Dozens of No Kings Protests are set to take place across Colorado on Saturday, but local police expect them to be peaceful.
Organized by 50501, a U.S.-based political organization founded to protest the policies and actions of the second Trump administration, the No Kings Day of Defiance aims to counter a lavish military parade in Washington, D.C., celebrating the Army’s 250th anniversary and Flag Day, which also happens to be the president’s 79th birthday.
The parade will feature military vehicles, aircraft and thousands of soldiers as well as fireworks, NFL players and concerts. The Army anticipates the event will cost anywhere from $25 to $45 million.
More than 2,000 No Kings Day protests are planned to take place simultaneously nationwide.
“The flag doesn’t belong to President Trump. It belongs to us,” the website says. “On June 14th, we’re showing up everywhere he isn’t — to say no thrones, no crowns, no kings.”
Organizers of the Denver protest, which begins at noon, anticipate 10,000 attendees. Smaller protests are planned in at least 30 other locations.
The rationale for these events is different than those earlier in the week, which were targeted at protesting immigration enforcement.
For Saturday, police departments in Denver, Parker and Grand Junction told CPR News they are expecting the protests themselves to be peaceful. Outside agitators, however, can lead to violence.
That’s what happened June 10 when an offshoot of Denver’s Anti-ICE protest, self-described as anarchists, along with others, separated from the main group assembled on the Capitol lawn and spilled onto 14th and Lincoln.
That less organized group then marched south down Lincoln Street and Broadway, eventually meeting a police line near I-25. The assembly was deemed unlawful because the group’s continued march would have obstructed traffic.
“People have the right to protest in public, on public streets and sidewalks in front of government buildings,” said local personal injury and civil rights attorney Shelbi Danner. “Where the line really is drawn is that you cannot obstruct traffic or pedestrian traffic. So if a police officer is ordering you to get out of the street to let traffic through, you should follow those orders, but you’re still able to protest on the sidewalks.”
That precondition is often what allows for police engagement with protestors, regardless of whether they are being peaceful. But local attorneys say there is a disconnect between the constitutional limits of police power and the training and policies of local police departments.
“The U.S. Supreme Court and the 10th Circuit (Court of Appeals) have been exceedingly clear about this particular issue. Police officers cannot use violent force against protestors who are committing nothing more than nonviolent misdemeanors, specifically impeding traffic,” said managing attorney at Denver’s Baumgartner Law, Birk Baumgartner. “This is the very heart of American protests. No protest during the civil rights era did not impede traffic. There must be a price on regular conduct of American life in order for protests to be effective.”
Baumgartner has represented multiple people in excessive use of force cases against the Denver Police Department, including Jax Feldmann, who lost his eye after being shot with a pepper ball during the 2020 George Floyd protests. The projectiles are filled with a powdered chemical that’s meant to irritate the eyes and nose and cause people to leave the area.
“The first thing that I would tell all protestors this weekend is to obey dispersal orders to avoid any violent conduct whatsoever,” he said. “It is not worth permanent lifelong scarring to engage.”
On June 10, DPD officers gave an order to disperse the crowd that had gathered near I-25 and Broadway, issuing multiple warnings before firing pepper balls and smoke canisters.
Seventeen people were arrested that night for charges including graffiti, interference with police, obstruction of streets, throwing projectiles, and second-degree assault on a police officer.
Danner said police orders to disperse, however, can sometimes be questionable. “It really depends on what the circumstances are in the moment. If violence is starting to occur, the police are able to order you to disperse from the area, but if it’s not violent, you have the right to be there and you have the right to make your voice heard,” she said. Police are also legally allowed to ask a crowd to disperse if they’re creating an immediate danger to the public.
Denver Police told CPR News in an email that the crowd control tactics used on June 10 were in line with changes made to their rules of engagement following violent arrests at the George Floyd protests. Those include transparent officer identification, better dispersal orders, tracking of less-than-lethal munitions and processes for documenting use of force during a protest.
A spokesperson for the department did confirm that tear gas is authorized in response to “defensive resistance”. Plastic and foam rounds are allowed in “response to active aggression”. The use of rubber ball grenades, however, was removed from DPD operations and crowd control manuals in 2021.
“It’s unfortunate that we are talking about using less lethal munitions. The main problem with the handling of the George Floyd protests is that the Denver Police Department does not understand the difference between crowd management and crowd control. There are almost always options to settle things down without deploying weapons of any kind,” Baumgartner said.
Police, however, insist that they are trying to balance free speech with preventing or stopping criminal acts.
“DPD’s approach to demonstrations is to allow people to march or gather peacefully, and to conduct traffic control to help ensure everyone’s safety — this has been evident in dozens of demonstrations since 2020, including in the early stages of the protest Tuesday. Generally speaking, assaultive, destructive, and/or highly dangerous behaviors prompt police intervention,” the spokesperson wrote.
Other police departments in cities hosting No Kings events declined to share what less-than-lethal munitions they might deploy on crowds that don’t follow police orders. But several said, as with every public event, they are working with organizers to ensure people can exercise their rights safely and peacefully.
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