Breaking News: Man assaulted at `No Kings' protest in Glens Falls

UPDATE: Police found what was believed to be a weapon on man

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Five streets converge in the center of Glens Falls to a round-about that has the regal name of Centennial Circle. There are five prominent corners and each of those corners were filled with people waving signs of protest Saturday.

As cars circled the roundabout, cars and truck honked their horns.

The crowd chanted.

The crowd cheered.

And for the first time in a long time, I had hope.

I estimated a crowd of more than 1,000 at Centennial Circle in downtown Glens Falls Saturday morning.

People for standing up for what is right.

This was one of the 2,000 "No Kings" protests going on all over the country protesting the assault on American democracy and the liberties that are being taken away.

I walked from one corner to another. I estimated there were as many as 250 people at each of the five corners. That means more than 1,000 people were downtown standing up for their rights.

In the past, the protests were limited to dozens, senior citizens with the time to protest, but this crowd was different. It was a cross section of every age group. They were enthusiastic and held their signs of protest over their head.

Signs of protest were everywhere in downtown Glens Falls Saturday morning. It’s as if five months of disgust had been unleashed in one morning.

They appeared to be sick and tired and not going to take it any more.

One woman stopped and said she was shedding a few tears of joy.

Don Lehman, the former police and courts reporter for The Post-Star, was standing on the corner where Glen Street intersects with Hudson Avenue by Raul's Mexican Grill.

At about 10;45 a.m., Don watched a man wearing a Trump shirt make his way down Glen Street toward the corner in front of Raul's. The man was saying things to people along the way.

Eventually, Don kept watched him for awhile, then lost track of him.

Don worked for 30 years at The Post-Star and was as tough a reporter as we ever had. He covered murders, robberies, expositions, fatal fires and car accidents and never lost his cool. I'd describe him as "tough as nails."

Suddenly, the man was trying to push past him.

Don wouldn't move.

"I'm just standing here," he said to the man.

Don's wife, Lisa, turned to see the two men nose-to-nose.

Don Lehman and other witnesses talk to Glens Falls Police after Lehman was punched during the “No Kings” rally in downtown Glens Falls.

"He then began to call myself and my wife names and got in my face and called me a "faggot" and said `I have a job' and kept telling me to go to the parking lot," Don said in his statement to Glens Falls Police." Then the male punched me in the lower abdomen. I doubled over and then the man tried to walk away."

To be clear, the man punch Don below the belt.

He then tried to run off. Two young women saw it and jumped on the man. As he pulled away, another man name Travis joined the fray and pushed him to the ground. Others began calling for the police stationed in the middle of the roundabout.

Don saw the man was starting to get up and feared he would get away, so he helped hold the man for the police.

Don told police he had never seen the man before.

Glens Falls Police take away the man who alleged assaulted a Queensbury man during the “No Kings” rally in downtown Glens Falls Saturday.

Glens Falls Police Department officers took over from there, loaded the assailent into the police car and took him to the nearby police station. Glens Falls Police interviewed Don and the other witnesses and Don went to the police station to swear out a complaint.

At the police station, Lehman asked for an ordfer of protection from the man and to be reimbursed for a pair of glasses that were damaged in the fray.

About 15 minutes later an Adirondack Plumbing Truck drove through the intersection and someone inside the truckk sprayed a liquid substance at demonstrators.

Another pickup truck showing a Trump flag on one side, drove repeatedly through the intersection with the passengers giving the middle finger to those in the crowd.

As I was leaving the rally, that same truck passed in front of City Hall on Ridge Street where the driver was screaming "Find something to do, you losers." The woman in the back had her middle finger extended again.

Forget about California, Hometown, USA was having its moment.

Standing on the corner, I noticed an alert from the New York Times on my phone.

A Minnesota state legislature and her husband were murdered in their home in a political assassination where the assailant posed as a policeman.

This no longer seemed like America.

And I feared things will get much worse here in Hometown, USA.

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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.