Chanting “fake emergency!” protesters gather around the Bay Area and in 256 other U.S. cities to oppose Trump’s emergency declaration.
People cluster in San Jose, Oakland, Walnut Creek to oppose Trump’s declaration
Demonstrators gathered on short notice at angry rallies across the Bay Area on Monday to condemn President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency on the border with Mexico.
Chanting “fake emergency!” on a day they dubbed “Not my President’s Day,” protesters clustered in San Jose, Oakland, Walnut Creek,
San Francisco and 256 other U.S. cities to oppose Trump’s declaration, announced on Friday.
Critics accuse Trump of manufacturing a crisis to access billions of dollars that Congress refused to authorize. His step already has drawn legal challenges and is widely seen as a test of the constitutional norms. On Monday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said he is preparing to file a lawsuit to contest the emergency declaration.
The crowds, organized by activist groups including Moveon.org and Indivisible organizations, demanded that Congress block Trump by passing a resolution under the National Emergencies Act, a federal allow that checks presidential powers.
Protest participants held homemade signs that read “Trump is the national emergency,” “The national emergency is the Oval Office” and “Fake president calls for a fake crisis. We call for B.S.”
“There’s not an emergency,” said Mara Privett, one of the co-founders of San Jose’s Orchard City Indivisible. “There’s not people coming that are trying to murder and maim United States citizens. There’s a humanitarian crisis in South America and that’s something we need to focus on, as the global leader, instead of throwing rocks at people.”
In San Francisco, around 300 people gathered in front of San Francisco’s federal building, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, has an office. Her daughter Christine Pelosi, an activist and political strategist, spoke at Monday’s event.
Pelosi urged the crowd to contact newly elected senators in order to protect the Robert Mueller investigation by asking them to co-sponsor legislation to overturn the “fake national emergency.”
“You have to be loud, you have to be strong,” Pelosi said to the crowd.
At Oakland’s Lake Merritt, more than 200 people gathered on a grassy slope to spell the word “WALL” with a blue “X” through it
— meant to be visible to the vantage point of a news helicopter and a drone.
Joined by dozens holding a 50-foot-by-30-foot American flag, the demonstrators held “Resist”-emblazoned fliers, chanted “No Wall” and helped form what organizer Brad Newsham called possibly the first human banner in Oakland. Newsham has organized similar functions in San Francisco and Berkeley.
San Jose protesters marched across the busy intersection of Winchester and Stevens Creek boulevards, crossing with signs with inscriptions that relayed their displeasure with Trump and his efforts to build the wall. As they crossed the intersection with each green light, the group chanted different slogans, such as “no emergency, no wall” and “no wall, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.”
Others rallied in Walnut Creek, where 100 protesters demonstrated at the corner of Main Street and Mt. Diablo Boulevard with signs, chants and songs as drivers sounded their horns in support.
“What brings me here is our president,” said Concord resident Cindy Scheinberg, who protested with fellow members of the Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church while holding a sign reading “Jail to the Chief.”
“We want to let our government know we find it unacceptable,” she said.
The protests — also held in Washington, D.C.; Boston; New York; Chicago, as well as many smaller communities, from central Ohio to Fort Worth, Texas — were peaceful, without reported arrests. Trump spent the day at Florida’s Mar-a-Lago.
“We pulled this together in 48 hours,” Oakland’s Newsham said of the noontime rally.
Albany resident Sierra Gribble took her 8-yearold daughter to the demonstration, where they both helped unfurl the flag.
“We wanted to be involved in a peaceful demonstration against this presidency and its policies,” Gribble said. “It’s outrageous how resources are being spent in such an irresponsible manner. I stand against the president’s fake national emergency crisis and illegal power grab.”
In San Jose, many holiday motorists driving through the busy intersection near Santana Row and Westfield Valley Fair Mall honked their horns in support of the protesters. But there were opponents, as well, with at least one driver booing the group and another raising a middle finger.
Isaias and Doris Bardales of San Jose attended the protest with their 14-year-old niece Analysse Macias, and their two children, 4-year-old Yurixy and 7-year-old Isaias.
“I thought it was important that we got involved,” said Doris Bardales, 42, a healthcare administrator in San Jose, who joined the several hundred protesters at the South Bay march. “It feels like there’s a lot of fear tactics and hate. For me, it was important that my kids know that we can stand up to that.”
Isaias Bardales, an East San Jose native, also wanted the protest to serve as a teaching moment for his kids.
“Just to teach them the right way of doing things, here in the United States and here in San Jose as well,” said Isaias Bardales, 39, a full-time club soccer coach who also works for a venture company.
The San Francisco rally featured several speakers from various Bay Area organizations, as well as music. Emma’s Revolution, an activist singing duo, performed songs including one with lyrics “Nobody is above the law,” and a protest sing-a-long.
Cecile Pineda, 86, of Berkeley was among the crowd, dressed in bright pink and holding her handmade sign that read “Resist” and “No ban, beds, wall.” She said she there to protest because of the “constitutional crisis of “Trump De-dumpity” and the power he has to “do anything he wants.”
In Walnut Creek, demonstrators dotted all four corners of the intersection, chanting various slogans, among them “Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! To the Wall we say, ‘No!’ ” and “Fake Emergency. Racist Wall. We Won’t Stand for it All.”
In the midday sun, some carried angry signs urging “Protect Mueller” and “Trump is the Emergency!”
Others were creative. A man wearing an Uncle Sam hat played a guitar and sang to the tune of the Chuck Berry classic, belting out the lyrics: “No, No! No, Donald, No, No Wall!, Donald The Chump.”
“You don’t get many days — other than an election — where you can really make your voice heard over an issue,” said Elizabeth Parrott, a Walnut Creek protester, “and this is one of them.”