It was hard to determine the size of the crowd at Saturday’s “Hands Off!” demonstration on Water Street – some people estimated it at more than 1,000 – but there is no doubt it was one of the town’s biggest protests in decades.
The gloomy, chilly weather didn’t dampen the vigor of participants, who gathered near Plymouth Rock and on Coles Hill to loudly decry Trump Administration policies and cuts that they say are dismantling crucial services and threatening democracy. Trump’s cutter-in-chief, Elon Musk, was also a focus of the crowd’s ire.
The demonstration, which wound down as the rain began to pick up, was one of more than 1,300 “Hands Off!” rallies held across the country on Saturday. In Boston, an estimated 30,000 people filled City Hall Plaza.
As drivers of passing vehicles on Water Street honked their horns in support, demonstrators chanted and cheered, many hoisting signs with messages such as “Fight like hell,” “Dump Trump,” “Make America Humane Again,” “Muck Fusk,” and “Hands Off Our Bodies.”
A few Trump supporters made obscene gestures as they drove by, but overall, the mood was a mixture of enthusiasm and anger, and the proceedings were peaceful from start to finish.
The crowd mostly skewed older, though a fair number of younger people participated.
Among those in attendance was Congressman Bill Keating, who represents the 9th District.
In an email, the political organization Indivisible Plymouth, which organized the event with the national groups Hands Off 2025 and Mobilize, said, “We and hundreds of thousands of Americans across the nation exercised our constitutional rights to peaceably assemble, speak freely and address our grievances. We’ve had many ‘Fill the Hill’ events in the past, and this was the biggest ever.”
Here are some images from the “Hands Off!” rally, along with a short video by videographer Christopher Harting.
Mark Pothier can be reached at mark@plymouthindependent.org.
