A huge crowd at the Torrance, CA civic center for the April 5, 2025 "HandsOff!" national day of action. Photo by Keith Herbers (@kherbs.bsky.social).
On Friday night, while starting to prepare for the following day's Hands Off national day of action, my significant other and I were chatting while making signs and putting our game plan together.
"How many people do you really think will show up?" she asked at one point.
I thought for a moment. "Well, think of the local protests we went to during the first Trump term," I said. "They had a few hundred people at each. I'd expect at least that."
"Oh, the way the country is feeling right now, I think it will be more," she replied immediately.
"Look, I hope so," I said. "I'd love to see a thousand people there. But I really don't want to get my hopes up high and pull up and see three people tomorrow and be all disappointed. But if that's what happens, we'll join them and be five people, and we'll kick ass any way we can."
She nodded.
Making our signs on Friday night. Note: we're both experienced at street protests, rallies, and other means of activism, and thought we knew what to expect on April 5. We slightly miscalculated.
Narrator: But There Were Indeed More Than Five People
On Sunday at 11:30 sharp, we got into the Jeep with our signs and our little survival kit, which was basically some water and some bananas and protein bars. And sunscreen. It was a gorgeous, very sunny day but still only in the low 70s... a perfect environment for the mission we were about to undertake.
I had an odd sensation as I was making the very short trip across town from our home in Redondo Beach to the city center of Torrance. It seemed like there was a lot more traffic in the land of suburbia than would normally be expected on a typical Saturday mid-morning.
I didn't think much more of it until, still heading east on Torrance Boulevard, I crossed Hawthorne, and there – still several long blocks away from the event – I already started seeing throngs of people approaching on foot and carrying signs. And then, crossing Madrona and heading toward Maple... what the hell? The event still hadn't officially even started, and yet I saw what looked to be thousands of people were already lining the Torrance streets.
Pulling up to the event – before it even officially started – and thousands of people already lined both the south side of the street...
... and the north.
We parked at the public lot near the courthouse, got our stuff, and started our walk to the heart of the action. It quickly became obvious that Hands Off was going to dwarf any of the other local activism events in which we'd participated in previous years. What we didn't yet know, at that moment, was by how much.
Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign
I have to give credit where it's due. All street protests have good signs. Rarely did I find myself enjoying them as much as I did at this one. And the best part was that despite the fact that there was no single predominant issue of focus, I didn't see a single sign that wasn't an issue I didn't care about or support. And a lot of the signs were super creative and/or hilarious.
Me, choosing to fight for democracy.
Christina with a person who gets it.
From civil rights to human rights, from the economy to equality, every issue that concerns us deeply was well represented.
Biggest Protest Crowd in South Bay History
By the time it was about half past twelve, I stepped out to the sidewalk and looked up the street to try and make an estimate on how many people were there. I'd certainly never seen anything like it in the years of protesting I've done. The line of people, sometimes three and four deep, stretched both sides of Torrance Boulevard from Maple all the way to Madrona.
One of the officials from the local chapter of Indivisible – one of the 150+ groups that aligned to make Hands Off happen – was walking by.
"Hey buddy," I addressed him. "Do we have any idea about attendance numbers yet?"
"It's over 10,000," he replied.
"What?" I screamed. "Uh, how many were you expecting?"
"A thousand," he said with a big grin, and kept walking.
From what I could tell, people were arriving from all over the South Bay. Our neighbors in Redondo Beach. Hermosa. Hawthorne. Gardena. Lomita. Palos Verdes. Lawndale. It was, in a word, impressive, and heartwarming to witness firsthand.
It's almost impossible to convey the size of our little South Bay crowd in any single pic. But it was far more than even in my most wildly optimistic prediction would have been possible.
Proud and patriotic Americans are those who don't accept our country being taken from us.
Local Support
But it wasn't just the crowd that lined the street and gathered around the fountain in front of city hall. On a continuous basis, cars drove by – some with adults, some with families, older people, younger people, people of all races – leaning on their horns and waving and showing support.
One moment surprised me, though in retrospect it's understandable. A squad car passed by (there were actually several of them during the day – we were on the campus of the Torrance Police Department, duh), and in this particular squad, the cops were giving us thumbs-up and fists raised. Hey, law enforcement officers are people – and union members – too.
I can still recall the sound of the constant blare of cars horns and shouted chants ringing in my ears some 24 hours later.
The Right to Peaceably Assemble
That's one of the most important things granted by the First Amendment, and I've always felt that those who don't use their rights are doomed to lose them. And I'm happy to say that at least at my Hands Off event in Torrance, the crowd was very peaceful. Sure, we were boisterous and noisy... a polite protest is a useless protest. But I saw no bad instances of conflict and zero violence. Maybe the worst thing all day was a car or two flipping us the bird while they passed. That turned out to be more comedic than anything, and I heard some people chuckling. I did too. You angry? Good. But among the crowd itself, we were upbeat, happy, and there were no problems that I saw. Not even a single argument.
An understandable display of the upside-down US flag. We are indeed in distress.
As I mentioned, we arrived shortly before noon, and stayed two full hours before we'd had enough of being in the sun with our signs (and voices) raised the whole time. By the way, if you were there and heard a loud middle-aged guy repeating "WHOOO!" and "LET'S GO!" over and over, that was me. I was Mr. Let's Go, simply because other than a few protest chants that seem to happen at each of these events, the focus of our ire was so widespread this time that I took on the role of just revving everyone up no matter what issue was most important to them.
They're all important to me. Let's go!
Additional Notes
There were some people who were speaking at the fountain area in front of city hall, but as if often the case at these small local events, little thought had been given to these people actually being heard. Honestly, I have thought of offering my assistance in helping them acquire a small and portable but sufficiently loud PA system so that this could be improved. Also, I am aware that city ordinances prevent many of these action events from being loud enough to be a local nuisance. Boo!
But the end result was that anyone beyond a few feet away from the speakers had no chance of hearing what was being said, with car horns and drums and loud chants taking place. It was a shame, because they did have some great speakers lined up to address the big crowd, including the iconic Democratic congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-43), who has served people in the area for over 30 years, since 1991.
I found yesterday's Hands Off event to be exhilarating, inspiring, and full of optimism that indeed, we will use every tool in the box to fight off Trump, Musk, and their oligarch friends. I understand that more events are in the works, so let's end with just three words.
Count. Us. In.
And... LET'S GO!
Note: all photos and video (other than the top one as indicated) are from me and Christina.
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