Nationwide “No Kings’ Protest Starts Tomorrow And Local Organizers Are Prepared

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) — On Saturday, over 1,500 ‘No Kings’ protests are scheduled all across the nation. In North Dakota, ten of those protests will be taking place across the state.

“Every single time we do one of our events, somebody shows up who says, I’ve never done anything like this before, but I’m scared. I’m worried, I’m afraid of what might happen. And they show up. And I think that’s exactly what happened across the state,” said Lyn Dockter-Pinnick, Local Organizer.

Dockter-Pinnick works with the League of Women Voters of the Red River Valley and several other groups. She said that there are many concerns that protesters are standing for. Some of which include farmers worried about tariffs, international students not knowing if they will be allowed to go to school, and recent cuts to the VA.

“There’s a lot of false narratives about who we are and what we’re doing. We’re not paid protesters, we’re not outside agitators. We’re citizens of North Dakota, Minnesota, and the Red River Valley who are legitimately concerned about the impact of these policies on us,” said Dockter-Pinnick.

Over the last week in Los Angeles, protests and riots rose with the ongoing immigration raids. Many protesters took to the streets to peacefully assemble, but events took a swift turn as law enforcement officials, the National Guard, and Marines were deployed to stop the march.

While Fargo has previously joined in the nationwide protests peacefully, concerns have risen over safety.

“We’ve done a lot of training, all of our safety volunteers, and we’ll have at least twenty safety volunteers present, have taken de-escalation training. I’ve taken de-escalation training in preparation for this. And if we can’t de-escalate something that occurs tomorrow, we’ll simply evacuate,” said Dockter-Pinnick.

The protest in Fargo will begin tomorrow at 1 pm at City Hall.