Editors note: Lex King was present on the night President Trump ordered the takedown of the William Thomas Memorial Peace Vigil. They gave this first person account of activists’ actions which kept the U.S. Park Police from removing the Peace Vigil entirely. As of Tuesday night, the Peace Vigil was continuing operations and being staffed by multiple activists but without its main tent structure.
“If this tent goes, watch yourself and your families next,” activist Rio Phillips warned a growing crowd on Friday, September 5th. Night had already fallen over the city when he’d received word that the William Thomas Memorial Peace Vigil could be taken down at any moment. Phillips and a group of supporters flocked to Lafayette Square to defend the longest running protest in American history.
The Peace Vigil began in 1981, running 24/7. Vigil keepers used a blue tent to take shelter from the elements and store materials. According to permitting laws in Washington D.C., the tent did not require a permit as long as someone was actively attending to it, meaning the tent couldn’t be left alone for any period of time. That’s why protestors were immediately alarmed when they got the call that the vigil’s attendant had been removed from the tent.
When they arrived at Lafayette Square, police tape blocked the entrance to the park with multiple Park Police officers guarding it. Protestors were stuck on the sidewalk, trying to spot the tent in the dark. Police assured the group they’d closed the square down for a congressional picnic, not to take down the tent, but it did little to quell the group’s fear.
Earlier that day, Trump found out about the Vigil on live television after a right-wing personality levied slanderous accusations that the tent was hiding weapons. Trump responded, “Take it down. Take it down today, right now.”
Needless to say, they had real reason to be concerned.
For nearly three hours, organizers gathered around the police tape, keeping their gazes trained on the tent in the distance. The group consisted of members of a nearby 24/7 veterans’ protest, FLARE, and 50501. Some protestors made snide comments about the timing of the tent’s possible removal. On the same day, Trump issued an executive order ‘renaming’ the Department of Defense to the Department of War. Was it a coincidence that he wanted the Peace Vigil in his backyard gone, too?
Phillips brought out a megaphone, chanting and providing commentary. “Show us your cankles!” He repeated throughout the night, referring to the President. “He can barely stand up! What he does stand up for is genocide and pedophilia.”
Phillips, who is campaigning for one of West Virginia’s Senate seats, has volunteered at the vigil for 20 years, since the George Bush era. His campaign identifies peace first foreign policy as one of his priorities. Reflecting on the potential end to the historic vigil, he said, “To be in town while we face this, it moves me more than I can put into words.”
At times, he led the crowd in simple chants, including, “Leave the vigil alone!” When the crowd died down, Phillips spoke on the symbolic importance of the Peace Vigil, not just to the anti-war movement, but to democracy itself. He spoke to Philipos Melaku-Bello, a long-time vigil attendant, highlighting the vigil’s importance: “Constitutional liberties don’t have a curfew. They don’t have hours of operation.”
Another protestor echoed that sentiment, taking the megaphone briefly to share what the vigil meant to them. “It’s been here 44 years…and counting,” they added pointedly. “It’s profoundly American, just like the First Amendment. If you sit idly by while they tear down the longest running protest in the world, you represent the end of America as we know it.”
“First amendment’s gone, now are they going to tell you you don’t have the right to say things to your children? Because once the freedom of speech is gone, they can impose things.” Melaku-Bello spoke to the gathered media outlets, reiterating the vigil’s importance to free speech. “It wouldn’t be the first time. Alexander the Great did it, the Third Reich did it, the browncoats who turned in their grandparents, their parents, their uncles, their aunts, their best friends’ parents.”
He wasn’t the first one to make the comparison to Nazi Germany that night. In fact, multiple protestors compared Trump’s actions to Hitler’s. One held a sign that depicted a figure punching a swastika.
Despite the message about freedom of speech, Melaku-Bello had one even bigger takeaway, waving his hands and shouting, “It’s deflection again, release the Epstein files!” A chorus of agreement rose from the crowd.
At one point, a man pulled out a guitar, playing a song he wrote, aptly named “Trump is a punk-ass bitch.” Protestors danced along the sidewalk and sang the chorus into their megaphones.
Shortly before 11 p.m., police took down the tape and allowed the group to re-enter the park, where they found the tent still up. The crowd cheered and took photos together, celebrating their brief win. They had stood guard for hours to protect the bastion of free speech.
Despite their brief victory, police removed the tent Sunday morning, but allowed Melaku-Bello to remain without it, leaving the future of the vigil unclear. Although the tent was removed days later, Friday reminded the people that in a regime that worked as quickly as Trump’s, their collective action had bought something money never could: time.
