"No Kings" protesters packed the Reservoir Road sidewalk in Woodstock for two hours Saturday morning. This event, while one of an estimated 2,600 gatherings across the country that day, was also part of a seven month streak of weekly demonstrations here against the Trump administration. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
[car honks, cheers]
More than 500 people carried pro-democracy and anti-Trump signs and waved American flags, according to a count by protest organizers. Sen. Mark Warner also made an appearance. This site in Woodstock, at the I-81 overpass, has been the location of protests every week since early March. Protesters did draw the ire of state police here and on the Quicksburg bridge earlier this year, as WMRA previously reported. Those incidents resulted in one woman with a loitering citation and two people with misdemeanor criminal charges, which they are fighting in court and say stemmed from unlawful orders against peaceful protest.
Joan Griffin, the one cited for allegedly loitering in late August, was back out there on Saturday.
JOAN GRIFFIN: The only way we're going to end all of this is enough of us have to say no. And this is my way of saying no.
While local and state police vehicles were present on Saturday, there were no altercations between demonstrators and officers. Organizer Mark Pierce, a retired emergency department physician, said he was in contact with the local police.
DR. MARK PIERCE: I just had a call a few minutes ago from Officer Baker, with the Woodstock Police Department. Somebody had complained about somebody blowing bubbles that are getting on people's windshields as they go by. So I've already passed the word there, and I'm going to go down here and make sure we stop the bubbles.
In accordance with the Virginia Department of Transportation signs erected in late August, protesters could cross the overpass bridge, but not stand on it.
PIERCE: The reason we are out here is to give a message, loud and very clear, to Donald Trump et. al., that we are not his subjects. We are not his property. We are not his subjects.
Honks of support came from a wide array of vehicles driving by, including a Ford Ranger towing a hydraulic wood splitter, a cement mixer truck, an all-electric Hyundai, a Ram 3500 pulling a horse trailer, and a Honda minivan, to name a few.
Other drivers flashed middle fingers and jeered. More than 70% of Shenandoah County voters cast their ballots for President Donald Trump last year.
DRIVER: Get out of America!
PROTESTER: We all love America!
Kurt Weitz was there in an orange safety vest, helping people cross the road.
KURT WEITZ: I'm a veteran and I'm out here upholding my constitutional duty, to protect the constitution and the country. … One thing that we've seen over time is, progressively, we've had more and more positive responses, and the people that are in the middle, teetering on the edge, those are the ones we want to reach.
Rosanne Penningroth is a county resident who's been to around 20 of the Saturday protests. Reproductive rights are one of her top issues.
ROSANNE PENNINGROTH: I had more rights in my life than my daughter and now my granddaughter have, and I'm fighting so that they have the rights that I had growing up. … Our rights are being stripped away every day, and I feel helpless, because the Supreme Court is not helping us, to do anything about it. So this is my way of getting out there, showing support for my country, and as I said, for my family, my daughter, and my granddaughter.
Michelle House moved here from Arlington 12 years ago.
MICHELLE HOUSE: I've never realized how much I loved my country until it's been threatened like this, and I think with resistance, I know – I have great hope, I have great joy – I think we're going to make it. We're going to pull through this and we're going to be a stronger nation because of the resistance.
PROTESTERS: Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go!
Another demonstrator, Ceci, declined to give a last name. Ceci held a sign with lyrics from the song "Which Side Are You On," written by Florence Reece in the 1930s about the Harlan County War between unionizing miners and the coal companies and law enforcement. It was later popularized by Pete Seeger.
CECI: Appalachia has long been a place where working class and poor people and families like mine have been attacked and targeted and taken advantage of by capitalists and by people in positions of power, and it's really important for us to acknowledge, are you on the side of capitalists? Are you a scab? Or are you going to stand up for workers' rights? Are you going to stand up for the poor and the working class and queer people and women and children and immigrants and the people who keep this country functioning?
Some participants wore costumes such as jesters, cows, or – in Dan Kreider's case – a banana.
DAN KREIDER: Just trying to bring attention to what should appeal to all of our people in this country that we're being taken advantage of, and we're losing control of our democracy.
Other No Kings protests in our broadcast region took place in Harrisonburg, Staunton, Lexington, and Charlottesville.
