Appleton sees mass turnout for Hands Off Rally on Saturday
Though the rally was loosely organized around cuts to Medicaid, Social Security and other safety net issues, protest signs ranged from Trans and LGBTQ+ rights to oligarchy to Elon Musk to cuts to veterans benefits to decency and democracy itself.
Perhaps it was the energy from Susan Crawford’s landslide supreme court victory on Tuesday or maybe it was spurred on by President Trump’s reckless tariffs actions later in the week that sent markets plunging or maybe it was just general anger and disgust with the administration but a critical mass seemed to have been reached at the 50501 Hands Off Rally in downtown Appleton on Saturday.
The one thousand people expected for the Northeast Wisconsin iteration of the nationwide day of protest turned into an estimated crowd of nearly 3,000 citizens, whose combination of outrage and jubilation made for a loud and energetic, but mostly peaceful, protest. It was being called the largest protest rally ever in Appleton.
Houdini Plaza could not contain such a mass of people and the protesters, carrying signs that were deadly serious and signs that were funny but no less pointed, spilled down both sides of College Ave in both directions from Houdini, reaching beyond Morrison to the east and the PAC to the west.
Appleton was chosen as the main hub for Northeast Wisconsin protests as people poured in from Winnebago, Calumet and Brown Counties as well, though Green Bay and Oshkosh each held their own rallies and reported huge turnouts.
The Plaza was half full before the event began and was nearly full by the time the slate of speakers began to address the crowd, led off by Hate Free Outagamie’s Tanner Ziebell.
Though the rally was loosely organized around cuts to Medicaid, Social Security and other safety net issues, protest signs ranged from Trans and LGBTQ+ rights to oligarchy to Elon Musk to cuts to veterans benefits to feckless Republicans refusing to stop Trump’s overreach to decency and democracy itself.
Many of the cars going down College or coming up or down Oneida laid on their horns in support of the gathering. The rally was well organized, with volunteers donning orange and yellow vests managing traffic and crowd control and a police presence for potential unruliness. One protester was arrested for going after a driver at the intersection. No one was hurt in the incident
