
In McCulloch Park, volunteers were preparing for the annual Juneteenth Muncie Celebration, scheduled for Saturday afternoon and evening.
And on the Fallen Heroes Bridge carrying Wheeling Avenue over White River, hundreds of critics of Donald Trump gathered for a 90-minute protest aimed at the Republican president and his administration.
That event — in which participants lined a sidewalk along the bridge and Wheeling Avenue from Wysor Street to Riverside Avenue — was part of a nationwide “No Kings” protest planned in more than 1,000 U.S. cities on Saturday, Trump’s 79th birthday.
Many participants held “No Kings” yard signs distributed in recent days. Others held homemade signs, criticizing Trump and particularly his administration’s efforts to deport unauthorized aliens.
Other protesters displayed upside-down U.S. flags.
“Trump is a fascist!” read a sign held by Ron Thompson of Bloomington.
Barbara Toner, from Muncie, called Saturday’s protest “a true display of democracy.”
“Seeing all these people get here today, to defend the people that belong here, who have built our country, built our families, built our communities, is only the right thing to do,” she said.
Kim Whitlock said she is a member of Muncie Resists and a local chapter of Indivisible.org, which she called “a nationside MAGA resist group, trying to mitigate the harm coming our way with the MAGA agenda.”
“We are here to say that America is a democracy,” Whitlock said. “There are no kings in America, and that’s why we are protesting his authoritarian dictatorship (and) his overreach of power. He’s trampling on the Constitution and the rule of law.”
“We want no kings,” Rita Faulkner said. “We want no kings in America. That’s why we had the American Revolution in 1776.”
Protesters engaged in repeating political chants. “Nobody is illegal,” they said in unison. “We want ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents) off our streets.”
Some participants laughed and hooted with the loud playing of a rap song that included a lewd refrain about the president.
Some estimated the crowd at the protest at more than 350 people.
There appeared to be no pro-Trump group holding its own demonstration at the bridge. However, one man repeatedly drove past the anti-Trump protesters with a banner emerging from his car that read, “Don’t blame me — I voted for Trump.”
“Traitor!” one protester yelled each time he saw that motorist.
The protesters did not block traffic on Wheeling and had no apparent problems with city police.
Many motorists passing the protest along Wheeling Avenue honked their vehicles’ horns.
Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Trump critics stage ‘No Kings’ protest on downtown Muncie bridge
Reporting by Douglas Walker, Muncie Star Press / Muncie Star Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
