(CNN) — At least 10 “No Kings” protests have been taking place in Los Angeles on Saturday and all of them have been peaceful, according to the city’s Mayor, Karen Bass.
“We know he’s (President Trump) not a king, but we don’t want to see our democracy slide backwards into authoritarianism and that’s what the protests are about,” Bass told CNN on Saturday.
Bass said the first nine months of the second Trump administration have been “frightening,” referring to the federal government’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles this summer amid massive protests following federal immigration raids as the “first move toward authoritarianism.”
The deployment was the first time a president had federalized the National Guard against a governor’s wishes since 1965.
“We do not want the military intervention in our cities to become normalized. That’s the step backwards toward authoritarianism,” Bass said. “… I think Americans standing up all across the country in thousands of protests but protesting peacefully – that is absolutely essential.”