BY STACIE LETT CAIN

More than 400 people gathered in Downtown Statesville on Saturday to peacefully protest the executive actions and policies of the Trump administration.

One of more than 2,000 “No Kings” demonstrations held across the United States, the local event drew enough protesters to fill the street corner in front of the Statesville Civic Center. A single counter-protester carrying a “Trump 2028” sign stood alone on the opposite side of the street.

A day after Statesville Police Chief David Onley warned that the SPD would have a “visible presence” and enforce state and local laws, officers were out in force for the event. There were no major issues and no arrests were made, Onley said Saturday evening. 

Adorned in red, white and blue, Troutman resident Julie Harrison was among the protesters.

“I believe the guardrails of our democracy are being abused and a lot of what this president is doing is unconstitutional,” she said. “If we don’t stand up now, we risk not having anything to stand up for.”

The protest, organized by Statesville resident Peggy Palmer, was part of a grassroots effort to bring like-minded people together to express their opposition to the Trump administration. In an email sent out to participants ahead of the event, Palmer outlined the expectations for protesters.

“The protest is expected to be peaceful,” the email read. “Peaceful, visual and strongly attended.”

Although SPD officers said they had expected fewer than 50 protesters, a crowd of more than 400 began gathering outside the Civic Center before 11 a.m. Many carried American flags and signs declaring the need for peace, constitutionality and democracy.

It wasn’t Statesville resident Sarah Benbow’s first protest. While attending a 1969 demonstration with more than 500,000 people in Washington, D.C., she was among the protesters who were tear-gassed.

Some things, she explained, are worth standing up for.

“I am worried about our democracy, our people and our immigrants,” she explained while holding up a sign decorated with tea bags and the words “Haven’t We Been Here Before.”

“We are all immigrants really,” Benbow said. “I just don’t understand why we have to beat other people down.”

Pastor Maggie Hurst spoke to the crowd at the beginning of the event, questioning the administration’s treatment of undocumented immigrants.

“I want to acknowledge that nearly all of us here are immigrants ourselves or are descendants of immigrants,” Hurst said. “They came to this state that was established on stolen land of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, Coharie, Haliwa-Saponi, Lumbee, Meherrin, the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, Sappony and Waccamaw Indigenous Nations. They are the original Americans.”

For the past six weeks, she has been holding vigil a few blocks away from the site of Saturday’s protest.

“I love this community, this state, my country,” she said. “But my heart is hurting at the politics of division, the policies of pain, prejudice, power used abusively, pervasive propaganda, priority of party over people, and planned destruction of Federal programs designed to help people, our neighbors.”

Despite the current political climate, she expressed hope for the future.

“We must be about finding a pathway to be reconciled with our brothers and sister on the other side of the street, on the other side of the aisle, on the other side,” she said. “We must find that common ground that binds us together, that way to reconciliation so that one day we may live in a beloved community of justice, love and solidarity.”

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