‘No Kings’ protest: Thousands march from Dolores Park to City Hall

Love what you read? Love that it was free?

Mission Local will never have a paywall. All our articles are free for everyone, always. Help us keep it that way — donate to our end-of-year fundraiser to make Mission Local free for your neighbors.

Donate today!

2:15 p.m. “Stand up, fight back!”

“Please go home and enjoy the day,” pleaded organizers as they gathered at City Hall for the conclusion of the protest that had attracted tens of thousands of participants.

Organizers were trying to avoid what happened Monday night after a peaceful protest, when over 90 people were arrested after a splinter group broke off and headed toward Civic Center.

They ended Saturday’s rally with a call-and-response chant that seemed to satisfy the crowd.

“What are we going to do,” began organizers atop the truck. “Stand up fight back!” responded the thousands of people who began to disperse.

– Marina Newman

1:30 p.m. Unions, jazz, and a disco ball at City Hall

The crowd was boisterous as the last of the protesters made their way to City Hall. A couple jazz musicians played trumpets as they turned down Market St., cheering and hollering.

A man on a bicycle invited families to take a ride on a seat inside a large disco ball. A sign on it read “Disco not dictators.”

At the Civic Center Plaza, representatives from labor groups and local activist organizations made speeches to a packed crowd, thousands strong.

“Let’s remember it is the workers and the immigrants who make this city and this country function. Not the billionaires, not the corporations, and most definitely not the king,” said Natalie Gee of IFPTE Local 21, the union that represents many city workers.

– Kelly Waldron and Marina Newman

12:25 p.m. Wheelchairs and crutches won’t keep protesters from Dolores Park

By noon, there were thousands of people in Dolores Park.

The march had grown so large, it was nearly at a standstill. Many people were forced to stand on the sidelines. Hundreds carried American flags, most upside down. Helicopters swirled overhead.

It took nearly an hour and a half to get the crowd moving towards City Hall.

A safety organizer reminded protesters to “keep it moving” and not to engage with police or sit down in the middle of the march. 

For Annika Racelis, 25, the crowd was a relief.

“I’ve heard it’s safer if it’s a large amount of people,” said Racelis. It’s her first protest: She said she wanted to support immigrants and Palestinians at risk of bombings. 

Several protesters with disabilities still came out, staying on the sidelines in their wheelchairs. 

One woman with crutches said her injury wasn’t going to stop her. “I’ll just sit on the bench,” she laughed. 

Around 12:30, SF Gate and NBC News reported, a driver struck protestors near Duboce Avenue and Guerrero Street and then fled the scene. The injuries were not life-threatening. It is not yet clear whether the act was intentional or politically motivated.

– Marina Newman

11:30 a.m. Fighting dictatorship with irreverence and free water on Dolores Street

Gael Fitzmurice stayed up until 3:30 a.m. finishing her poster. Standing this afternoon under Dolores Street palm trees, she and Fred Dortort said they hoped for a thunderstorm over President Donald Trump’s military parade in swampy Washington D.C.

Both Fitzmurice and Dortort remembered the Vietnam War protests of the sixties. While the war, and President Richard Nixon’s actions, were “horrible,” Dortort said, today’s issues are “more fundamentally serious.” 

“Nixon had never thought about being a dictator,” Dortort said. Trump “is attempting to overthrow democracy.” 

Modern protests also have a different feel from those of the sixties. These days, Fitzmurice observed, a “big party” draws young people out, and the signs are more clever than ever. 

This morning, Rachel Podolsky couldn’t find any paper in her house to make a poster. So she grabbed a mirror.

“We the people” she wrote using red lipstick and a white paint that turns purple in the sun, a nod to suffragettes and finding common ground.

Podolsky carried a speaker through Dolores Park, playing a Spotify playlist that included songs from 1776, Les Miserables, and Schoolhouse Rock’s rendition of “the Preamble.” 

Behind her people swung a Trump piñata and danced in an oversized Kim Jong Un mask. 

In the sea of irreverent signs — which included a man with “Trump” written on his bottom and a piece of cardboard that read “Eggs are so expensive because all the chickens are in congress” — Jim, a veteran and Mission District local, stood in the middle of Dolores Street with his fist raised. 

“My brothers and sisters died for this country,” he said. More veterans need to understand that they’re “taking our benefits away.” 

Meanwhile, a family passed out water bottles and granola bars outside their house as lines of protestors split and snaked around them. 

“Fuck ICE,” they’d written on a chalkboard. “Free water.” 

– Abigail Vân Neely

10 a.m. Human Banner on Ocean Beach

On Ocean Beach, a all hands on deck banner arose: A couple thousand demonstrators formed the words “No King!” with their bodies.

It was a big surge of people from even half an hour ago, when a few hundred people, many with coffee cups in hand, milled about the beach. Many held signs mocking President Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

One, Ed Sweeney, arrived at 7:30 a.m., drawn to an “entertaining, artistic and peaceful” way to protest. His message to the nation: “Go out and vote.”

There were plenty of dogs and a Saturday morning volleyball tournament not far off.

– Jose Alonso Velazquez

8:29 a.m. Protesters surround ICE building

At 7 a.m., a small cadre of demonstrators were already at 478 Tehema, an innocuous building in SoMa. By 7:45, the crowd had swelled to more than 100.

The Tehema building houses a detention alternative program of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — and, in an irregular move, a number of immigrants purportedly received short notice to report there this morning. Saturday appointments are a rarity and activists surmised it portended arrests and potential deportation actions. Texts and social media postings circulated last night and protesters showed up this morning.

Priya Patel, a supervising attorney with the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, was on the scene. She said that some of the immigrants who received notice to report to Tehama today were early in the asylum process. It’s uncertain how many were contacted and their cases were “all over the map.”

It’s an early start on a day of thousands of nationwide “No Kings” anti-Trump, anti-ICE protests coinciding with the lavish Washington, D.C. military parade the president has arranged to take place on his birthday.

Popular chants on early Saturday included “Get out of the way, ICE,” “Up with immigrants, down with ICE,” and “Chinga la migra” (Fuck Immigration”).

Kat Ogletree, 67, was one of the 100-plus marchers this morning. She said she was compelled to attend, despite being on vacation here from Texas, after reading articles about immigration authorities detaining nannies out with children.

Immigrants were told to report to 478 Tehama today between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. But, as of 9:45 a.m., the building remains closed. Lawyers on-scene are advising immigrants to take a photo of themselves on-site and upload it to the ICE app to prove they complied with the order. Then they should go home and call an attorney.

San Francisco police arrested hundreds of people at prior demonstrations this week in response to ICE courthouse detentions in the city. Mayor Daniel Lurie has been attempting to walk a fine line, criticizing destructive actions at those largely peaceful protests while tempering any criticism of the provocative federal actions underlying the protests.

This is a day-long event and we will be updating coverage throughout.

– Gustavo Hernandez and Margaret Kadifa