09-05-2025
May Day demonstration, a day of reflection
Protesters in Baltimore leave Camden Yards to march to the Inner Harbor during May Day demonstrations this year. (Photo by Danielle J. Brown/Maryland Matters).
This year, May Day demonstrations swept across the nation in protest against President Trump and sometime 'Co-President' Elon Musk. People took to the streets in over 1,000 peaceful demonstrations in opposition to the chaotic policies and actions of the second Trump administration.
For me, May Day was a day of reflection as I attended a modest size demonstration in Frederick. It was not the first May Day demonstration for me. My first was in May 1971. May 2025 was different for me: I was a protester this time.
In May 1971, I was in Washington, D.C., as a member of the Metropolitan Police Department's Special Operations Division, Tactical Branch. I was a member of the Civil Disturbance Unit, trained in crowd control, mass arrest procedures and the deployment of special chemical weapons (tear gas).
Following a peaceful demonstration by 175,000 protesters on April 25, up to 40,000 protesters set out the next day for their 'spring offensive' to disrupt government by closing downtown Washington on May Day. Their slogan was, 'If the government won't stop the war, we'll stop the government.'
Marching orders for demonstrators were provided in a tactical manual published many months in advance. It described how to carry out civil disobedience. It included photos and maps of targeted locations and tactics to be employed by protesters who set out to overwhelm police capacity to respond.
From April 26 through May 7, as protesters carried out their planned civil disobedience, over 12,000 arrests were made, with over 7,000 arrests on May 3 alone.
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In stark contrast, this year's May Day drew hundreds of thousands of protesters across the United States in cities and towns, large and small, with comparatively few arrests. There were speeches by politicians, community leaders and protest organizers — and there were protest signs of all shapes and sizes expressing dissatisfaction with the current direction of our nation.
Although both May Day demonstrations were protesting the policies and actions of presidential administrations, one attempted to close the government for an administration's actions during the Vietnam War and the other denounced an administration's attempt to decimate federal services and our democratic form of government.
The foremost difference between the demonstrations of 1971 and today have to do with the motives of the demonstrators and the provocations that brought them to the streets.
In 1971, President Nixon, for all of his faults — and there were many, including the continued prosecution of the Vietnam War — was trying to preserve government services, keeping offices open during the demonstrations and ensuring personnel could get to work and do their jobs.
President Trump, on the other hand, has been attempting to shut down the government, to bring our democratic form of governance to its knees with indiscriminate firings, withholding congressionally authorized funding and closing many federal offices.
The 1971 protesters, using civil disobedience, tried to shut down the government. Today's demonstrators, organized by the 50501 Movement, used peaceful demonstrations to protest the dismantling of government and to preserve our democracy and way of life.
I have now seen things from both sides, as a law enforcement officer attempting to keep the peace as well as a protester, peacefully exercising our First Amendment 'right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.'
As we enter what will undoubtedly be a summer of widespread protest, I want to implore demonstrators to remain peaceful and respectful, particularly the law enforcement officers there to ensure their safety and the safety of others. Be careful not to do anything that would provoke an unwanted response from the police.
Remember, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that when demonstrations filled Washington's streets after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, then-President Trump asked authorities if they could shoot protesters in the legs. 'Can't you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?' was said to be Trump's question.
Similarly, former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley said Trump called for law enforcement to handle protesters and 'crack their skulls.'
Law enforcement, 'peace officers,' are reminded of their oath of office, to protect and defend the Constitution. As summer heats up in both temperature and rhetoric, it will be important for officers to keep cool heads and maintain public order while protecting protesters' right 'peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.'
Mass demonstrations can have an impact. A White House Historical Association official said 'the enormity of the protest pushed Nixon to accelerate the nation's exit from Vietnam.' Whether the protests that lay ahead will have the same impact as those of the Vietnam War era, only time will tell.
Let's all pull together to make democracy work!
