Carol Swan went to her first-ever protest in Denver’s Civic Center on Saturday dressed like Lady Liberty — a tiara of crystals and wire, a teal bedsheet-turned-dress that belonged to her late grandmother and a torch fashioned from aluminum foil.

The 74-year-old Lochbuie resident doesn’t like crowds. She normally protests alone every weekend on a busy street corner in the north metro area.

“But when we face our fears, they become less and less,” she said.

Swan was among tens of thousands of Coloradans who joined demonstrations across the state on Saturday to protest policies carried out by President Donald Trump’s administration as part of the nationwide “No Kings” movement.

No Kings organizers have criticized the administration’s use of masked federal agents for “terrorizing our communities,” the war in Iran and “attacks on our freedom of speech, our civil rights, our freedom to vote.”

Protesters filled Civic Center and spilled into surrounding streets Saturday as speakers led songs and chants and encouraged attendees to stand up for what they believed in.

Swan’s reason for driving into the city was simple: to be among the voices saying they don’t support the president.

“Trump swore at his inauguration that he would uphold the Constitution, and he’s done anything but that,” she said.

This is the third nationwide No Kings demonstration in less than a year, with previous protests in June and October also drawing tens of thousands of people onto the streets across Colorado. More than 70 protests were scheduled statewide Saturday, from Burlington to Steamboat Springs and Cortez to Fort Collins. No Kings organizers said nearly 4,000 demonstrations were planned nationwide.

Denver’s No Kings protest began on the steps of the Capitol shortly before noon, with attendees hoisting signs criticizing cuts to foreign aid and sharing expletive-laden messages against Trump. Several woman dressed as suffragettes in floor-length dresses, formal pantsuits and hats and carried signs or wore sashes that demanded “Votes for Women.”

Lifelong Denverite Christina De Luna, 29, was watching the crowd mill around a closed-off Broadway with a Mexican flag tied around her shoulders.

“I come from a family of immigrants, and I feel like this is a way of supporting them and taking a stance on the right side of history,” she said.

De Luna said she thinks the protests make a difference: They raise awareness about what’s going on in the U.S. and remind people to come together as a community.

“What’s going on in the world right now with immigrants and anyone who looks and sounds different, it’s not OK,” she said. “We should all be treated equally, and coming out here is about fighting for equality and basic human rights.”

Partners Diane Larson, 67, and Don Hiser, 72, drove from Parker to join the No Kings demonstration in downtown Denver. The couple said they were dismayed by what was happening in the country — that they lived through the Vietnam War and civil rights movement, and things had never been this bad.

“I think this is a start,” Hiser said. “You have to start somewhere, and if you don’t show up, you don’t change anything.”

“We care about what happens to people,” Larson added. “It’s really important to make sure everyone’s voices are heard, because we’re not standing idly by.”

Saturday was also the first time Ajani Brown, 33, attended a protest. Brown came to the park dressed as Captain America to pass out flyers with his union. He shared a hug and fist-bump with a passing Spider-Man.

“It feels like I’m doing something that’s a lot bigger than myself,” he said. “It’s about righteousness. It’s about freedom of expression.”

Demonstrators began marching through downtown about 1:30 p.m., with the crowds spanning city blocks. A video taken from a high-rise at 19th and Lincoln streets and shared on social media by Christine Piel shows marchers at 19th Avenue and Lincoln Street, with the crowd stretching south down Lincoln and out of view toward Civic Center.

Although the protest appeared to stay largely peaceful, Denver police officers used smoke cannisters and pepper balls to disperse a “small group of demonstrators” who blocked the road near 20th and Wazee streets, where police were staged to stop people from marching onto Interstate 25, agency officials said.

Police declared an unlawful assembly at 2:35 p.m. and used the smoke cannisters, switching to pepper balls when someone threw a cannister back at police. Eight people were arrested, and one person was arrested about two hours later for throwing things.

No Kings protests across the Front Range also saw significant crowds, including at least 3,000 people in Longmont.

Carlos Álvarez-Aranyos, founder of the Boulder-based group American Opposition, criticized Trump’s handling of the war with Iran and the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“If one man can ignore the law, detain people without due process and drag this country into a war without the consent of its people, then we are no longer living in a democracy,” he said. “We are living under a king, and we are here today because we refuse to accept that.”

More than 1,000 people gathered at Lincoln Park in downtown Greeley, where residents Kyleen and Kathy Gilliland carried a large flag as they marched with the group around the streets near the park.

“Our country is in distress,” Kyleen Gilliland said. “It’s going upside down because the rich are empowered and the little guy is left behind. And that’s not what America stands for.”

Times-Call reporter Dana Cadey and Greeley Tribune reporter Anne Delaney contributed to this report.

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