1,000 flood downtown Glens Falls with a message - `No Kings'

Three apprehend assailant after sucker-punching local man

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More than 1,000 people unleashed five months worth of frustration and concern in downtown Glens Falls Saturday morning.

"No Kings!" they proclaimed proudly and enthusiastically with an array of signs and chants reminiscent of the 1960s.

There was a sense the tide may have finally turned.

Not with the authoritarian tendencies of this administration - that fight is still to come - but maybe with public opinion.

There was signs of every shape and size at Centennial Circle Saturday.

For too long there was sense the general public was not paying attention, that it was exhausted by a constant stream of bad news and concerns over the erosion of our democracy and a congresswoman who does not vote in the best interests of anyone in her district.

There was a feeling that no one cared or understood what was happening.

But that changed Saturday morning as a crowd formed at 10 a.m. at the five-way intersection known as Centennial Circle in Glens Falls and continued to build the rest of the morning until it was over 1,000 strong.

All five corners in the five-way intersection were packed with protesters in Glens Falls Saturday.

Each corner of the five-way intersection, like the points of a star, were jammed with people armed with their own personal messages, their own concerns and their obvious understanding that the country they loved was being ripped from their grasp.

These things do not happen spontaneously. For much of the winter, the North Country Light Brigade assembled on cold winter evenings on the Quaker Road overpass and the Exit 19 bridge to convey messages of concern.

They were just 10 or so senior citizens trying to make a difference.

It was a beginning.

The Saratoga Springs Public Library community room was overflowing Wednesday to heard about past protests in history.

Then, on Super Bowl Sunday, more than 100 gathered at Crandall Public Library as part of a movement called "Indivisible." That group was responsible for nearly 2000 "No Kings" rallies across the country Saturday.

Then, this past Wednesday, another 100 gathered at the Saratoga Springs Public Library for a pep talk in preparation for Saturday.

This has been building for some time and while I did not know what to expect Saturday, it was not this.

Two hours after the “No Kings” rally began in Glens Falls, it was still going strong.

For two hours under a constant threat of rain, I waited for the rally to run out of gas, for the crowd to gradually wander over to the giant arts festival in the park.

If anything, its passions, its enthusiasm continued to build and get louder.

I sensed the cars weren't just passing through Centennial Circle on the way to somewhere else, but it was their destination as they circled, honked their horns and passengers took their own video of the throngs of people enveloping the center of Glens Falls.

Each person fed off the passion of the person next to them.

The sound of each car horn fueled the crowd.

Raised their spirits.

And it never waned.

Considering the stakes, the worries for our future, for our children's future, for our grandchildren's future, it is no wonder the atmosphere was so electric.

Brothers and sisters coming together for the common good.

Each person at the “No Kings” rally in Glens Falls had their own personal message.

At one point, I stopped and looked from one corner of the circle to the next. I was proud of my city, these people and there wasn't anyone here that needed a civics lesson.

You just had to read the signs to understand that.

Here's the most important point, especially if you think this was a bunch of liberal activists: This was about America, our democracy, our freedoms.

These people were fighting for their way of life.

This group came not only with signs, but with American flags because this is our country, too.

Naturally, there was some opposition.

A pickup truck with a young woman who felt it was appropriate to flash both her middle fingers to the crowd.

Another truck where the occupant squirted a liquid onto the people on the sidewalk.

A man who sucker-punched another and after being taken away to the police station was found to be armed with a portable baton-like weapon.

The man who was attacked was my former colleague at the newspaper, Don Lehman. This man could not have chosen a worse target. Lehman was as respected as any reporter in the Capital District during his nearly 30 years at the Glens Falls newspaper.

He is not someone who will ever be intimidated.

But after the man threw a below-the-belt punch at Lehman - is there any more cowardly actions - and tried to run, two young woman jumped him and would not let him get away. Another man helped hold him down and then Lehman jointed them as well.

Three spectators did not know Lehman, but they did not stand by after he was attacked.

That's inspiring, too.

After filing a complaint against the man, Don and I had a moment on the sidewalk. Don was never someone who felt comfortable in the spotlight, which now seems odd for someone who had more bylines than any reporter in Glens Falls over the past 30 years. When his work was honored for his reporting, he had no interest in attending the awards banquets or getting any credit for the good work.

On Saturday, he worried about this incident going public. Even former reporters worry about being the story.

He also worried whether some politically motivated person might attempt retribution.

Then, quietly and unsurprisingly, Don said, well, sometimes you just have to do what you have to do, the ramifications be damned.

The message is clear Saturday in Glens Falls: The people were sick and tired and not going to take it anymore.

I looked around Centennial Circle.

There were a thousand of them.

Standing up for what they believe.

Smiling, cheering, but maybe most of all, just relieved to be doing something.

This was our city.

This was our country.

We were proud to be Americans again.

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Every corner of Centennial Circle was filled with protesters Saturday. It was unlike anything we have ever seen before.

Covering rally

The Gazette in Schenectady reached out to me for photos at the "No Kings' protest in Glens Falls. The Gazette has always been ambitious in its Capital District coverage, especially when it came to Glens Falls.

When I looked at The Post-Star website Saturday night, there was no coverage of the 1,000 people rallying in the center of downtown.

It's why I continue to do what I do.

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Unwilling to pay

Part of the reason that local news outlets continue to struggle is that readers are unwilling to pay for their news.

Often while promoting my books, I pointed out that most of the people there were willing to pay a couple hundred dollars for cable and more than a hundred dollars for their phone and WiFi, but not a news subscription.

NiemanLab reported this week that trust in local news outlets is still high. It found that 85 percent believe their local news outlets are at least "somewhat" important to their community. Seventy-four percent said the had "a lot of" or "some" trust in their local news organizations.

But only 23 percent said they pay for an online news preport for a local or regional newspaper.

For us here at The Front Page, about 15 percent of our total readers have a paid subscription.

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Here's the problem

The Freedom of the Press Foundation reported this week that over the past 10 years Donald Trump has railed against the press on social media nearly 3,500 times.

Senior reporter Stephanie Sugars concluded Trump "posted, on average, one anti-press post per day for 10 years," and this conclusion: "Behind a decade of attacks on the media lies the president's strategy of control."

How many of you have posted 3,500 times on social media - ever?

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Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.