Despite warnings from officials urging people not to attend the "No Kings" rally in St. Paul on Saturday due to safety concerns tied to the targeted political shootings of two state lawmakers, thousands made their way to the state Capitol to protest the Trump administration.
In the US, generally, you aren’t so much asking permission as giving notice that your expecting a generate a crowd, despite the phrasing. Freedoms of speech, assembly and association are still a thing.
The purpose behind it is to give emergency services a heads up to minimize obstruction of normal or emergency traffic and to provide some level of crowd control to minimize the chance of flash stampedes. Like if some idiot sets off a firework, everyone thinks it’s a gunshot and started running.
Approval is generally automatic, but failure to go through the approval process could result in your peaceful protest turning into a riot, or being declared a riot.
As far as I know though, the Portland protest, and the assassinations of the Minnesota legislator, Melissa Hortman, and her husband, seem to have been the exceptions.
After the shots, everyone scattered and the shooter hid among others who were trying to shelter & take cover. Some hero noticed the rifle sticking out of his bag, grabbed the bag and called police over:
Not confirmed, but from what I can tell several eyewitnesses noticed something fishy with his backpack. The OP of the video has been posting on Reddit /r/saltlakecity and /r/publicfreakout, and there’s another video just beforehand where people are talking about the backpack.
The events are very chaotic. What I can tell from eyewitnesses statements: the perp shot somebody (supposedly in the head), and someone in a yellow vest (yellow vests were either cops or security who was with the organizers) immediately drew a gun and shot the perp back (would explain why in some photos it looks like he’s bleeding, and cops / EMS are rendering medical aid). Eyewitnesses said after that, a plainclothes cop who was among the protesters also drew a gun too, but by then the perp had ran off.
Meanwhile (can see from security footage posted by the news), police swarm in maybe a minute? after the shooting.
Supposedly someone maybe saw the perp putting the rifle in his backpack, and when he went to hide among other protestors, the guy in the video grabbed his backpack to get it away from it, opened it, found the rifle, and called police over and pointed out the long hair guy. Pretty sure several people in the area the video was taken were also interviewed by police, and it was enough to arrest him.
All we know now is that police have 3 people in custody and have been asking for more photos / videos of the incident.
I was about a block away and I didn’t hear anything as I was focused on something else, but my coworker standing next to me heard at least one shot. Shortly after we saw a dozen people running, and then a couple dozen more and people yelled “active shooter”, and then we were running too. I ran a block, and shortly after that saw an unmarked cruiser fly in, and then a couple minutes later saw a van with riot police pull up back to the main area of the march. Riot police got out and just stood there basically, and eventually got the rest of the marching protestors moving away from the area with the shooting, and then got everyone to disperse. There was no violence between protestors and cops. After the shooting everyone seemed happy to disperse. Riot cops were really just helping to direct everyone away at that point.
My speculation: I think the shooting was politically motivated, and the shooter intended to shoot many more people, but did not expect such a quick response to his actions. The people responding including yellow vest guy, and the guy who grabbed the backpack probably saved many lives.
Edit: I saw there is now what looks like security cam footage of yellow vest guy shooting the perp
Edit: News story just published corroborates some of what I saw eyewitnesses say. Unfortunately it’s confirmed that the victim died. Police are saying the victim was essentially collateral damage, shot by a yellow vest who was attempting to stop the man with the rifle and the backpack. Really sad all around.
If a protest requires permission it isn’t a protest.
In the US, generally, you aren’t so much asking permission as giving notice that your expecting a generate a crowd, despite the phrasing. Freedoms of speech, assembly and association are still a thing.
The purpose behind it is to give emergency services a heads up to minimize obstruction of normal or emergency traffic and to provide some level of crowd control to minimize the chance of flash stampedes. Like if some idiot sets off a firework, everyone thinks it’s a gunshot and started running.
Approval is generally automatic, but failure to go through the approval process could result in your peaceful protest turning into a riot, or being declared a riot.
Protests turn into riots when the police wanted to, exactly then, and very rarely before that point.
They were declared riots before they even started.
I was about to reply that today’s protests seem to have gone off peacefully till this article came up in my news feeds.
https://www.opb.org/article/2025/06/14/portland-police-ice-facility-riot/
As far as I know though, the Portland protest, and the assassinations of the Minnesota legislator, Melissa Hortman, and her husband, seem to have been the exceptions.
Today in SLC someone took a rifle to our march and shot a protestor. Last I heard the victim didn’t make it.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2025/06/14/crowd-gathers-salt-lake-city-march/
After the shots, everyone scattered and the shooter hid among others who were trying to shelter & take cover. Some hero noticed the rifle sticking out of his bag, grabbed the bag and called police over:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXjidb2vNwI
What was the shooting for? Was that guy confirmed to be the same shooter?
Wild times, regardless.
No idea
Not confirmed, but from what I can tell several eyewitnesses noticed something fishy with his backpack. The OP of the video has been posting on Reddit /r/saltlakecity and /r/publicfreakout, and there’s another video just beforehand where people are talking about the backpack.
The events are very chaotic. What I can tell from eyewitnesses statements: the perp shot somebody (supposedly in the head), and someone in a yellow vest (yellow vests were either cops or security who was with the organizers) immediately drew a gun and shot the perp back (would explain why in some photos it looks like he’s bleeding, and cops / EMS are rendering medical aid). Eyewitnesses said after that, a plainclothes cop who was among the protesters also drew a gun too, but by then the perp had ran off.
Meanwhile (can see from security footage posted by the news), police swarm in maybe a minute? after the shooting.
Supposedly someone maybe saw the perp putting the rifle in his backpack, and when he went to hide among other protestors, the guy in the video grabbed his backpack to get it away from it, opened it, found the rifle, and called police over and pointed out the long hair guy. Pretty sure several people in the area the video was taken were also interviewed by police, and it was enough to arrest him.
All we know now is that police have 3 people in custody and have been asking for more photos / videos of the incident.
I was about a block away and I didn’t hear anything as I was focused on something else, but my coworker standing next to me heard at least one shot. Shortly after we saw a dozen people running, and then a couple dozen more and people yelled “active shooter”, and then we were running too. I ran a block, and shortly after that saw an unmarked cruiser fly in, and then a couple minutes later saw a van with riot police pull up back to the main area of the march. Riot police got out and just stood there basically, and eventually got the rest of the marching protestors moving away from the area with the shooting, and then got everyone to disperse. There was no violence between protestors and cops. After the shooting everyone seemed happy to disperse. Riot cops were really just helping to direct everyone away at that point.
My speculation: I think the shooting was politically motivated, and the shooter intended to shoot many more people, but did not expect such a quick response to his actions. The people responding including yellow vest guy, and the guy who grabbed the backpack probably saved many lives.
Edit: I saw there is now what looks like security cam footage of yellow vest guy shooting the perp
Edit: News story just published corroborates some of what I saw eyewitnesses say. Unfortunately it’s confirmed that the victim died. Police are saying the victim was essentially collateral damage, shot by a yellow vest who was attempting to stop the man with the rifle and the backpack. Really sad all around.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2025/06/15/marcher-wounded-no-kings-protest/
Yeah that sounds terrible and sad all around. Thanks for the details. There’s a lot to process and think about. Be safe.