Hundreds protest outside Baumgartner’s office in ‘walk-out on fascism’

About 200 protesters lined Spokane Falls Boulevard near the WSU Spokane campus Tuesday afternoon, passing cars honking in response to their numerous “No thrones, no crowns, no kings” signs.

Part of a national protest led by the organization Women’s March, ads for the event described it as a “walk out on fascism.”

A general discontent with President Donald Trump and the aggressive actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis – including the recent killing of Renee Good – spurred the protest, while residents of Eastern Washington specifically called on GOP Rep. Michael Baumgartner for change.

“We’ve got an angry community,” said Sami Perry, an organizer with Indivisible Spokane.

Mary Churchill said of Baumgartner: “And he votes with Trump all the time. I mean, he backs him up all the time, or whatever he’s doing. A lot of it has to do with the economy, but a lot of it’s more of a moral situation where he, you know, thought it was OK to shoot that poor lady in the face.”

Trump on Tuesday said that ICE will “make mistakes sometimes,” referencing Good’s killing.

Protester Tracy Carbonneau described himself as “part of the resistance, in terms of the Trump administration and what they’re trying to do to our country.”

“The fascism, the racism, the hatred – everything that the Make America Great Again, the MAGA movement, stands for – I am against,” he said.

Carbonneau said he calls Baumgartner nearly every day and receives little more than a standardized email.

“I think that’s part of my role to try to affect change, and I can’t do it by just quietly sitting at home,” Carbonneau said.

But Churchill said many people think it is useless to be outside, protesting in Spokane.

“I think it helps a lot to see people out,” she said. “And unless you stand up and say something and are just quiet and sitting at home, they’re not going to know that … that’s really what they want us to do, I think, is just be afraid.”

Many high school students also walked out earlier Tuesday.

“That’s exactly what we need,” she said. “We need their voices, and we need them to be standing up and speaking out again, not to be silent.”