No Kings: Nationwide Protest Movement Finds Room in Collingswood
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In a country founded on dissent and protest against a higher authority and in an age of political turmoil, protests have once again become common currency in the minds of Americans in cities large and small. Saturday October 18th, the spectre of political assembly once again arrived as the No Kings II protests kicked off. In addition to protests in cities large and small across the nation and a flagship protest in nearby Philadelphia, a No Kings II event was held in Collingswood, NJ.
According to Camden County Emergency Services, over 8,000 protestors were in attendance. No protest-related arrests or injuries were reported, and pro-trump counterprotestor presence was minimal with one or two trucks reported by marchers bearing MAGA iconography driving down Haddon Avenue. In addition to the protestors, special speakers were in attendance like Congressman Donald Norcross, who spoke on the government shutdown and the controversial Project 2025 platform, as well as Muhammad Emanet whose parents were targeted in a high profile ICE detention earlier this year.
No Kings is an event planned by progressive protest organization Indivisible, whose splinter groups have been behind other protests and have partnered with groups like the 50501 movement in the past ten months of Donald Trump’s second term as president. The prior No Kings event was held on June 14 in cities across the country, including Collingswood. The protests are aimed at attracting public attention and expressing discontent with the actions taken by the Trump administration, with protestors’ motivations ranging from ICE and immigration policy to questions of free speech.
A website claiming to belong to the organizers, nokings.org, had a front page that read: “On October 18, more than 7 million of us rose up at more than 2,700 events in all 50 states, DC, and cities worldwide to say: America has no kings, and the power belongs to the people.” Elsewhere, it had a graphic that boasted attendance fourteen times larger than both of Trump’s inaugurations combined.
Still, some people like Lucas, a RUC finance major, were more skeptical towards the protests: “I’m in disagreement with [the protests], I honestly wish [the administration] had gone with more budget cuts. Honestly, I think a lot of our tax dollars are wasted.”
While he disagrees with some of their initial motives, he does believe in their right to assemble: “That’s their right to do so. I don’t, you know, I don’t see why I should stop them.”
It would have taken a lot indeed to stop the crowd assembled alongside Haddonfield-Berlin Road, marching on either side of the street, chanting slogans, and carrying all manner of signage that spoke to their cause. All of them, from older protestors in costumes to young people there with families, said they were there to call attention to what they perceived as serious problems within and around the Trump presidency, such as his connection to convicted and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
An anonymous protestor from Burlington county said, “There’s so much joy here. First of all, and I think that that’s an important part of it, it is a diverse group, which is amazing. There’s no violence here. No one was paid to be here. People are taking a beautiful day to show how much they care. That’s really it.”
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