{"id":16068,"date":"2025-10-18T22:58:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T22:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/residents-celebrate-solidarity-warn-of-authoritarianism-at-no-kings-protests-in-durango-and-bayfield\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:53:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:53:29","slug":"residents-celebrate-solidarity-warn-of-authoritarianism-at-no-kings-protests-in-durango-and-bayfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/residents-celebrate-solidarity-warn-of-authoritarianism-at-no-kings-protests-in-durango-and-bayfield\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents celebrate solidarity, warn of authoritarianism at No Kings protests in Durango and Bayfield"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=0ac6e967-c118-5e92-b3d2-70632ef8fe62&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1455\" alt=\"Inflatable characters lead a dance party of around 3,000 people on Saturday during a No Kings Day rally in Rotary Park. Protesters were largely cheerful, although they focused on a serious message about threats to democracy coming from the Trump administration. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Inflatable characters lead a dance party of around 3,000 people on Saturday during a No Kings Day rally in Rotary Park. Protesters were largely cheerful, although they focused on a serious message about threats to democracy coming from the Trump administration. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>After the Trump administration painted peaceful protesters and Democrats as enemies of the U.S., protesters in La Plata County responded by throwing a dance party in Durango and jamming out to upbeat tunes in Bayfield.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XjcbLSHSChw\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Despite welcoming and sometimes jovial vibes, a government shutdown, threats of selling off public lands and the erosion of democracy were on the minds of Durango and Bayfield residents on Saturday for No Kings Day of Peaceful Protests against the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 7 million Americans had marched and protested in defiance of the Trump administration at more than 2,700 peaceful rallies around the country on Saturday, according to NoKings.org.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=dc5d586b-c368-5b56-adad-50c75cd959ca&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" alt=\"After the No Kings rally in Rotary Park, participants on Saturday lined Main Avenue from 15th Street to almost 32nd Street holding signs and chanting slogans. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">After the No Kings rally in Rotary Park, participants on Saturday lined Main Avenue from 15th Street to almost 32nd Street holding signs and chanting slogans. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Saturday morning in Bayfield, 200 or more people congregated along both sides of Bayfield Parkway outside Town Hall. That afternoon in Durango, thousands danced in Rotary Park and denounced the Trump administration before marching on north Main Avenue to 32nd Street and back.<\/p>\n<p>At least 3,000 people turned out to Rotary Park in Durango, with more in the wings on the Animas River Trail and along north Main Avenue. They carried signs with phrases such as, \u201cSpeak truth to power,\u201d \u201cStop the reign of error\u201d and \u201cWhen tyranny becomes law rebellion becomes duty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many protesters appeared cheery and in good spirits. In Durango, Dan King rallied the crowd and invited the people to dance to music such as Plastic Ono Band\u2019s \u201cGive Peace a Chance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some people wore inflatable costumes of pandas, unicorns, velociraptors, Rex from \u201cToy Story,\u201d and a frog wearing a bandanna.<\/p>\n<p>The frog costume may have been a reference to recent protests in Portland where <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/local\/portland\/2025\/10\/14\/portland-ice-protest-inflatable-costumes\" id=\"link-983bd9a80bacf060c1906f1f49542ea2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">protesters wore vibrant costumes and danced<\/a> tauntingly in front of immigration officials, presenting a different picture than the White House\u2019s description of Portland as a \u201cwar zone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=085c48ae-954a-5b3f-933f-8be12978260f&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" alt=\"More than 200 people participated in the No Kings Day rally on Saturday in front of the Bayfield Town Hall. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">More than 200 people participated in the No Kings Day rally on Saturday in front of the Bayfield Town Hall. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Some protesters carried red and black anarchism flags, and two people activated smoke bombs that sprayed thick red clouds into the air as the crowd dispersed, some toward downtown and others to march on north Main Avenue.<\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-element naviga-subheadline1\">Bayfield residents speak their minds<\/div>\n<p>In Bayfield, resident Laurie Robinson played her bagpipes as she walked up and down the sidewalk outside Town Hall. A man standing across the road dipped two long sticks linked by rope into a soapy bucket, lifted the sticks above his head and spread them apart to let the wind blow large, glossy bubbles into the air.<\/p>\n<p>Another woman wearing a different frog costume carried portable speakers playing upbeat music, including Neil Diamond\u2019s \u201cSweet Caroline,\u201d Los Del R\u00edo\u2019s \u201cMacarena\u201d and Sublime\u2019s \u201cWhat I Got.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She carried a sign that read, \u201cUnited we ribbit, divided we croak.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The woman declined to provide her name, saying she is an employee of the U.S. Forest Service.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have been waiting to do this,\u201d she said, referring to proposed sales of public lands to private buyers. \u201cThey, as the billionaires, can make more and more money off this, and that\u2019s what they\u2019ve been waiting (for). But this is our land. I\u2019m a public landowner. You are a public landowner.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said letting private industries take unchecked control will lead to public lands being degraded and destroyed. Or, she added, public lands will become an amenity for the wealthy and unaffordable for working Americans.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=8dc447eb-644c-5aa4-912c-5f245f544a9c&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" alt=\"Judy Blaisdell \u201cwhips\u201d a king, her husband, Bob Blaisdell, during a No Kings Day rally on Saturday in front of Bayfield Town Hall. She said Pine River Rising, an activist group, has protested the Trump administration outside Town Hall since March, and she hopes to start productive community conversations to heal division between Americans. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Judy Blaisdell \u201cwhips\u201d a king, her husband, Bob Blaisdell, during a No Kings Day rally on Saturday in front of Bayfield Town Hall. She said Pine River Rising, an activist group, has protested the Trump administration outside Town Hall since March, and she hopes to start productive community conversations to heal division between Americans. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Public lands contain resources like timber and minerals the country can use \u2013 as long as they are extracted wisely, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur country is falling into authoritarianism,\u201d she said, adding America\u2019s degradation of democracy mirrors what happened to Germany with the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.<\/p>\n<p>Influence over the free press, control of free speech and educational institutions, and deploying the military into cities over domestic issues are all similarities she drew between the contemporary U.S. and Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=addff195-eccb-584b-8817-f426c24e21cc&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" alt=\"Jenny Winegardner participates in the No Kings Day rally in Bayfield on Saturday. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Jenny Winegardner participates in the No Kings Day rally in Bayfield on Saturday. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>She said the Holocaust \u2013 the state-sponsored and systematic murder of 6 million Jews and millions of other people \u2013 was awful and she does not mean to take away from its significance \u2013 but she fears the U.S. is heading down a similar path.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=74d2ae2f-c393-5275-981f-5a59cf3ae758&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" alt=\"More than 200 people participated in the No Kings Day rally on Saturday in front of the Bayfield Town Hall. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">More than 200 people participated in the No Kings Day rally on Saturday in front of the Bayfield Town Hall. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>She said she recently visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and the similarities were \u201cshocking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Holocaust and mass murder did not materialize from nowhere, she said. It started with persecution.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=ce7c760e-6074-5f2a-8faa-37ff986bfbb8&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" alt=\"Laurie Robinson plays her bagpipes during the No Kings Day rally on Saturday in front of the Bayfield Town Hall. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Laurie Robinson plays her bagpipes during the No Kings Day rally on Saturday in front of the Bayfield Town Hall. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>\u201cWe\u2019re sending people with no due process to foreign countries and foreign prisons, just like Germany did,\u201d she said. \u201cThey started in Poland with their concentration camps, and they didn\u2019t start with camps. They started with these laws to slowly degrade democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bayfield resident Judy Blaisdell, a member of the Pine River Rising activist group, said she\u2019s been protesting outside Town Hall since March.<\/p>\n<p>She is saddened and fearful for the country, she said, because it\u2019s fraught with division.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=c371c036-cbe6-53f8-9d74-7faaefd40525&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" alt=\"More than 200 people participated in the No Kings Day rally on Saturday in front of the Bayfield Town Hall. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">More than 200 people participated in the No Kings Day rally on Saturday in front of the Bayfield Town Hall. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>\u201cPeople identifying our groups as terrorists, that is very frightening to me,\u201d she said. \u201cWatching our friends and neighbors be dragged away. There have been a lot of people arrested in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She was referencing continued arrests of people suspected to be undocumented immigrants by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as well as statements made by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday ahead of the countrywide No Kings demonstrations.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=b6a75660-faf2-5957-93b6-18d1cd54769a&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" alt=\"Todd Anderson rings the bell in front of the Bayfield Town at the start of the No Kings Day rally in Bayfield on Saturday. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Todd Anderson rings the bell in front of the Bayfield Town at the start of the No Kings Day rally in Bayfield on Saturday. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>\u201cThe Democrat Party\u2019s main constituency are made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens and violent criminals,\u201d Leavitt said in an interview on Fox News.<\/p>\n<p>Leavitt is wrong, Blaisdell said.<\/p>\n<p>Blaisdell said Pine River Rising is nonpartisan and aims to build community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re just a group of people that care about what\u2019s going on in the world, and we care about each other, particularly our neighbors,\u201d she said. \u201c \u2026 We\u2019d like to start a conversation with anyone that wants to talk to us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=009179b8-3206-57b2-99a3-4743fb1a2d47&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" alt=\"La Plata County Commissioner Elizabeth Philbrick speaks to about 3,000 people on Saturday during the No Kings rally in Rotary Park. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">La Plata County Commissioner Elizabeth Philbrick speaks to about 3,000 people on Saturday during the No Kings rally in Rotary Park. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><div class=\"naviga-element naviga-subheadline1\">Elected officials warn of authoritarianism, encourage \u2018community over contempt\u2019<\/div>\n<p>In Durango, elected officials and former officials spoke to a crowd in Rotary Park that spilled onto the Animas River Trail and onto the sidewalk along north Main Avenue.<\/p>\n<p>Rick Petersen, a Durango School Board member who is seeking reelection, spoke about the importance of preserving education and protecting students. He decried attempts to smear DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not an acronym, it\u2019s not a buzz word, it\u2019s not a dirty word,\u201d he said. \u201cDiversity of community benefits from a diverse population with many experiences. Every human being wants to feel included, wants to feel safe. That\u2019s what this school district is about. Equity for every single person.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>School board members Erika Brown and Andrea Parmenter, who are also seeking reelection, stood by Petersen.<\/p>\n<p>La Plata County Commissioner Elizabeth Philbrick spoke about the fall of democracy. Without explicitly mentioning the president, she said the Trump administration is following an authoritarian playbook to divide communities, override constitutional protections and take power.<\/p>\n<p>She said authoritarian regimes across the world and throughout history have attacked free press and spread disinformation, degraded independent institutions by installing loyalists, scapegoated people to turn them against their neighbors, and expanded their powers while dismantling free and fair elections.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=10982ca5-45fa-5dc9-ad88-3b8cc4ce5c91&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" alt=\"Around 3,000 people attended the No Kings rally on Saturday in Rotary Park. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Around 3,000 people attended the No Kings rally on Saturday in Rotary Park. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Protesters on the gazebo at Rotary Park held signs with white text against black backdrops that read \u201cSigns of fascism\u201d in underlined text and messages beneath such as \u201cVoter suppression,\u201d Controlling the media\u201c and \u201cPersecuting minorities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou will find a scapegoat, whether it is a minority, an immigrant or a political rival, they are the problem,\u201d Philbrick said, delivering a civics crash course on authoritarianism. \u201cThere is no owning any of the mistakes, the leader will not do that. They become the self-proclaimed savior, defending the real people against imagined enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-3101caecf3484f7434942e122d5363ed\"><a href=\"mailto:cburney@durangoherald.com\">cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-ff91d3362a1562f0d0f354dc9550f668\">A previous version of this article gave an incorrect name for Dan King, who led chants at Rotary Park in Durango, and Rick Peterson, a speaker and Durango School Board member.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Peaceful gatherings for protection of democracy, immigrants, public lands and institutions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[731,1137,950,510,896,28,265,316],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bayfield","tag-donald-trump","tag-durango","tag-festive-event-including-carnival","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-politics","tag-video"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16068"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19998,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16068\/revisions\/19998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16068"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}