‘No Kings’ rally draws hundreds to Greenport

If there was a single theme to the No Kings Rally at Mitchell Park in Greenport Saturday, it was democracy. What does democracy look like? Speaker after speaker intoned.

“This is democracy,” crowds of people shouted back numerous times, referring to the large gathering that filled the park on a cold spring morning, which minus snow and rain, felt much like the No Kings gathering in October 2025.

If the rally appeared sparse just before the 10 a.m. start time, it blossomed a roughly 450-person event, organizers estimated. Music, poetry and speeches filled the air.

Greenport High School senior Faith Welch donned a sweatshirt with the words “ICE kills,” and said safety is not promised to everyone on an equal basis.

“We speak for those who cannot,” she said.

The Greenport demonstration was just one gathering scheduled on the East End, with rallies protesting President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies, especially on immigration, also taking place in Sag Harbor, Hampton Bays and Riverhead.

“Everyone should feel safe,” said Tricia Martinez, a Youth Connect Crisis Counselor at OLA, who with her colleagues works on Eastern Long Island to represent the needs of the immigrant community.

Shelter Island resident Vicki Weslek took the ferry over in the morning with several others, and when she boarded, the passenger cabin “was full,” she said. About 30 people made the trip and were joined by 10 or so others on the Greenport side.

Ms. Weslek said that Islanders were in sync with the crowd’s attitude, which was “upbeat, energized and motivated,” and that the speakers were inspiring.

She was especially moved by a poem read by Sarah Burnes, but written by an unidentified Latina high school senior who chose to have Ms. Burnes read her poem rather than to do so herself, choosing her own safety above the desire to be a part of the event. “Liberty and justice for all — unless you are an immigrant,” the young poet wrote.

Her words spoke of those immigrants who harvest food for the tables of those who reject them.

“I’m wishing that one day I will not be afraid,” she wrote.

According to published reports, there were 16 rallies and marches Saturday on Long Island and more than 3,000 protests across the country.

“We have to remind one another of what we can be,” said Kathryn Casey Quigley, chair of the Southold Democratic Committee. “We have to repeat that we are going to persist.”

What do kings do, the Rev. Roger Joslin of Greenport’s Holy Trinity Church and Mattituck’s Church of the Redeemer asked, and then answered his own question. Kings “take the vulnerable first,” send other people’s children to war and count on others to be fearful of speaking out.

“Not here, not now,” he said.

“We have a duty to continue to fight,” Southold Councilman Brian Mealy said, declaring there can be no fear, no hate, no lies and no kings.

Following the more than hour-long speeches, the group marched through the Village, carrying their signs and spreading their messages, hoping to inspire others to join their numbers for future rallies.

“We are working for a more perfect union,” Assemblyman Tommy John Schiavoni (D-Sag Harbor) said of efforts being made in Albany “to push back, like the First Amendment tells you to do.”