High Springs No Kings Protest Gets Heated, Firefighters Step in While Police Do Nothing
A confrontation between a supporter of President Donald Trump and a protester at the No Kings protest in High Springs got physical Saturday afternoon. During the incident, High Springs Police Department (HSPD) officers who were stationed at the protest were nowhere to be found, and two firefighters had to get involved.
At 1:50 p.m., a few dozen protesters organized by Indivisible gathered in front of the High Springs train station with the intention of peacefully marching to City Hall.
HSPD Sgt. Kendrick Hampton introduced himself to protesters and said he wanted to make sure everyone protested safely. Hampton introduced HSPD officers Sara Allen and Patrick Treese and said he'd be supervising their patrol of the protest.
Protesters reached High Springs City Hall at 2:15 p.m. and heard speeches from Sierra Club Chair Sarah Younger and North Florida Indivisible leader Jyoti Parmar.
Speaking on the movement against Trump, Parmar said, “It is a fight for democracy and the basic core values that America was built on. North Central Florida Indivisible is proud to hold this event with community members in High Springs… As you have probably seen and heard throughout the country, there is a lot of activity outside the law by our government, and that cannot stand. Our basic constitutional rights, our human rights, and our American rights are under attack, and we must fight back. As you know, we’ve been protesting in a lot of places, and many of us have been afraid to come out-"
“Go back to where you're from,” a supporter of Trump started chanting during Parmar’s speech.
Some protesters stood around the Trump supporter and argued with him as he continued chanting. One woman placed a sign in front of him, and he knocked it out of the way. Another protester attempted to separate the Trump supporter and the woman after he hit her sign.
The woman walks out of the view of the camera and appears to extend the sign towards the Trump supporter's back, but from the angle of the video its uncertain if the sign made physical contact with his body. The Trump supporter then turns around and made physical contact with the woman, attempting to grab her.
After a brief scuffle with civilians who defended the woman, two High Springs firefighters stepped in and separated the Trump supporter from the crowd.
Immediately after the incident, Younger gave a speech to protesters saying, "We are fighting for everyone's right to speak up even when they disagree with us. We must stay peaceful."
GnvInfo asked Ofc. Treese if HSPD would conduct an assault investigation. He replied saying officers didn’t witness the incident and that Sgt. Hampton would need to be asked.
GnvInfo showed Hampton the video, and he said the Trump supporter’s actions were justified. He said the woman was “asking for rain” and “can’t be mad when mud gets slapped in her face.”
A protester who didn’t want to be identified said he saw the woman place the sign in front of the Trump supporter but didn’t witness the sign make contact with his body.
Parmar said that protesters shouldn’t have surrounded the Trump supporter but that he wasn’t right to try and physically grab the woman. She said that many demonstrators didn’t have a lot of protest experience and didn’t know how to properly respond to provocation.
Younger said she was expecting counter-protesters because there are many conservative voices in High Springs.
Aside from this incident, the protest was entirely peaceful and ended with Younger doing a reading of the Bill of Rights.
