Thousands of protests across the country took place today under the umbrella of the 'No Kings' movement.
This weekend's events took aim at what organizers call dramatic executive overreach by the Trump administration and were organized by the same groups behind April's 'Hands-Off' protests.
Individual No Kings protests were led by activists in their respective communities. Locally, groups like Rise Up Western Mass Indivisible and Swing Left Northampton planned a regional demonstration in Springfield.
Springfield
Jackie Neiman was one of organizers of that protest, she said Trump's operations against immigrants and abrupt firings of federal workers makes him more of a tyrant than an elected official.
"This current president does think he is king and is trying to exercise authority beyond which he has been constitutionally and oftentimes legally afforded," she said.
More than a thousand people gathered in Springfield lining State Street from the corner of Spring Street and down to Chestnut Street, surrounding the city's federal courthouse and central library.
Sen. Adam Gomez, D-Springfield, attended the event and said it's about defending democracy.
"When our communities are under attack, when a fascist regime is imposing their will without due process, kidnaping individuals off the streets," he said. "You know, if individuals like myself were to walk around in masks, we would be stopped by police and handcuffed under suspicion. We need to make sure that... we hold our elected officials, like myself, accountable and hold our feet to the fire. And this is what this is about."
Gomez said he has seen ICE agents in his neighborhood, trying to detain people who are on their way to work or dropping their children off at school.
"Because honestly, right now, our residents, especially the ones that have asylum or individuals that are that are legit here legally, we're trying to keep our families together," he said. "Especially the kids that need their mothers and their fathers and the ones that are actually paying taxes and paying rent and having committed not one crime."
Northampton
Holyoke residents Sheryl Quinn and Ann Wedaman attended the rally in Northampton.
Quinn came out on Saturday because she could not "just sit at home," she said. " I had to get out and do something. We have to be a group, we have to be together."
The women have mutual grandchildren and Wedaman said they came out, in part, for them.
"One of them was too frightened to come because she was worried that there might be shooting or something and I said no, we'll go for you," she said.
That grandchild, an 11-year-old, did help make the signs her grandmothers carried.
Wedaman grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas and said she fought for civil rights then and will do so again.
"It's just sad to watch all that changing again with this administration," she said. "I can't watch the way they treat immigrants or the way they treat other people."
"Wedaman said the event felt her feel encouraged.
"It's always good to see other people that feel the same way that we do, you know, and it's, it's really encouraging that there's a good turnout here and I hope there's a good turnout all around the country," she said.
John Bonifaz, a lawyer and activist, spoke at the Northampton rally.
"[There is] a bedrock principle that no one is above the law, not even the president of the United States," he said. "Our framers were clear when they established the Constitution. There would be no monarchs, no tyrants who would govern our nation, no kings in America."
In addition to the events in Springfield and Northampton, there were also protests held in many western Massachusetts communities including Easthampton, Greenfield, and North Adams.
NEPM's Phillip Bishop contributed to this report.
