by Dick Hall-Sizemore

Thousands of Virginians participated in “No Kings” demonstrations yesterday to protest actions of the Trump administration.

Crowd-size estimates are always tricky to judge.  Organizers tend to exaggerate turnout; police departments have begun to shy away from providing estimates; often, press reports do not identify the source of the estimates. With those caveats in mind, here is a sampling of crowd sizes around the Commonwealth (if the report identified the source of the estimate, it is noted in the comments):

Richmond—The Capitol Police estimated 3,500-4,000 in attendance. The organizers claimed more than 14,000 participated. The difference may be a result of different venues. The demonstration started in Capitol Square, where the Capitol Police were on duty, and proceeded up Broad St. to Monroe Park at VCU. 

Hampton Roads—Virginia Beach:  3,000 (organizers); Williamsburg: 5,000 (organizers)

Charlottesville—“at least 10,000” (organizers)

Roanoke—“over 2,000”

Staunton—1,700

Fredericksburg—“More than 2,000”

Demonstrations were also scheduled in Norfolk, Chesapeake, Newport News, Fairfax, and other localities, but press reports were not available this afternoon.

There was no violence reported nor any arrests. Demonstrators in Staunton recited the Pledge of Allegiance and sang the Star-Spangled Banner.

In anticipation of the demonstrations, Gov. Glenn Youngkin had put the Virginia National Guard on “state active duty conducting training.” It is not clear what such status entails, although reportedly “a task force made up of a ‘Quick Reaction Force’ and ‘Ready Reaction Force’ are set to be staged outside of Richmond on Friday, including a ‘Non-Lethal Weapons Platoon.’ Presumably, other National Guard troops placed on active duty during the weekend were to report to their readiness centers (they are no longer called armories) where weekend training is usually held.  Since there was not much

for them to do, perhaps the Governor could have had them be useful by picking up trash when the demonstrations were over as was the case in D.C. earlier this year.