Protesters gathered in several communities across the region Saturday afternoon as part of a nationwide demonstration against the Trump Administration called “Hands Off.”
In Hyannis, more than a thousand people gathered at the rotary to protest a variety of actions, including the dismantling of federal departments and threats to the Medicare and Social Security systems.
People also protested in Falmouth, Plymouth, and Dartmouth among other communities. Larger demonstrations took place in Boston and Providence.
With at least 1,300 demonstrations across the country, it was the most widespread public dissent in Trump’s second term so far.
Many of the Hyannis protesters said they wanted to take some kind of action against Trump and gathering seemed like one of their only options.
“The only power we have right now is to peacefully protest,” said Diane Roche with Indivisible Upper Cape, one of the groups organizing the protest. “The title of the rally is ‘Hands Off’ and it’s ‘Hands off our social security, our Medicare, our bodies, cancer research — hands off our democracy,’” she said.
Leah Stockwood lives in Sandwich. She arrived with a group of friends and their small children.
“The time has come for us to stand up,” she said. “Trump and Musk, sorry, they’ve got to go.”
Ninety-five-year-old Osterville resident Art Cornell held up a handmade sign that read, “Korean War Veteran opposes Elon Musk.” He attended the protest with his wife, who is 93.
“Our president is not fit to be president,” he said. “Getting rid of a lot of the people who are essential to the running of this country, that’s what I’m opposed to.”
Like Cornell, others expressed alarm at the huge number of federal jobs that have been cut in the last two months. Jane Ward of Centerville served as a physician in the Air Force for 26 years before she retired.
“I am heartbroken to see our country being dismantled,” she said. “My priorities, having been in the Air Force as a physician, are national security and healthcare and science. And it’s all being dismantled.”
Others highlighted their support of reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights, including Liz Speed, a gynecologist from Sandwich.
“I’m here for all of it,” she said. “Freedom and democracy.”
Seventy-year-old Marianne Barbosa of Hyannis says she has stood up for what is right her whole life. She wanted to protest Trump Administration policies and the power that billionaire Elon Musk has been given to reshape the government.
“Trump is sitting in the White House. Elon Musk is president. Neither of them should be there,” she said. “Wrong is wrong.”
Several people said they worried about whether the United States would continue as a democracy under Trump. Jazmine Hogan-Donaldson of Centerville said she is concerned that a Constitutional crisis is playing out after Trump Administration side-stepped court orders.
“I’m concerned that Trump is making himself a dictator,” she said. “And he is destroying the country. He’s dismantling it like he’s private equity and he’s going to sell it off to his rich friends. And the rest of us are going to suffer.”
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Video footage from the event:
