The Plateau community showed up loud and proud during last weekend’s “No Kings” protest, joining the nationwide effort to push back against the federal government’s current policies and actions.
This June 14 demonstration may be the largest Enumclaw has seen in recent memory, easily eclipsing the April 5 “Hands Off” protest and the June 2020 “Black Lives Matter” events.
With attendees from all over the Plateau (and even a few beyond) filling the sidewalks at the Griffin Avenue and Porter Street intersection and overflow spilling out to Initial Avenue and close to Cole Street, event organizer Indivisible Enumclaw put the headcount between 800 and 1,000 people.
“It makes me very emotional. It makes me want to cry to see all these people’s creativity and their ardency for the U.S.,” Gale Miltimore said as she sat on the memorial bench outside Enumclaw’s City Hall. She was at the “Hands Off” event, but otherwise, the octanagarian has never participated in a protest before.
She said she’s “only beginning to protest.”
“This is super yucky,” she continued. “This is too bad. You can’t ignore it. We have a subversive person in charge who is allowing his cronies to do a lot of horrible things.”
Robin Macnofsky was also impressed by the turnout. The Bonney Lake resident founded the Lake Tapps Resistance League (another Indivisible group) back in 2017 with just three people.
Now the group is up to 400. Some attended the Enumclaw event, and when the two-hour demonstration was over at 2 p.m., some Enumclaw residents relocated to Bonney Lake to continue the protest.
“It’s remarkable to see this turnout here,” Macnofsky said, adding that the event was peaceful and largely positive. “What I see is that this is the voice of real voting Americans.”
Passersby likely couldn’t miss the large American and “Resist Fascism, Fight Oligarchy” flags being waved with gusto by Troy, who declined to give a last name.
But the retired Army veteran recounted his time overseas and why he’s no longer sitting on the sidelines.
“I know what history does,” he said, describing his time as a peacekeeper in Bosnia after its civil war in the 1990s, infamous for its mass deportations and the Bosnian genocide. “I’m afraid [Trump] is going to take us down that same path. I’ve seen what that did to that country, and I don’t want that to happen here.”
But not everyone was there to protest the president.
A small group of people, sporting a life-sized cutout of President Trump, a “Make America Great Again” flag and numerous pieces of Trump-brand or inspired apparel, stood their ground on the corner of Griffin Avenue and Wells Street, surrounded by protesters.
Roman Brazier said he did not consider himself a counter-protester.
“I just consider myself somebody who is practicing his First Amendment rights,” he said.
Brazier also appreciated the turnout of the protesters, who he said were being paid to attend and that most were not from town.
“It makes me feel good. All these liberals are all pissed off at us… wearing Trump memorabilia and supporting our president. They get really hostile, they get really offended, they get really defensive, whereas I don’t care,” he continued, adding that openly carrying his pistol at the event particularly rankled the opposition. “… I love this town and I’m not moving out of here anytime soon. So if these liberals think they’re going to push us out of here, kiss my ass. We’re here to stay.”
Indivisible Enumclaw denied having any paid protesters at the event. The group could not give an exact number of how many attendees were local residents or from other cities, but it estimated 65% to 70% were from Enumclaw, based on anecdotal evidence. The group added that others came from Bonney Lake, Buckley, South Prairie, and Greenwater.
Organizers also pointed out that Maple Valley, Covington, Auburn, and Federal Way have their own Indivisible groups and demonstrations.
Indivisible Enumclaw also collected more than 600 pounds of food for the Plateau Outreach Ministry’s food bank during the protest.
Photos by Ray Miller-Still
