Sometimes they chanted. Sometimes they honked horns. Sometimes they sat on the grass on an unseasonably warm October afternoon and listened to speeches.
But they always had signs.
Signs protesting the masked ICE agents grabbing people off the streets. Signs protesting tariffs driving up costs on grocery store shelves. Signs protesting corruption and pardons and government shutdowns. Signs demanding the release of the Epstein files.
And at this new iteration of the No Kings rally, there were inflatable costumes everywhere, a nod to inflatable frogs protesting outside the ICE detention facility in Portland, Ore.
Judy from DeKalb County settled on an inflatable seahorse costume because “it fit.” She’d wanted an inflatable frog, but none were to be found.
“I was really inspired by the people of Portland using joy and laughter to express their views,” Judy said.
She came to the protest to support the Constitution, and American democracy.
No one paid her to be at the protests, and she figures she’ll come to protest again.
“I’m concerned about our country and people having the freedoms that we used to know,” she said.”
David Lawrence stood in front of the DeKalb County courthouse in his clerical collar. He is a Presbyterian pastor.
“I'm really bothered by an administration that clothes itself in Christianity that doesn’t seem to coincide with my beliefs of love, and welcome, and inclusivity,” he said.
From Albion to Decatur, the only difference in the protests was their size.
Fort Wayne’s covered the Allen County Courthouse Green, lining Clinton and Main streets on both sides for blocks and spilling over into the plaza at the Rousseau Center.
In Albion, Kim Murphy grabbed the megaphone as the hour-long event wrapped up. She urged those in attendance to not stop with just the marches and the protests.
Run for something, she told them, get on the ballot.
27-year old Ivy went to her second protest in Decatur on Saturday. She is Mexican, and disabled, and she is protesting because “Trump needs to be stopped.”
“He is taking away our rights,” she said.
A U-Haul truck stood alongside the Allen County Courthouse as protestors filled with toiletries to donate to area immigrants via Inasmuch Ministries.
Crowd estimates from Indivisible Fort Wayne were between 7,500 and 8,000 attendees. That is about 2,000 more than the last No Kings rally in June.
Fort Wayne-resident Pam Weir was wearing an inflatable chicken costume. She too was disappointed because she couldn’t get a frog.
She said she is not a protest person, or hadn’t been,
“I am protesting the government, so this is what I do now,” she said. “We are doing this, there is no nastiness or hatred. We’re laughing. And I think we are going to change things in the upcoming election. That’s what I’m here for.”
Freelance journalist Bob Caylor contributed to this story.
