We had a situation evolve at my small local no kings. After an hour chilling, a trump supporter pulled up in a truck, unloaded a giant MAGA flag and planted himself right in the middle of the group. He was non violent, said very little, and mostly just stood there.
The supervising police would not remove him, and told us he had "the same right to be there that we have".
Obviously we were all quite uncomfortable having this shit flag overshadowing us, but no one was sure what could be done about it, so we sucked it up and continued on as if he wasn't there.
How would you have handled this situation? Is there anytime that can be done in the future to prevent this?
Ps Fuck trump and his cult.
You're allowed to use your words and make the assholes feel just as, if not more, uncomfortable than you are. Shout at them without using or threatening violence. It's what we did as part of our counter-protest when the Proud Boy fuckfaces basically had a klan rally in our city a few years ago. If you out number them, they will be the ones shitting their pants and hopefully leaving.
At the protest yesterday, two trucks drove down the main road we were at with huge anti-protest traffic-view-obstructing flags. A big group of us from the sidewalk started chanting "WE LOVE YOU. WE LOVE YOU" aggressively at them til traffic moved again. I thought it was very wholesome and appropriate effort.
He definitely got his share of jeers and shouts before we switched to ignoring but he was like a stone statue, quite frustrating.