Saturday was a beautiful day in South Florida with ocean breezes, plenty of sunshine and cool temperatures. A perfect day for a March to protest Trump’s policies and to exercise my right to Freedom of Assembly. I left my home early in Fort Lauderdale and drove the 48 minutes north to West Palm Beach. As I had never been there before, I was afraid I would not find parking. But there was plenty to be had and it was only five bucks where I had parked a couple of blocks from Trump Plaza where the march was to assemble. I had driven the Atlantic side of Palm Beach but never ventured into the city itself. The inner city was as rich as the Atlantic side and with many homes just as large.
One of my first sights of protestors were these two little cuties who had a great time as everybody seemed to want a picture of them.
Although there were thousands of creative signs, this woman’s sign made my day.
This image show’s the space that was available to us for marching. This was at it’s widest point. Further down the march route if we had 6’ feet to navigate I would have been surprised. I suspect this ribbon of protesters extended for a couple of miles, if as estimated, 3000 people were in attendance.
We started the march with chants of protest and promises to protect those of us who are in grave danger from the current administration. But once we got at this point the chants thundered off the underpass walls. It was awesome!
As the evening turned to darkness, the creativity of the marchers came out. Folks used glow sticks, flashlights and other items high lighting their signs and flags as we were plunged into darkness due to marching along the waterfront and residential neighborhoods.
Apparently, some of the local residents were very worried that we would destroy their properties and were a threat to their very survival. There was no need to be so paranoid. I didn’t even see any litter and due to the insistence of the residents to the City of W Palm Beach port-a-potties were provided along the route so that the marchers would have a place to relieve themselves. I like to think that that action was a kind gesture to the multitudes of people rather than a concern for folks relieving themselves in their bushes and behind their cars. Either way people were very grateful as this was a long and tiring march, almost 3 miles there and 3 miles back.
Our first barricade was a construction site at the bridge to Mar a Lago. These barriers stopped the flow and some of the more able bodied protestors were able to climb over them. The rest of us walked a little further west and were able to get to the bridge entrance. The barricade caused a back up and organizers with bullhorns asked people to turn back.
Marchers were told to not cross the bridge. It is not safe, they said, the Secret Service and other militarized forces would be there and that the organizers would not be able to protect us. Most turned around and walked the long trek back to Trump Plaza and their cars. About 700 of us decided that we were going to march over the bridge anyway. But there was no need for concern because the police that I had asked stated that there was no problem with crossing the bridge. So we did, chanting all the way.
Standing on the construction barricade.
Should we stay or cross the bridge?
Who’s bridge? Our bridge! We continue to Mar a Lago.
After passing roughly 30 beer guzzling Trump supporters we arrived at the final barricade. The police spotlight lit up the darkness. We were yards away from one of the side entrances to the palace. Here our chants increased in volume. There was plenty of security there, but apparently they decided it was not enough.
Perhaps this sign scared them? You can see the spotlight that was used by the military presence.
This is as close as I got. SWAT arrived with an intimidating arsenal, machine guns, and a sound blaster among other weaponry. The sound blaster was on top of the truck below, and they turned it up so we could hear the static. I was thinking to myself that if they used that than there would be a stampede threatening the lives of men women and children that were peacefully assembled there in a very small space.
Than they brought in fire trucks (were they going to use water cannons on us?) and more SWAT forming a line in front of us. Lot’s of creative chants were screamed and one in particular chant “Pussy Grabs Back!” , made at least one SWAT member force back a guffaw from his stone faced expression.
The Mar a Lago entrance is where the orange barrel is to the left of the image. The only decent view of the entire palace was from the mainland.Some guests in tuxedos came out the door in what I can only assume was an attempt to speak to the security forces on concerns about their safety. Maybe the 1% actually heard us loud and clear after all.
On my way back I noticed that security had cut off hundreds of marchers from each other. There was another chanting crowd 50 yards or so from the frontline group of protestors that I was with. They too had been blocked by heavily armed men. To the surprise of the SWAT members and police assembled they were thanked by us as we walked past them to exit the bridge. There was no violence, no arrests and other than Trump supporters doing their best to provoke us, they failed, and we proved to the media and the local residents that we were a peaceful movement and that we are not afraid and they shouldn’t be either.
More pictures and plenty of awesome video can be seen here.
Since Trump has declared Mar a Lago the “Winter White House” I suspect that I will be making the short journey north many times this winter.
The Florida Women’s march took this event over as the original organizer began to have doubts and became overwhelmed by the anticipated turnout of thousands of people by cancelling the event. I feel that the bizarre cancellation move, and even more importantly, the false news that we could not cross the bridge kept thousands of potential protestors to stay at home. Women were out in force leading the resistance. I felt this video was an appropriate way to honor the critical role they are playing in the resistance.
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