By Julie BUTCHER

“We couldn’t not be here,” a Sparr Heights couple explained why they were attending Saturday’s No Kings rally in front of Glendale City Hall. “No one in the world is safe if the United States stops being a democracy.” 

Organizers estimate a crowd of 4,000 at the Glendale protest, one of 41 in Los Angeles County, one of an estimated 3,300 similar events in cities and towns across the country.

Organizers from Indivisible, co-sponsors of the event, celebrated the third No Kings event. 

“Yesterday was the largest single day of protest in modern U.S. history,” the organization wrote. “Across more than 3,300 protests, marches, and demonstrations in all 50 states and abroad, at least 8 million of us gathered to say: America is a democracy, not a dictatorship. This country does not belong to kings.

“Trump’s authoritarian regime wants us isolated, afraid and silent. Instead, in the face of tyranny, 8 million of us courageously took to the streets – loudly, nonviolently, powerfully and joyfully.”

Locally, people attended Saturday’s rally for a variety of reasons. 

One couple shared, “We’re both immigrants – and we know what a dictatorship looks like.” 

Another weighed in.

“I’m just so sick of Trump. The corruption is blatant: billionaires are doing better and better and working families are struggling to get by.”

A group of retired GUSD teachers from La Crescenta attended “to make our voices heard.”

“Do you know about the 3.5% rule?” one of the teachers asked. “It makes a difference. And it’s why I need to be here – even if I woke up with a headache.”

Wikipedia reports the 3.5% rule is a concept in political science that states that when 3.5% of the population of a country protest nonviolently against an authoritarian government, that government is likely to fall from power.

Rally participants lined Broadway and Glendale Avenue, urging passing cars to honk their support. Many did.

Others gathered in the courtyard behind city hall to listen to local politicians and candidates for local office. 

A local Glendale resident spoke about her 18-month-old niece

`“I don’t want her to know anything about any of this. None of it,” she said. “That’s why I’m here. For her.” 

“It may sound corny but I’m here to show my solidarity with everyone out here trying to defend democracy. It is my civic responsibility to participate in our country’s destiny,” a local retiree shared.

A young man attending the rally observed, “We’re here because we hate wars of choice and we love our neighbors.”

Organizers are planning the next action, a “general strike” on May 1: https://indivisible.org/events/may-day-strong-no-work-no-school-no-shopping/.