Of six in the region, the bayfront demonstration was the largest.
By Gretchen Cochran and Jennifer Johnston
Original Air Date: April 9, 2025
Photos by Tamara Solum
Host: More that 1,200 “Hands-Off” protests nationwide mobilized millions of people this Saturday. That included hundreds in Venice and Englewood and hundreds more at two protests in Bradenton. The two biggest Hands-Off events were in Sarasota. Jennifer Johnston was at the downtown bayfront protest; Gretchen Cochran covered the protest at the Sarasota Tesla dealership. Let’s begin with Gretchen.
Protesters: Trump needs to go! Trump needs to go! Trump needs to go!
Gretchen Cochran: Cheryl and Dan Myers were not representing any political party. We found them on the curb near the Tesla showroom on University Parkway between the University Town Center mall and I-75, joining an estimated thousand others. They’d come north from their Venice home to be one of the many “Hands Off” demonstrators Saturday. They’d already been to a number of street demonstrations over the last few weeks, registering their discontent with the Trump administration.
“This is what everybody should be doing,” they said.
Speaker: He’s [unintelligible] our Social Security. Some people are relying on that. They can’t get the people to answer the phone. It’s talking about Veterans Affairs. It’s just everything. It’s been research—cancer research—my daughter works in pediatric oncology. We need people looking at the vaccines, looking at what we need to do for the flu for this coming season. They’re gutting all of the services that we depend on every single day.
GC: Officers sat idly by in two police cars and on two motorcycles about half a block away.
Meanwhile, Valerie Gloinski, clad in her National Park Service cap, stood quietly by. She’s not very big, hardly representing a Smokey the Bear-type the Park Service has made famous. She’s recently retired from her park ranger job, noting the department was 20 percent below staffing levels when she left. That was before DOGE took a chainsaw to it.
Gloinski worked in the Blue Ridge Parkway at the Music Center, the Madery Mill and Doughton Park in North Carolina, telling stories and teaching local lore to tourists passing through.
Her cap carried not only the well-known NPS logo but another one denoting the Manhattan Project Museum, where she had also worked, teaching about World War II and our development of the bomb that ended it.
“I know my history. And I am scared,” she said, noting recent events seeming too similar to the run-up to that second world war.
Also among the crowd was Fran Tulski, a Manatee Indivisible organizer. “Our movement is growing,” she said. 150 showed up at the first organizing event less than two months ago. Since then, there have been a thousand views on its Facebook page.
Indivisible is not the only organization piling on. There’s 50-50-1, the national group seeking 50 demonstrations in all 50 states.
“It takes time to build a movement,” said Jeff Fox, another Indivisible organizer. That’s the ultimate purpose of these demonstrations. He pointed to the civil rights movement decades ago, explaining that it takes 3.5 percent of the population to make change. That would be 12 million people in the U.S. The weekend’s numbers had not yet been amassed, so he wasn’t sure how close they are.
Reporting for WSLR News, Gretchen Cochran.
Host: The protest in downtown Sarasota began a couple of hours later.
[Vehicles honking]
Jennifer Johnston: This is Jennifer Johnston with WSLR 96.5 FM in Sarasota, Florida. I’m here at the Hands Off protest where we have folks gathered on the Bayfront Park side as well as across the street. We are seeing lots of folks with signs. They stand with Cory Booker. “Hands Off”—our Social Security, our Medicare.
We’re seeing a lot of individuals with peace signs and thumbs up. There seems to be a positive feeling. It is hot outside today, and folks are out here with their signs crossing the Ringling Bridge over the newly renamed Gulf of America. We’re seeing lots of folks honking and giving thumbs up. I would say there are very few folks who are engaging as opponents from their cars. I did not see anyone out with bullhorns or any opposition.
It seemed to be a very peaceful, unifying experience and a lot of “We the people” and the power of momentum—of individuals raising their voices together. It feels more like a rally than a protest.
Host: This was Jennifer Johnston, reporting for WSLR from downtown Sarasota on Saturday. It was difficult to assess the number of protesters because many were constantly on the move, walking across the bridge. There were several thousand. To onlookers, the crowd felt bigger than the first anti-Trump protest in February, which had an estimated 2,000 participants.
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