Saturday’s planned “No Kings” event in Salt Lake City will have a volunteer safety team in place, but the group will not be armed, an event spokesperson said Tuesday.
The “No Kings Day of Action” event is scheduled to begin with a rally at the Capitol at 11 a.m on Saturday, according to a news release from DemCast, a national activist organization. The event is sponsored by Salt Lake Indivisible, an organization focused on electoral politics at all levels of government, in partnership with the Utah Progressive Caucus, Green Wave Utah and DemCast.
Organizers had planned for attendees to march to Washington Square Park after the rally, but protest leaders canceled the march Tuesday because they expect a larger crowd than safety volunteers could accommodate, Salt Lake Indivisible volunteer and DemCast political partnerships director Jamie Carter said.
The event is scheduled to take place a little over four months after Salt Lake City’s June 14 “No Kings” event ended in a shooting that left one protester dead. The organizers who were involved with that event are not affiliated with the Saturday demonstration, Carter said.
“The No Kings movement is part of a massive national effort, with over 2,500 events planned across the country, expected to surpass the last No Kings event and potentially become the largest peaceful protest in U.S. history,” Carter said in a statement. “... The movement is a peaceful, non-violent response to the administration’s authoritarian actions …”
Saturday’s event will have a safety team made up of volunteers who attended an in-person safety and de-escalation training with Freedom Trainers, Carter said, which is a group that teaches tools of “collective noncompliance” used by movements worldwide. All volunteers have also committed to not bring a weapon, Carter continued, and organizers are coordinating with the Utah Highway Patrol and Salt Lake City police to ensure a safe event.
“Our main goal,” Carter said, “is to bring people together in community.”
She added that the event will feature live music, a comedian and a potential dance party at the Capitol after the rally concludes.
“We’ve really tried to bring in a wide variety of organizations so people can really find their spot and who they connect with and what issues resonate with them,” she said, “but community is really what we want this event to be about — and a reminder that in America, power belongs to the people.”
A city spokesperson said Salt Lake City’s event permitting team is “working closely” with the Salt Lake City Police Department to “support the safety of participants, while also supporting their First Amendment rights.” Specific safety plans are not shared publicly, the spokesperson added.
The Police Department, meanwhile, is working closely with event organizers ahead of time, Sgt. Miles Southworth said.
“We do a lot of work behind the scenes to prepare for the event, and we’re going to staff it appropriately so that we’re prepared for all different possibilities,” Southworth added. “... We’re always just aiming to ensure the safety of everybody involved.”
The June 14 “No Kings” event was hosted by the local branch of 50501, a national movement formed in response to the “anti-democratic and illegal actions” of President Donald Trump’s administration.
In the days following the June protest, the national movement cut ties with the local chapter, stating that the Utah group disregarded the movement’s “nonnegotiable values,” including its strict no-weapons policy. The local group had used a team of armed safety volunteers, and one volunteer fired the shot that missed its intended target and killed 39-year-old Arthur Folasa Ah Loo.
To date, no charges have been filed in Ah Loo’s death.
“The team working the matter is actively engaged in exploring all options,” Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said in a statement Tuesday.
The volunteer who fired his weapon had shot at 24-year-old Arturo Gamboa when he saw Gamboa carrying an assault-style rifle. The volunteer fired three shots: one injured Gamboa, but another hit Ah Loo, who later died.
Police have not identified the shooter or accused him of wrongdoing.