No Kings Protests Draw Thousands Nationwide, Dozens Arrested in Los Angeles

A demonstrator in a Statue of Liberty costume was handcuffed on the pavement outside Los Angeles' Metropolitan Detention Center Saturday evening, the photograph that condensed a day when organizers say an estimated 8 million Americans joined the third "No Kings" national mobilization against President Donald Trump, spreading across 3,300 sites in all 50 states.

The protests were planned as the "No Kings Day of Nonviolent Action" on March 28, predicted by organizers to be the largest single-day mobilization in U.S. history. If the estimates hold, they would surpass the roughly 7 million who turned out in October 2025 and the 5 million who launched the movement in June 2025. Almost half of the protests took place in GOP strongholds, and Texas, Florida and Ohio each had over 100 events scheduled.

In downtown Los Angeles, the day began with tens of thousands gathering at Gloria Molina Grand Park, across the street from City Hall, before marching through Pershing Square. The event was scheduled to end at 5 p.m., and the arrests came after a dispersal order was given at 5:30 p.m. That half-hour gap is where the day's defining confrontation unfolded. According to LAPD, protesters were attempting to tear down a chain-link fence blocking the Metropolitan Detention Center and throwing items over the fence toward officers. As tensions with federal officers escalated, dispersal orders were issued and unlawful assembly was declared. The Los Angeles Police Department posted on X that federal authorities had also deployed tear gas after demonstrators threw concrete blocks, bottles and other objects over the fence. Video showed the moment a man was tackled to the ground by federal agents outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, and another video captured tear gas canisters being thrown into the crowd. Some demonstrators appeared to have anticipated the confrontation, arriving in respirators.

In total, 75 people were arrested: 66 adults and 8 juveniles for failing to disperse after officers declared an unlawful assembly, and one adult on a weapons charge for possession of a dirk or dagger. By about 9 p.m., things had mostly calmed down and the LAPD Tactical Alert ended.

The Los Angeles clashes were the sharpest escalation of the day, but not the only friction. In Denver, Colorado State Police confirmed at least nine people were arrested after a peaceful protest escalated when a small group blocked a road. In Minneapolis, the stakes were especially personal: in January, federal officers fatally shot two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in two separate incidents in the city, and their deaths became a central organizing grievance. In Washington, D.C., demonstrators walked across Memorial Bridge from Arlington, Virginia, into the capital.

Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin, who helped coordinate the rallies, also announced a follow-up action: a nationwide economic protest on May 1, urging supporters to skip work, school and shopping. "We're going to show up and say we're putting workers over billionaires and kings," Levin said. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the turnout "a very strong sign of what's coming in November."

The arrests outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal immigration facility, are unlikely to fade quickly from the national conversation. Civil-liberties organizations have already flagged the police response, and the footage of tear gas and mass handcuffings near a building that holds immigration detainees gives the "No Kings" movement its sharpest symbolic image yet, arriving exactly when organizers are pushing to sustain momentum into May.