More than 200 people gathered outside the Suffolk County Supreme Court in Riverhead Saturday morning for one of some 1,200 “Hands Off!” rallies across the United States to protest the Trump administration’s actions on government downsizing, tariffs, human rights and other issues. The demonstrations were scheduled to take place in all 50 states, with the largest on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Saturday afternoon.
The rally in Riverhead, from 11 a.m. till just before noon, was one of four on the East End and a total of seven rallies in Suffolk County. Other rallies took place Saturday afternoon in Greenport, East Hampton, Sag Harbor, Patchogue, Port Jefferson Station and Farmingville, according to Mobilize, a technology platform created for volunteers to organize events, meetings, petition drives and other actions.
Riverhead Town Democratic Committee Chairperson Laura Jens-Smith, standing at the top of the courthouse steps on Griffiing Avenue, opened and ended the rally with a call to action.
“We are here working to defend our democracy, to support human rights, free speech, voting rights, and education,” Jens-Smith told the crowd, which spilled off the sidewalks and into the street, which Riverhead Police closed to vehicular traffic between Second and Court streets.
After reciting a brief litany of some of the actions taken by President Trump’s executive orders and by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, Jens-Smith said, “We are here because we believe in liberty and we believe in justice. We believe in lending a hand to our neighbors that need it and we believe in everyone — everyone — paying their fair share of taxes. And we are here because we are no longer going to stand for this.”
Jen-Smith said Americans will not accept authoritarian rule.
“We are the children, the grandchildren, the descendants of those who left their homes for a new life in America, who came America to escape dictators, to escape famine, and to escape the hardships and live in the land of the free,” Jens-Smith said. “And today we thank those who came before us and work for those who will come after us,” she said. “So no one — no one — will say, we stood by and let America die.”
Despite being buffeted by strong winds under threatening skies, the crowd was loud and enthusiastic as Jens-Smith, followed by Democratic candidate for Riverhead Town supervisor Jerry Halpin, Democratic candidate for county legislator Greg Doroski spoke, and Riverhead Democratic Committee members Angela DeVito and Claudette Bianco, urged people to stay engaged and take action.
John Avlon, author and former CNN anchor who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in New York’s First Congressional District last year, urged the crowd to stand strong and call up their “better angels” in “a positive movement, an inclusive movement” to “push back on those who are trying to intimidate us.”
“Together we do it — positive, patriotic and unafraid,” Avlon said.
“Abraham Lincoln reminded us that democracy is about government of, for and by the people,” Avlon said. “And that’s not what’s happening now.”
Avlon said the administration is trying to “erode the bonds that bring us together and attempt to cow the citizens to make us afraid.”
“And so part of our message today is we will not be afraid,” Avlon said. “We know what we’re doing. We are wide awake. We are not sleeping through this moment where they come after Social Security and Medicaid, try to destroy the Department of Education, erode our environmental legislation, and all the things that we’ve done together to try to form a more perfect union. They do want us to be afraid. They want us to give up. They want us to get down, but we’re not going to look down. We’re going to look forward, together,” Avlon said.
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