Blair County No Kings rally set for Saturday in Downtown Altoona

Event to be held downtown as part of nationwide protests

Indivisible Blair County will hold one of approximately 2,000 No Kings protests slated to occur nationwide on Saturday, according to Indivisible Blair County President Carol Taylor.

"We're facing an authoritarian form of government at this point," Taylor said in a phone interview Monday to speak about the local event, which will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. in Heritage Plaza in downtown Altoona. "That is the concern we're addressing."

Indivisible groups in Blair and Centre counties held a local version of the first iteration of the No Kings rallies in June in Hollidaysburg, and "things (have grown) appreciably worse since then," Taylor said.

Taylor spoke of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in cities, the massive funding infusion ICE has received from the Trump administration and the administration's deployment of National Guard units to cities that don't want them.

She referred to President Donald Trump speaking of "the enemy within."

It is "absolute nonsense" to apply the term to Indivisible, Taylor said.

"We promote democracy for all people -- those who disagree and those who agree," Taylor said.

Planned speakers for the Altoona event include Taylor; Brian Littlehale, owner of Vitruvian leadership; Robert Zeigler, former Democratic candidate for state representative in the 171st District; and Tim Smith, chairperson for the Bill of Rights Defense Committee.

Trump administration allies have criticized Saturday's planned protests.

Focusing on the Washington, D.C., version, House Speaker Mike Johnson called it the "hate America rally," according to articles in Politico and The Hill.

"It's gotten to the point where the administration indicates that peaceful protest is not going to be (accepted)," Taylor said.

Peaceful will be the watchword for the local event, according to Taylor.

"We are a peaceful organization," she said. "Violence of any sort will not be tolerated."

The event is being coordinated with city police, she said, and the organization will have a security team there that is trained in de-escalation.

While anyone has the right to express themselves, the intention is to prevent even verbal disagreements, she said.

"To be sure it won't escalate into anything of consequence," she said.

"This time we're taking extra precautions," she said.