They came with American flags and hand-painted protest signs, hoisted effigies of President Donald Trump and chanted in support of democracy, equal rights and immigrants.
Thousands of Coloradans marched peacefully through the streets of downtown Denver on Saturday afternoon and gathered at rallies across the state as part of the national “No Kings” protest movement, which organizers say brought millions of Americans out to demonstrate against Trump’s policies.
People in more than 50 Colorado cities and towns organized demonstrations to coincide with Saturday’s military parade in Washington, D.C., a celebration of the Army’s 250th anniversary, which fell on Trump’s 79th birthday.
“No Kings” organizers described the demonstrations as a “nationwide day of defiance.”
“I think these protests are a sign of how concerned people are about the creeping authoritarianism in our country,” said Lloyd Guthrie, who attended a morning “No Kings” demonstration in Parker. “I’m 72 and I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Denver's gathering was expected to be the largest in Colorado as it surrounded the No Kings People's Fair, which started at noon at Lincoln Veterans Memorial Park, just west of the state Capitol. Colorado State Patrol officials estimated 5,000 people gathered near the Capitol, Trooper Gabriel Moltrer said.
"No Kings" organizer Jennifer Bradley estimated 20,000 people attended the demonstration and marches through the city. Helicopter footage from 9News showed a column of marchers headed down West Colfax Avenue, stretching eight city blocks at one point.
Denver police declined to estimate how many people participated.
As of 11 p.m., police said they had made at least 17 protest-related arrests, largely involving marches that took place in the evening and later at night, after the "No Kings" demonstration had ended. Police also said officers fired pepper balls and deployed smoke at two different locations to disperse marchers believed to be approaching Interstate 25
"No Kings" protesters began filling streets near the state Capitol building around 12:30 p.m., closing nearby streets to traffic. Regional Transportation District officials shut down transit service out of Union Station and suspended most light rail routes for several hours because of the event.
More than a dozen protests began Saturday morning throughout metro Denver, with more taking place in communities large and small across the state, from Greeley and Grand Junction to Fairplay and Lamar. Protesters also gathered at demonstrations in Arvada, Boulder, Fort Collins, Windsor, Durango, Colorado Springs and Edwards on Saturday.
“I just think what’s going on in our country right now is wrong,” Longmont resident Mary Etter said during a "No Kings" demonstration in that city.
Protests were planned in nearly 2,000 locations across the country, from city blocks and small towns to courthouse steps and community parks, organizers said. The 50501 Movement orchestrating the protests says it picked the “No Kings” name to support democracy and speak out against what they call the authoritarian actions of the Trump administration. The name 50501 stands for 50 states, 50 protests, one movement.
Huge, boisterous crowds marched in New York, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta and Los Angeles, some behind “no kings” banners.
The demonstrations come on the heels of protests across the country over federal immigration enforcement raids that began last week and Trump ordering the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, where protesters blocked a freeway and set cars on fire.
Thousands of people chant and march up Broadway at #NoKings In downtown Denver pic.twitter.com/PpQMCxZxWL
— John Aguilar (@abuvthefold) June 14, 2025
'Keep on resisting'
A long parade of protesters marched up Broadway in Denver at mid-afternoon, chanting "Whose streets? Our streets!"
U.S. flags, both right-side up and upside down, alongside Mexican flags and rainbow flags, moved down the street with the marchers. Police officers on motorcycles rode the sidewalk in spots as the demonstrators moved northward.
A wedding in front of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church on Broadway was forced to pause photos as the throng noisily passed.
While many of the signs on display were profane towards Trump and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, one woman held a placard that read "Keep on resisting." Another's sign read "Immigrants make America great."
One man at 19th and Stout streets held aloft an effigy of Trump in a toilet with a plunger on his head. A sign read: "Dethrone Trump."
Leanne Smith, dressed in a "Handmaid's Tale" outfit complete with shawl, took refuge under a tree in Lincoln Veterans Memorial Park on Saturday afternoon.
"I am wearing it for women's rights," she said, referring to her sartorial choice for the day. "I think Donald Trump is a man who doesn't understand women."
As to how the Democrats can come back from their loss at the ballot box in November, Smith said the party needs to reach toward the middle.
"We don't need to win over MAGA -- that's not possible. We need to win over the middle -- and that's possible," she said.
Arrests in Denver and Pueblo
Officers arrested at least 17 people during downtown marches on charges including resisting arrest, obstruction of streets, failure to obey a lawful order, and unlawful throwing of projectiles, Denver police said.
Most of those arrests were made after the "No Kings" event had ended and most demonstrators had left downtown.
One person was arrested on suspicion of obstruction of streets for allegedly refusing to leave the roadway near Speer Boulevard and Wewatta Street during an afternoon march, police said.
At 6:30 p.m., protesters embarked on what police said was a sixth march of the day, heading west on West Colfax Avenue toward I-25.
Denver police said they warned marchers they would be denied entry onto I-25, and when protesters tried to push through, officers fired pepper balls and deployed smoke to disperse the crowd. Police denied using tear gas.
Police arrested five people and said there were "multiple reports of protestors throwing rocks and bottles at officers" at West Colfax and North Osage Street.
At 9:20 p.m., police said, another group of protesters marched to 20th and Blake streets, where officers assembled to prevent them from reaching I-25. Police said they issued warnings and again dispersed the crowd with pepper balls and smoke. They said demonstrators threw rocks and other objects at the officers.
Protestors in Denver continued to march towards the highway, and were met with police force on the corner of Colfax and Osage. The protestors were unarmed and were met with tear gas and pepper bullets.#fiftyfiftyone #denver
— 50501: The People’s Movement ❌👑 (@50501movement.bsky.social) 2025-06-15T01:38:02.703Z
In Pueblo, police told the Chieftan they arrested two people at a "No Kings" demonstration in that city. The Denver Post could not reach police for details on the arrests.
But Brandon Martin, who said he was assigned as a liaison to the police for the Pueblo rally, told The Post a woman with a gun was among the people arrested.
Martin said a woman wearing a Make America Great Again hat with a gun visible in a holster was acting agitated at the El Pueblo Museum, which was the endpoint of a march at the rally.
A woman with a pride flag wrapped around her started interacting with the woman, Martin said, and the woman got further agitated.
"When I saw her break the (snap) holster, a man in front of her told her not to touch the gun," Martin said.
But she started to pull it out, he said.
"As soon as she grabbed it, I took her to the ground," Martin said.
The gun bounced away and a police officer picked it up and took the woman into custody, Martin said.
'Something unprecedented in our nation's history'
Under a blazing sun at the intersection of Sheridan Boulevard and West 104th Avenue in Westminster, close to 1,000 people gathered along the roadsides at all four corners of the crossing Saturday afternoon.
When asked why she made the trek from Milliken to the "No Kings" rally in Westminster, Sheree Baker simply smiled and said: "Everything."
"The threat of habeas corpus, mobilizing the National Guard without the (California) governor's consent," she said, listing several reasons for her animus toward the current occupant of the White House. "This is a dictatorial takeover and it's frightening."
Baker, who has attended several other anti-Trump rallies in Greeley, Loveland and Superior in recent weeks, held aloft a sign that showed a tank and made a ribald play on the word "dictator" in reference to the president.
Claire Carmelia, a Westminster councilwoman who is running for mayor of Colorado's eighth-largest city, greeted people lined up along West 104th Avenue.
"I think the people of Westminster are sensing something unprecedented in our nation's history and this matters so much to them that they are taking the afternoon to protest what is happening," she said.
A man shook a cowbell as motorists passed. An older woman, apparently overcome by the heat, leaned against a wall while medical personnel attended to her.
Holly and Kimble Klinzman, of Adams County, found one of the few shady spots at the intersection -- a small grove of trees set back and down from the road.
"We want checks and balances and so far we have none," Holly Klinzman said, as she fanned herself with a makeshift sign.
Her husband invoked the oft-used anti-Trump claim that the president is busy trying to transform the nation into a Nazi-like regime.
"The United States right now looks just like Europe in the 1930s," Kimble Klinzman said.
Large crowd marches down Broadway northbound during #NoKings rally in downtown Denver Sat. Crowd chants: "Whose streets? Our streets" pic.twitter.com/y90LDM8slc
— John Aguilar (@abuvthefold) June 14, 2025
'It's pretty dystopian'
Crowds started gathering for a "No Kings" demonstration in Parker at 8:45 a.m. Saturday, despite urging from town officials against holding the event.
Passing cars honked in solidarity as at least 100 people waved and hoisted signs denouncing Trump, ICE and the Douglas County home-rule proposition that's now on the ballot, at the intersection of Parker and Twenty Mile roads.
Other demonstrators dispersed by the dozen to walk to different intersections across the block-by-block protest.
Around 300 Parker residents and other Coloradans gathered at intersections along a three-mile stretch of Parker Road between Hess Road and Ponderosa Drive to participate in the demonstration. Town officials denied an event permit for the protest because of police resources needed for the nearby Parker Days festival, but organizer Carolyn Williamson refused to cancel.
Parker resident Steve Bond, 66, wasn't planning to attend the rally but showed up at the last minute and waved an American flag instead of a sign.
“It’s become intolerable,” he said. “The message of getting along is getting left behind… finding a way through the middle seems impossible.”
He said he used to identify as conservative, but switched six years ago amid Trump’s first term as the Republican party changed.
“This started because of his audacity to have this stupid parade,” Bond said. “It’s pretty dystopian. I’m still reeling.”
'Never seen anything like this'
More than 2,500 people lined the sidewalks of Plum Creek Parkway near the Douglas County Fairgrounds in Castle Rock a few hours later, hoisting American flags and signs with phrases including "Protect workers, not billionaires," "Resist like it's 1938 Germany" and "Fight ignorance, not immigrants."
The crowd alternated chants of "This is what democracy looks like" and an expletive followed by the president's name.
Roxborough resident Scott Hochhalter, 52, was flying an upside-down American flag as he protested.
"The fascism being shown in all aspects of our society is a (signal) for the end of our democracy unless people start showing up like this, in these numbers, every day," he said. "People need to see numbers, that not everyone is on board with the hateful rhetoric.”
The Associated Press and the Daily Camera contributed to this report.
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