No Kings and No Arrests, Either

The majority of the No Kings protests have dispersed at this time and all traffic closures have been lifted.

We had more than 100,000 people across all five boroughs peacefully exercising their first amendment rights and the NYPD made zero protest-related arrests.

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) October 18, 2025

    We should take it as an article of faith that everything that comes out of a Republican's mouth is either a lie or a distortion of the truth. In the events leading up to today's No Kings protest, a larger sequel to last June's, Republicans like Mike Johnson said that the protests would be attended by America-hating activists, and even terrorists.

     Well, the NYPD, which was never accused of being as polite as the British Police, announced on their Twitter account that zero arrests had been made today. 100,000 people showed up in all five boroughs for the No Kings protests and not a single arrest had been reported. You'll be hearing much the same thing coming from other large, metropolitan centers across the country.

      Johnson's and the right wing's pre-emptive reaction to the No Kings protests across all 50 states was a typical knee jerk reaction of an authoritarian government getting wind of political opposition, however peaceful. This is what makes people like Johnson nervous. That the American people aren't on board with the Republican agenda that sends National Guardsmen and even Marines into American cities, that maybe we'd have a problem with a government that's already extrajudicially bombed six boats off the coast of Venezuela, killing at least 28 people.

     Republicans like to scream about "free speech" as long as they're the only ones that benefit from it. But the No Kings protests today was an exercise of not one but two fundamental first amendment rights- The freedom of speech and the freedom to peacefully assemble. Three, if you include the journalists who were there to document it.

     But today's protests that have already congealed into American history proves yet again that opposition to fascism does not equate with violence. There is no way that any Republican can equate today with January 6, 2021, the day that a fascist pretending to be a president sicced a mob of thousands to attack the seat of power and watched gleefully on TV as they attacked policemen. And all because he didn't like or accept the results of an election.

     Today showed what Americans will do with their constitutional rights if you just leave them alone and let them exercise them. Mike Johnson and other right wingers now need to shut the shut up, wipe the egg off their faces and slink back into the shadows where they belong. Or, better yet, maybe Republicans should show the fortitude the protesters did today and go back to work and reopen the government instead of slandering and sneering at their fellow Americans.