Despite warnings from officials urging people not to attend the "No Kings" rally in St. Paul on Saturday due to safety concerns tied to the targeted political shootings of two state lawmakers, thousands made their way to the state Capitol to protest the Trump administration.
In the US, generally, you aren’t so much asking permission as giving notice that your expecting a generate a crowd, despite the phrasing. Freedoms of speech, assembly and association are still a thing.
The purpose behind it is to give emergency services a heads up to minimize obstruction of normal or emergency traffic and to provide some level of crowd control to minimize the chance of flash stampedes. Like if some idiot sets off a firework, everyone thinks it’s a gunshot and started running.
Approval is generally automatic, but failure to go through the approval process could result in your peaceful protest turning into a riot, or being declared a riot.
As far as I know though, the Portland protest, and the assassinations of the Minnesota legislator, Melissa Hortman, and her husband, seem to have been the exceptions.
After the shots, everyone scattered and the shooter hid among others who were trying to shelter & take cover. Some hero noticed the rifle sticking out of his bag, grabbed the bag and called police over:
If a protest requires permission it isn’t a protest.
In the US, generally, you aren’t so much asking permission as giving notice that your expecting a generate a crowd, despite the phrasing. Freedoms of speech, assembly and association are still a thing.
The purpose behind it is to give emergency services a heads up to minimize obstruction of normal or emergency traffic and to provide some level of crowd control to minimize the chance of flash stampedes. Like if some idiot sets off a firework, everyone thinks it’s a gunshot and started running.
Approval is generally automatic, but failure to go through the approval process could result in your peaceful protest turning into a riot, or being declared a riot.
They were declared riots before they even started.
I was about to reply that today’s protests seem to have gone off peacefully till this article came up in my news feeds.
https://www.opb.org/article/2025/06/14/portland-police-ice-facility-riot/
As far as I know though, the Portland protest, and the assassinations of the Minnesota legislator, Melissa Hortman, and her husband, seem to have been the exceptions.
Today in SLC someone took a rifle to our march and shot a protestor. Last I heard the victim didn’t make it.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2025/06/14/crowd-gathers-salt-lake-city-march/
After the shots, everyone scattered and the shooter hid among others who were trying to shelter & take cover. Some hero noticed the rifle sticking out of his bag, grabbed the bag and called police over:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXjidb2vNwI
Protests turn into riots when the police wanted to, exactly then, and very rarely before that point.