Joining an estimated 7 million people nationwide, more than 850 people lined Cortez’s Main Street on Saturday morning as part of the No Kings Day protests against the Trump administration. A little later, more than 200 protested in Mancos, standing at the intersection of highways 160 and 184.
The atmosphere was both festive and serious.
Many rally-goers were garbed in inflatable costumes depicting frogs, bears, an octopus, elephants, donkeys, and tigers. Some women wore shirts saying “I Am Aunt Tifa,” mocking Republican claims that a group called Antifa was behind all the protests. In Mancos, protesters danced to music while waving at passing cars.
But most of the signs people held had serious messages such as “Hate will not make us great,” “No one is illegal on stolen land,” “U Know in Your Guts He’s Nuts” and “The only minority destroying America is billionaires.”
Some mocked the GOP and the MAGA movement with signs such as “Grand Old Pedophiles” and “Moronic Alliance Glorifying Authoritarian.”
An official count tallied by a man with a counting device at the Cortez rally was 854. Other people, including this reporter, counted closer to 890, though it was difficult to get a precise number because people were regularly arriving and moving position.
The local protests were peaceful, along with the vast majority of the more than 2,700 protests nationwide, according to various reports.
Some 3,000 people showed up at a protest in Durango, the Durango Herald reported. Numerous other rallies took place around the state, with 7,000 people reported in Grand Junction, more than 10,000 in Denver, and 12,000 to 15,000 in Colorado Springs.
In Cortez, protesters stretched all the way along Main Street from the Welcome Center at Mildred Avenue to City Market. They received numerous honks and waves of support.
There was a small counterprotest in the parking lot near City Market, where a couple of pickups with flags supporting Trump and “guns, glory and guts” sat.
In Cortez, at least seven vehicles belonging to participants had windows smashed during the event, according to the police.
Assistant Cortez Police Chief Andy Brock told KSJD in an email that six vehicles parked on East Montezuma Avenue had windows broken, and a seventh report of a smashed window came in on Monday. No suspects have been found, he said.
“There were 6 vehicles parked on East Montezuma that had the driver's side, mostly back, windows broken,” Brock wrote in an email. “The vehicles damaged were not parked next to each other and it appeared they were random targets. No objects were found like a rock that would have shattered the windows, possible a bb gun. There were no videos that showed a suspect/s and no suspect/s were reported or found.”
Cortez police patrolled Main Street during the two-hour protest and contacted some drivers for coal-rolling (blowing black smoke out the exhaust) or poor driving.
Brock said one person was issued a reckless-driving summons.
