YAKIMA, Wash. – Thousands of people gathered at Yakima Valley Mall to participate in the second No Kings protest, challenging the Trump administration. The event was part of a nationwide movement with over 2,500 protests across the country, including in Central Washington.
Yakima Indivisible volunteers emphasized that the message of the day was about unity.
“There’s so many things that we agree upon that we should be searching for those things and believing that you can be frustrated later about the budget or whatever. But saving democracy is important,” said Scott Dolquist, steering community chair of the chapter. He explained the goal of the demonstration.
“We’re trying to begin to look at how we bridge the divide, how we talk more civilly to each other and because we’re not going to do this by becoming more and more isolated. And so, we’re hoping to connect more than divide,” Dolquist said.
Judy Triggs, a Yakima resident, shared her perspective on the protests.
“This is the way America feels. And I think that not enough people believed it until they saw something like this because people were afraid to say anything,” she said.
Judy and her brother Terry Marshall, long-time residents of Yakima, believe that the local community is significantly impacted by national policies.
“We have a lot of people that take care of the agriculture that are being shipped out,” Terry said. “There’s a lot of low-income people that need insurance and need the SNAP and the different resources and programs for the children also,” Judy added.
The last No Kings protest took place in June, and Dolquist noted the rapid emergence of what he called undemocratic policies.
“Every day people see something that feels less and less like the democracy we thought we had. And I think it’s surprising people have that the level of policies and changes keeps coming at us pretty fast. And I don’t think people were expecting that. And so, I believe that’s what’s really pushing people to do more,” Dolquist said.
Despite the large turnout, the protest remained peaceful with minimal counter-protesters. Dolquist stressed the importance of maintaining peace.
“This has to be peaceful. And we want to make this easy for law enforcement, not difficult. And so they’ve been terrific. And I think it’s because we built bridges with them and said we will do everything we can to make this easy for you and not cause a problem for you,” Dolquist said.
Dolquist says that Yakima Indivisible is not only about protests. He mentioned that they also offer trainings on de-escalation and provide information on how the government works.
