by Andrew Alonzo | aalonzo@claremont-courier.com

About 150 demonstrators occupied the corners of Indian Hill and Foothill boulevards Tuesday to participate in the nationwide “Free America” walkout protest.

Claremont resident Mark Bedol, 67, was one of the local organizers.

“Every day there’s got to be something new so that Trump tries to change the subject from the Epstein files. So, it’s going to keep trying to change a news cycle to some other disaster that he’s coming up with,” Bedol said. “I feel like the whole country has got to come out on the streets corner and do something peaceful to disrupt things and to get people aware that there’s other individuals that are on their side, which most people probably are but they’re kind of silent. … I guess the theory is to walk out of wherever you are to make whatever you’re doing aware that something has to be done.”

Hundreds of similar events took place around the country Tuesday, organized by Women’s March, the 50501 Movement, FEMINIST, and other organizations. The actions were meant to disrupt corporate revenue streams and spotlight what protesters said were the Trump administration’s fascist policies. The protest coincided with the end of the first year of Trump’s second term, and the nine-year anniversary of the first demonstration organized by Women’s March.

Among the demonstrators was 77-year-old Claremont resident Gregory Jones.

Claremont resident Gregory Jones, 77, was among the demonstrators at Tuesday’s “Free America” walkout protest. Courier photo/Andrew Alonzo

“We are promoting the right for free speech, to be able to protest and just share our beliefs to other people,” Jones said. “Our opinions — I’m sure everybody has their own opinions — but right now our opinion is ‘hands off Greenland!’ Hands off, Trump. Trump needs to go … I would like to have people take away that we are out here expressing our rights, free speech, and we need to have a democracy so everybody can have their own opinion and speak their piece and not pay the consequences.”

Marty, who declined to give her last name, said she was protesting the tactics of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. She said her activism was sparked last year following ICE raids in Merced that swept up migrants and farmworkers. “Part of my family is farmworkers, so it hit home,” she said. She described an elderly man who was arrested by ICE in her neighborhood in November. “That could have been my grandfather just from the color of his skin, my tias [aunts], my grandparents … my cousins. I get very emotional about this because it hits home and I’m so damn tired of this.”

Martha Fierro, 72, of La Verne dressed as Lady Liberty for Tuesday’s “Free America” walkout protest in Claremont. Courier photo/Andrew Alonzo

Ontario resident Collette Marquez, 68, and Stephanie Brotzman, 70 of Alta Loma, carried signs reading, “Hate won’t make us great.” Marquez said she showed up “specifically for support of people that want Trump out of this country. I mean, it seems like everything he does is for himself or full of hate for the people that live here. There’s a better way on getting your point across or what you want to do besides hate.”

Brotzman said she hoped the demonstration will help shed light on Trump’s oft-stated desire to take Greenland from Denmark and recent ICE raids that have killed and injured protesters.

“Everything that comes out of his mouth is an untruth, and it’s got to stop,” Brotzman said. “And if Congress doesn’t get up and do something, we’re going to be sunk. We’re going to lose all of our allies. We’re not going to be in a good position in this world if we continue to back this guy.”

(L-R) Ontario’s Collette Marquez, 68, and 70-year-old Stephanie Brotzman of Alta Loma were among the estimated 150 people who took part in Tuesday’s “Free America” walkout protest in Claremont. Courier photo/Andrew Alonzo

Brotzman urged people to communicate with their congressional representatives and make their voices heard. Marquez said she hoped more families would talk about current events.

Tuesday’s protest was an extension of the ongoing Friday demonstrations at the same intersection with members of Indivisible Claremont/Inland Valley Action Group gathering from 3:30 to 5 p.m. to “rally for democracy.”

This Friday’s demonstration will shine a light on Trump’s surge of immigration and border patrol agents to Minnesota, where an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Renee Good on January 7.Organizers say these are.

• In just the first 9 days of the year, we have seen ICE agents fatally shoot a woman in Minneapolis and wound two others in Portland,
• a military operation in Venezuela carried out without congressional authorization,
• only a small fraction of the Epstein files released despite the congressional deadline to do so in December,
• and renewed threats to seize Greenland – alongside Trump’s demands for an unprecedented $1.5 trillion “Dream Military” defense budget.

Tuesday saw over 850 demonstrations across the nation led by Women’s March, 50501, FEMINIST, and other organizations.

“On January 20, we’re calling on people everywhere to turn their backs on fascism and walk out,” wrote Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of Women’s March, in a statement. “Authoritarianism runs on our obedience, and we’re withdrawing it. We walk out to disrupt business as usual, to build mutual aid and public service, and to prove that ordinary people still have the power to bend what looks immovable. We walk out because a Free America is the only America worth calling great.”