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Warsaw was one of more than 2,000 locations for the No Kings demonstrations Saturday to protest President Donald Trump’s administration.
Robert Osbun, treasurer of the Kosciusko County Democrats, said the Kosciusko County Democrats were part of the organizers for Warsaw’s protest, citing there was a need for people to get out and have their voices heard. He believed there were over 200 people at the protest on Detroit Street.
Some of the issues Osbun cited for him being at the protest included the degradation of the nation’s democracy, the National Guard being sent to U.S. cities like Chicago and Washington, D.C., ignoring court orders, attacks on free speech and ruling through executive orders instead of through Congress.
There have been several protests in Warsaw since the beginning of the second Trump administration in January. Osbun said he believes the protests have grown over the past couple of months. He said he wants people to know they’re not alone in their frustrations and not to be afraid to speak out.
Don Guthrie, vice chair of the Kosciusko County Democrats, said he was protesting Saturday because he believes Trump is going beyond his authority as president.
He said with the tariffs the administration is imposing on other countries, “he should be getting authority through Congress” and courts have ruled Trump doesn’t have the authority to implement the tariffs.
Another reason Guthrie talked about was due process in regards to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and deportations, citing the Fifth Amendment.
“No person shall be held to answer for a capital, otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment of indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger ...,” states the Fifth Amendment, in part.
Guthrie said the Fifth Amendment requires everyone, not just United States citizens, to be given due process of the law. Guthrie said the administration’s deportations without hearings are illegal.
One thing people aren’t talking about, Guthrie said, is the vast majority of National Guard personnel deployed to cities like Chicago are part-time. “They’re ripped away from their families” and jobs and being sent to cities that are not the highest crime problems in the country.
Guthrie said the protests over the last couple months have grown. He thought there are people who are afraid to say how they really feel. He feels with the protests, people are more empowered to say how they really feel.
Suzette Clayton was at Saturday’s protest because she spent her career in education taking care of children and feels the current administration has done a great deal of harm to the nation’s children.
“Our Education Department is in shatters ...,” Clayton said.
She added WIC, housing costs and SNAP benefits are going to be more complicated due to Trump administration policies.
She said the government should support education, whether it be through tax money or some sort of encouragement. She added if the system is broken, it should be fixed and not necessarily torn down.
Clayton has been at every protest in Warsaw and said she votes and calls her representative. Protesting is just another way to show the way the government is working isn’t necessarily representative of how the constituents feel.
Gary Tuttle, a Navy veteran, said he was protesting because of Trump’s attack on the Constitution and the Supreme Court, ICE has overstepped its bounds and Tuttle wants to stand up for Americans.
Tuttle said Trump is signing executive orders that go against the Constitution, trying to limit the press and free speech and “he’s prosecuting people that could not be prosecuted and he’s arresting people that should not be arrested.” Tuttle said ICE should be arresting criminals and have arrested U.S. citizens in some of their raids, which he claimed was “unAmerican.”
Saturday was Tuttle’s second protest he attended so he could exhibit his constitutional right to assemble peacefully and protest.
