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Hundreds of thousands of No Kings Day demonstrators are expected to take to the streets for what some believe will be the largest day of protest in modern U.S. history. Will historians remember it as peaceful or could violence make the day even more unforgettable?
Organizers say they're prepared to ensure the day's events avoid violence, even as political rhetoric characterizes demonstrators as being aligned with terrorist forces.
This weekend’s demonstrations mark the second wave of “No Kings” protests against President Donald Trump’s administration, as well as to celebrate First Amendment rights. The first wave of nationwide demonstrations, held June 14, drew between 2 million and 4.8 million people, according to estimates.
"This protest is no threat to national security, as has been ludicrously claimed," said Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, among multiple groups coordinating the rallies. "Protest is a sign of our freedom.... It's what made our country stronger for 250 years."
While protest is an American hallmark, history shows demonstrations aren't always free of violence, from the clashes of the 1960s demanding equality and an end to war to the outbursts of the 2010s and early 2020s decrying police brutality nationwide.
But what makes a protest breed violence? In addition to deep-seated frustrations over social conditions, experts say multiple factors can contribute, including lack of organization, overzealous law enforcement or run-ins with counter protesters.
"Once they begin to get violent it moves quickly," said Brian Higgins, a former police chief who now serves as an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, part of the City University of New York system. "It's like setting fire to tinder — it's very difficult to bring groups back under control."
Jacob Lewis, an associate professor of global politics at Washington State University in Pullman, pointed to the collective violence that emerged during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The tumult was sparked, he said, not only by anger over the acquittal of police officers who had beaten Black motorist Rodney King but because of a lack of both coordinated action and protesters motivated toward restraint.
"Demonstrations are most likely to escalate into violence when events lack visible leadership and well-communicated norms," he said.
Organizers of this weekend's demonstrations say national frustrations and fears have rocketed since late spring, when the first wave of No Kings rallies took place. With the Trump administration pinching First Amendment rights, dispatching troops to Democratic-run cities and pushing the boundaries of immigation enforcement, what's at stake for many is no single niche cause but the very foundations of democracy itself.
"People are saying, 'I've never been moved to action before, but now I feel like I have to,'" said Lisa Gilbert, copresident of advocacy group Public Citizen, also among the event organizers.
The number of planned events — in Washington, D.C., and from New York and New Orleans to Boston and Bozeman, Montana — has reached 2,500, far more than the 1,800 that took place in June.
"Republicans are blaming and smearing millions of Americans who are peacefully protesting because they have run out of excuses for their own failures," said Leah Greenberg, co-founder of progressive nonprofit Indivisible, singling out comments by House Speaker Mike Johnson. "He spent an entire week calling this a 'hate America' rally.... He won't even say the name of the protest, because if you do, the entire argument falls apart."
Pent-up frustrations can breed violence
By notifying authorities that a protest is planned, Higgins said, organizers agree to abide by certain rules; in return, officials ensure their ability to protest by informing them of off-limit areas or by curbing run-ins with counter protesters.
"Following the rules helps everybody," he said. "When you notify the government that you're going to protest, they tell you what the acceptable actions are and then bear some responsibility for your safety as well."
But in some cases, as in the Rodney King riots, protesters have been pushed beyond their limits.
"Sometimes, like with Vietnam, protesters might turn over a police car — but they were thinking, it's not violence against people," said Ralph Young, a professor of history at Temple University in Philadelphia, where he's taught a course on American dissent for 25 years. "They were protesting that thousands of people were being killed every day. Usually violent protests don't really succeed, because they turn people off."
Demonstrations typically aren't fueled by that level of anger, Young said.
"Most protests do not turn violent," he said. "Usually when they do, it's when people become frustrated, when they feel they're not being listened to at all. That's when things begin to get out of hand."
Armed actors are another factor in protests becoming violent: A 2021 study found armed protests were six times more likely to become violent than those without guns present.
"If you have arms, it raises the risk," said Roudabeh Kishi, who served as director of research and innovation for the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project, which compiled the report with Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund.
Now chief research officer for the Bridging Divides Initiative at Princeton University in New Jersey, a nonpartisan effort tracking and mitigating political violence in the U.S., Kishi noted June's unintentional shooting of a protester in Utah by an armed safety volunteer targeting a man who had pointed his rifle at demonstrators.
Though armed actors were reported at just 15 of June's approximately 1,500 No Kings demonstrations, Kishi said it marked the highest single-day total of such instances since June 2020.
The Utah incident showed how counter protesters, too, can elevate tensions. About 8% of June's No Kings protests drew counter protesters, Kishi said — four times the typical rate for protests.
Separately, she said, instances of vehicle ramming have risen as well, with 12 occurrences at all protests this year compared to just one in 2024.
Other risks include opportunistic bad actors or organized networks prone to violence, a factor Kishi's group is mindful this weekend but has not detected. However, she noted Saturday's protests will overlap with a "day of action" planned by White supremacist group White Lives Matter.
"This overlap could increase the potential of protests being targeted," she said. "That's something we're monitoring."
Fear and rumors 'just as harmful' as threats
The 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago took place in the midst of the Vietnam War with the country shaken by the recent assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Fed-up war protesters chucked rocks and bottles at police officers and called them "pigs" to their faces until officers finally moved upon the crowd wielding billy clubs and sparking a bloody clash.
"The police were the ones who began beating people," Young said. "It was a heavy-handed response."
Lewis, of Washington State, said protests are more likely to escalate when authorities act aggressively, or when they have done so in the past.
"Demonstrators make snap judgments under pressure," he said. "In places where police have a history of repressing protesters, risk-tolerant protesters are more likely to show up while risk-averse protesters are more likely to stay home, ratcheting up the likelihood of a confrontation."
Though today's tensions aren't as high as they were in 1968, Kishi said expanded ICE and federal operations "obviously increase the potential for local flashpoints as police have been more aggressive. It raises the potential for miscalculation and excessive force."
Kishi said demonstrators should embrace de-escalation techniques should such threats arise. Additionally, she said those participating should take precautions such as being informed about free speech liberties, maintaining spatial awareness and relying on trustworthy information sources.
"Fear and rumors can be just as harmful as threats," she said. "It's important not to fuel panic or tensions."
But some fear the political rhetoric linking protesters to terrorist forces such as Hamas, however, ups the potential for aggressive law enforcement.
"This is a tactic commonly used in authoritarian regimes to simultaneously delegitimize the claims of protesters while tacitly legitimizing the use of force against them, increasing the likelihood of violent clashes," Lewis said.
Greenberg, of Indivisible, called such rhetoric "sinister, because it's part of a broader effort to create a permission structure to crack down on organized opposition and peaceful dissent in this country."
"These protests are peaceful, disciplined and grounded in solidarity," she said. "That is what they fear — our unity."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What makes a protest turn violent? Experts cite aggressive police, deep anger and more
Reporting by Marc Ramirez and Sarah D. Wire, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
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