Oliver Lee (senior) said he spent his Saturday afternoon handing out fliers for the California Working Families Party with other Occidental students at the ‘No Kings’ protest in Hollywood, which took place at the same time as a ‘No Kings’ rally in downtown LA, near City Hall.
Lee was one of more than 7 million people, according to organizers, who turned out across the country Oct. 18, denouncing President Trump and his administration’s actions.
Lee said demonstrators in Hollywood “had signs about all sorts of stuff.”
“There’s a bunch of signs making fun of Trump as much as possible, and there’s stuff about ICE and about the influence of AIPAC [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee] in politics and the genocide in Gaza,” Lee said. “And there’s stuff about him cutting cancer research, there’s stuff about him sending American troops into American cities.”
At the protests downtown and in Hollywood, people donned inflatable unicorns and frogs. Others dressed as Tacos — a play on TACO, an acronym for Trump Always Chickens Out — and chickens.
According to Lee, the costumes amassed popularity after a protest near an ICE facility in Portland, Oregon, where a person inside an inflatable frog was pepper sprayed by a federal agent.
“Portland’s fine,” Lee said. “You can’t look at these people dressed [as] dancing, inflatable costumes and say ‘This is a riot, we need to send the troops in.’”
At the protest downtown, demonstrators gathered in Gloria Molina Grand Park and along the 200 block of N Spring Street, in front of LA City Hall.
A box truck converted into a band shell was front and center.
According to the LA Times, “a band belted out an Epstein files-themed parody of Johnny Cash’s ‘Folsom Prison Blues.’”
Chants of “F*** Donald Trump” and “Free Palestine” filled lulls between songs and speeches.
There were American flags of all types: upside down — usually a sign of distress — and right-side up, spliced diagonally with the national colors of El Salvador and Mexico. Others waved Palestinian flags. A man sold ‘No Kings’ flags for $20.
Vendors sold churros for $5, hot dogs for $8 and freshly squeezed orange juices for $10. They purveyed popsicles and scoops of ice cream, too — the temperature was in the eighties.
Lee said he expected the Oct. 18 ‘No Kings’ events would draw fewer people nationwide than the first ‘No Kings’ protest in June, which had a turnout of 5 million.
“I was kind of thinking, ‘We’re doing the same thing again, probably less people will come out, right?’ But no,” Lee said. “So I don’t know. I thought that was reassuring — I think.”
Contact James Miller at jmiller4@oxy.edu
