Despite the pouring rain and gloomy weather, thousands gathered in downtown Oklahoma City on a weekend morning to protest President Donald Trump’s policies.
Those in OKC joined an estimated thousands of others across Oklahoma, and millions across the nation in the “No Kings National Day of Defiance.” The June 14 protest coincided with Trump’s 79th birthday and the U.S. Army’s 250th Anniversary multimillion-dollar military parade, which took place in Washington, D.C.
“Indivisible Oklahoma is proud of its organizers who planned and executed peaceful rallies not only in Oklahoma City, but all over the state,” said Cindy Alexander, co-leader of Indivisible Oklahoma. “We are also proud of the thousands of Oklahomans, from all walks of life, who showed up to exercise their constitutional right of assembly and peacefully protest President Trump’s authoritarian overreach.”
Despite Gov. Kevin Stitt’s warnings that Oklahoma State Troopers would be ready to act if any violence broke out, Saturday’s protest was peaceful. Oklahoma City Police Sgt. Dillon Quirk said the department made no arrests, and he wasn’t aware of any issues that took place during the event.
Some protesters commented on the lack of a large, visible police presence at the event, suggesting it could be connected to how calm things were. It’s unclear if the police intended to reduce their visibility as a crowd control method.
When asked, Quirk said: “Our department prioritizes public safety during demonstrations to ensure rights of those protesting but to also ensure the event remains peaceful, safe, and orderly. The demonstration remained so.”
How many people attended the No Kings protest in OKC?
There were an estimated 8,500 to 10,000 people who attended Saturday’s No Kings OKC protest, including the one-mile march and rally at City Hall, said Indivisible Oklahoma spokesperson Kelly Summers.
While crowd numbers for un-ticketed events can only be estimates, Summers said the organization feels “comfortable” with those numbers after calculations were made by several organizers with experience estimating crowd-sizes.
Across the U.S., the American Civil Liberties Union, a part of the coalition that put on the demonstrations, said in a late Saturday, June 14 statement that more than five million people participated in over 2,100 rallies and protests.
Jeremy Pressman, the co-director of the Crowd Counting Consortium — a Harvard University and University of Connecticut project that estimates political crowds — told USA TODAY June 15 that it will take “some time” to complete an estimate on the “No Kings” rallies.
How does the No Kings OKC protest compare to past OKC protests?
If estimates are accurate, the No Kings OKC ranks as one of the largest protests in recent Oklahoma City history.
In 2020, an estimated 3,000 people marched to the Oklahoma State Capitol building on May 31, 2020, to protest police brutality following the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, according to KFOR. An estimated 15 to 26 million people protested over a series of multiple days nationwide.
Around 3,500 gathered for the 2018 March for Our Lives, according to NonDoc, as protesters marched to the Oklahoma State Capitol to advocate for gun control following the Parkland, Florida, school shooting.
In 2017, thousands also marched to the capitol for the Women’s March on Oklahoma, following Trump’s first inauguration. Estimates ranged between 7,000 and 12,000 attendees. An estimated 3.3 to 4.6 million participated nationwide.
How many people attended No Kings rallies across Oklahoma?
According to estimates from Indivisible Oklahoma, there were at least 12,745 participants in 23 “No Kings” rallies across the state.
Oklahoma City: 8,500 to 10,000
Tulsa: 5,000 between three separate protests
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC No Kings protest draws big crowds: How do past protests compare?