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PHOTOS: Protestors gather in Frisco Saturday for ‘No Kings’ protest against Trump administration policies

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Matt Hutcheson

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"No Kings" protests were held across the country on Saturday, June 14, against the policies of the Trump administration. A large crowd gathered for a protest held in downtown Frisco.
Matt Hutcheson/Summit Daily News

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional information from a local organizer of the protest and to correct that June 14 was the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday.

Protestors gathered on and near Main Street in Frisco on Saturday to take part in a “No Kings” protest. “No Kings” rallies were planned across the country on Saturday by opponents of President Donald Trump’s administration.

The “No Kings” protests were planned as a response to President Donald Trump’s policies and a military parade in Washington, D.C. Saturday, which the Trump administration claimed is to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, Flag Day and Trump’s 79th birthday.

A large crowd congregated at the intersection of Main Street and Colorado Highway 9 in Frisco for the protest, chanting and holding signs criticizing Trump administration policies on immigration, public land and more. In Frisco’s Triangle Park, speakers including Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie and Summit County commissioner Nina Waters showed support for the rally.

McCluskie used her time, surrounded by protestors who ventured from the side of Highway 9 and Main Street to listen, to speak against political violence, referencing the killing earlier Saturday of Democratic former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. Minnesota Sen. John Hoffman, also a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, were injured in an attack police believe was perpetrated by the same suspect.

“Today, I lost a cherished colleague — the Speaker of the House, Melissa Hortman, and her husband. We are devastated by the level of political violence that we see in the world today. What happened today is a chilling effect that occurs because of the hateful rhetoric and vitriol that has been spread from our President, starting in 2016,” McCluskie said.

“Today, we need to take it all back with love,” she continued.

Waters praised the Summit County community and issued a call to action.

“I want to thank you all for showing up today and exercising your First Amendment rights that were given to us in the Constitution … This is what resistance looks like,” Waters said to cheers from the crowd. She called on attendees to continue the protest and remain involved by attending town council and county commission meetings, creative acts and lending a helping hand to senior citizens and veterans.

Breckenridge local Emily Gilbert said that the Frisco protest was organized by a group of local women in coordination with 50501 Movement, the organization that coordinated the protests nationwide.

“We’re not really an official organization, we’re more a group of private citizens concerned about the country and our community,” Gilbert said of the women who organized the protest.

Gilbert said that although the group did not get an official count of the number of attendees at the rally Saturday, she’s heard estimations ranging from 500 to over 1,000.

“We were just really encouraged to see such a large group of people … There have been other protests prior to this one with reasonable turnouts, but this was definitely the largest,” she said.

The “No Kings” rallies were organized in nearly 2,000 locations nationwide, including cities, towns, and community spaces, according to Associated Press reporting.

“Today, across red states and blue, rural towns and major cities, Americans stood in peaceful unity and made it clear: we don’t do kings,” the No Kings Coalition said in a statement Saturday afternoon.

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