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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nHeld Saturday from 1 to 3 pm. in Freedom Park, organizers of the \u201c\u2019No Kings Protest Rally, March and Community Gathering\u201d said the aim was to protest attacks on civil rights, skyrocketing costs, the dismantling of essential services and an assault on free speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are here today because we are currently living under the most unlawful administration in American history. The evidence is all around us,\u201d said Pam Taylor, media liaison for rally host Indivisible Polk, a left-leaning, nonpartisan movement based in Polk County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saturday\u2019s \u201cNo Kings\u201d rally was the second for Lakeland, the first held June 14 when about 1,800 people gathered in Lakeland\u2019s Munn Park. Saturday\u2019s event drew about 2,300, Taylor said. There were three other smaller No Kings rallies planned in Polk County on Oct. 18 \u2015 in Davenport, Poinciana and Bartow \u2015 and more than 80 across Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Held in the park and along Florida Avenue from about Oak Street to Pine Street, the event ended with a march to the office of U.S. Rep. Scott Franklin, a Republican from Lakeland, at Lemon Street and Florida Avenue. Franklin is a staunch supporter of many of Trump\u2019s domestic and foreign policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cNo Kings\u201d rally drew a diverse cross-segment from across Polk County and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lourdes Vales and Mary Carroll drove in from Wesley Chapel to add their voices to the dissatisfaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI needed to feel safe, and we felt safe at the first rally, so there was no question of where we wanted to be today,\u201d Vales said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Participants toted posters and placards, many with original statements of disdain: \u201cVeto the Cheeto,\u201d “No throne, no crowns, no kings,\u201d \u201cGovernment by the people, not oligarchs\u201d and \u201cIf you stand for nothing, what will you fall for?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the \u201cNo Kings\u201d Lakeland event participant readied to head to Franklin\u2019s office, Jes Barnett of Lakeland took time to express why she took her son, Sullivan Barnett, 11, to attend the Saturday \u201cNo Kings\u201d gathering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is his first rally. I just wanted to make sure he\u2019s on the right side of history and understood the process and how we all come together to support one goal,\u201d Barnett said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sullivan seemed to have formed his own opinion of why he was at the rally and why it was important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think the things he\u2019s done is unacceptable to America and this is one way we all come together to do something about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Joining more events in big cities across the United States, opponents of President Donald Trump held a second \u201cNo Kings\u201d rally Oct. 18 in Lakeland. Held Saturday from 1 to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMTBcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtMTAwLTEwLndlYnA_Zml0PTQ4MCUyQzM1MSZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IjIsMDAwIHBlb3BsZSBqb2luICYjODIxNjtObyBLaW5ncyYjODIxNzsgcHJvdGVzdCBpbiBMYWtlbGFuZCBhZ2FpbnN0IFRydW1wIHBvbGljaWVzIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.UScfKNj0z_ELabcRR4ECVsbEVEpmtkh1nf2aPZOvDQwMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":58543,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-100-10.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[12409],"class_list":["post-58542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-2-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58542"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58544,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58542\/revisions\/58544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}