Some thoughts for the upcoming No Kings 3 protests on March 28, 2026:

(I’m writing specifically about Springfield Missouri but the same issues apply at most of the 2,500 protest locations across the USA.)

Location
 – Should be large enough area to accommodate 10,000 people.
 – Ample parking should be available, so that ideally protestors can be near their own cars in the event of any incident.
 – Should be safe for pedestrian protestors to stand (ideally, wide sidewalks or sidewalks with large greenway buffers)
– national & sunshine does not meet this
– of course, there are sidewalk gaps everywhere in Springfield
– encourage folks who park @ businesses to make a small purchase & put the receipt so it’s visible through windshield.

Safety team distinct from coordinator teams –
 – safety is, keep out of street, don’t block pedestrians, de-escalate, etc.
 – coordinators may also guide people, lead chants, etc.
– all should protect but the safeties should not act partisan.

Ideally, all safeties and coordinators should wear and activate body cameras. Participants may also wear body cameras, and of course many folks will record portions of the event using cell phones. Additional cameras should record from cars circulating the protest area, and organizers should consider using fixed cameras at specific locations. Be aware that many properties in the area have their own cameras, and the city and state DOT also have cameras monitoring many intersections. (At any protest event along public streets, the cameras will inevitably record many low-priority violations, including drivers using cell phones and vehicles with obscured or absent license plates, and illegally excessive window-tinting.)

Cards for participants: everybody should get the instructions! 

Wristbands? This would facilitate counting & confirm they got the instructions

Spacing and sign guidance
 – No specific signs are prohibited
    – but coordinators should politely alert participants if they have signs that may “trigger” others 
        (swastika, upside-down US flag, “fuck”) 
    – participants certainly can choose not to be near such signs
 – Ideally, all signs should be legible from 20 feet away
 – Participants with signs should be more than “arm’s length” distance from each other
 – Think about what a driver can see!
 – Participants should not “cluster or clump,” but spread out, to make it clearer to passers-by that the protest is big

Marching or obstructing traffic
 – one purpose of the No Kings protests is to present our concern to fellow community members
 – Mark Welch personally protests to communicate to my neighbors that I care, and I think they should also.
 – these purposes are not helped by obstruction of traffic; not only will it anger drivers, it also redirects traffic away from the protestors.

We are not protesting with any expectation that MAGA or 47 will respect us. They just keep claiming that we are all lazy unemployed people being paid by George Soros (I wish, but nope).

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