By Karen Rubin, editor@news-photos-features.com, news-photos-features.com
There is hope, community, strength in numbers.
What may be the largest protest in Nassau County history, an estimated 5,000 turned out for the No Kings protest in front of the steps to the Supreme Court building in Mineola, one of 16 No Kings protests on Long Island.
“It feels so good to be doing something,” said Roseanna, a Bellmore resident but originally from Italy, who was attending her first protest.
“We refuse to remain silent as our neighbors are arrested without cause or due process by masked men and then held in detention centers under inhumane conditions and as communities are terrorized and families torn apart,” the organizers, Engage Long Island, Show Up Long Island and Long Island Network for Change, declared, laying out the mounting grievances against Trump and his administration.
“We raise our voices against an administration that has ripped healthcare coverage away from millions of Americans, gutted disease research funding and environmental protections and has given unqualified individuals the power to make critical recommendations and place the health of our children in peril. We protest the administration’s rolling back of women’s rights and voting rights. We speak out against a war declared unconstitutionally, placing the lives of our military personnel at risk without first making the case to the American people; A war that is costing one billion dollars every day to wage while oil prices surge for families already struggling with soaring prices. Civil liberties are weakening, constitutional checks and balances are faltering and we are experiencing a significant and rapid decline in democratic norms. We the People will continue to stand up and speak out to save our democracy.
“As the president continues to push the limits of his power towards authoritarianism, We the People say loudly and clearly that this country belongs to us; the Power of the People is greater than the people in power,” declared organizer Halle Brenner-Perles.
The rally served to protest the escalating signs of authoritarianism being displayed by this President and his administration, the organizers explained. “More and more people are coming to understand the nature of this threat to our democracy and they are showing up in greater numbers than ever, here on Long Island and across the country,” and looking for ways to express their outrage and frustration, to show support for one another, and cultivate the movement to end the march to authoritarianism.
“The No Kings movement can’t be stopped,” said Civil rights attorney Fred Brewington. “Make America what it should be, not what they have turned it into. We need to take back America. When we take over Congress, make him the impotent person he is.”
After October’s No Kings protests drew 7 million in the biggest single day of peaceful protest in US history, Trump claimed the No Kings protests were small, ineffective, the protesters “wacked out.”
Since October, things have only gotten worse – cruel, masked ICE thugs killing civilians Renee Good and Alex Pretti in the street, children separated and kept in horrific conditions, a war costing $1 billion a day; 2 million who can’t afford health care. “We are here for hope, for the nation and the world we want for our families,” said Engage Long Island organizer Halle Brenner-Perles, lauding the Nassau County high school students who conducted ICE Out walkouts. “The power of people is always stronger than the people in power. Take back America, make it better than ever before. Because that’s what peaceful protesters do.”
Dr. Eve Meltzer Krief, Vice President Long Island, Queens Brooklyn Chapter American Academy of Pediatrics and candidate for Suffolk County Legislature, knows what it means to push back. She joined the lawsuit against “Health” Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. to overturn his revised vaccination standards for children and won.
“I worry for the future. This government can’t pass common sense gun laws when guns are the #1 killer of children. Trump dabbled with authoritarianism last year, this year, embracing at a new level.”
He is arresting and detaining people without due process. Family separation 2.0 – children are afraid their parent will not be home when they come home from school. Americans shot point blank. In the most Orwellian fashion, Noem called Good a domestic terrorist and Alex Pretti a would-be assassin.
The administration deports parents without letting them take their children as young as 2 months old with them, yet US citizen children are being deported against the wishes of their parents, – including a child with brain cancer, she said. Some 4,000 children have been imprisoned since January 2025, hundreds detained without their parents. Parents have been taken from 11,000 children and placed in detention facilities far away. Parents afraid to take their child to health visits.
“Does any of that make us greater, safer? “Enough of disregarding basic human rights. The power of people is stronger than people in power.”
The gathering also served to collect food for local pantries (2,400 pounds were collected at the last No Kings rally, this one collected 4600 pounds – more than two tons! – and $1300 in cash), and for voter registration.
The Mineola Rally was organized together by Engage Long Island, Show Up Long Island and Long Island Network for Change. The League of Women Voters of Huntington is a co-sponsor.
Here are more photo highlights:
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