"Whose flag? Our flag!"
June 14, 2025
Robert B. Hubbell
On June 14, 2025, we must reclaim the American flag as a symbol of democracy. Anti-democratic forces have hijacked the flag, converting it into a symbol of exclusion, oppression, and hate—the antithesis of its true meaning. The American flag was purchased with the blood and sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of Americans who believed in a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”
The US flag does not belong to the military, the Army, the Navy, the Marines, or the National Guard. It does not belong to Republicans, MAGA extremists, or white supremacists. It does not represent America’s mythological past that is the object of the hate-fueled motto, “Make America Great Again.”
Rather, it belongs to all Americans, a symbol of their collective struggle for the future of America, in which we move ever closer to a more perfect union that realizes the promises of the Constitution.
Reclaiming our flag as a symbol of democracy aligns perfectly with our goal of reclaiming democracy itself. Our task is becoming more urgent every day. The good news is that the American people are rising to the challenge. The organization Waging Nonviolence documented the increase in protests against Trump's agenda in its post, American Spring? How nonviolent protest in the US is accelerating.
The Waging Nonviolence post included a graph prepared by the Crowd Counting Consortium, which illustrates the greater frequency and larger scale of protests against Trump in 2025 compared to 2021. See below:
The dramatic increase in protests is being under-reported by the media. That is why it is critically important for Americans to show up on No Kings Day, Saturday, June 14, 2025. Sign up here: NoKings.org.
The protests are becoming more urgent each day because Trump, Hegseth, and military commanders are engaged in “mission creep,” which is expanding an initially limited (albeit illegal) defensive deployment of the US military into an affirmative policing operation directed at protesters.
On Friday, Reuters reported that US Marines had detained a Black veteran (of Angolan and Portuguese descent) as he attempted to keep an appointment at a Veterans Administration facility in West Los Angeles. See Reuters, Exclusive: US Marines carry out first known detention of civilian in Los Angeles, video shows.
Per Reuters, the person detained by the Marines was
an Army veteran on his way to an office of the Department of Veterans Affairs when he crossed a yellow tape boundary and was asked to stop.
The detention of a civilian by a US Marine is illegal, prohibited by the Posse Comitatus Act. Despite the illegality of the detention, a spokesperson for the US Northern Command falsely claimed that active duty forces "may temporarily detain an individual in specific circumstances."
The detention of civilians by the US military is a five-alarm fire that should be the leading story in every media outlet on Friday. Instead, leading sources like the NYTimes treated the story as an afterthought. See NYTimes Marines, in a Rare Move, Briefly Detain Man in Los Angeles.
The journalists who wrote the Times’ story parroted the statements of a military commander who claimed that “Title 10” of the US Code provides authority for troops to temporarily detain civilians. That lie went unchallenged by the Times’ reporters. It is telling that the military commander did not cite a specific section of Title 10 that authorizes the military to detain civilians, because no such authorization is included in Title 10 (in the absence of invocation of the Insurrection Act, which does not apply in these circumstances).
Trump has co-opted or cowed military commanders into endorsing his illegal expansion of the US military’s use of force against Americans. Stepping over the red line of detaining US civilians is one indication of the failure of US military leadership.
Another indication of the failure of military commanders is the geographic expansion of the military’s presence in LA. The federal building in West Los Angeles mentioned above is 15 miles from downtown Los Angeles, which is the only area where there has been any violence (scattered and limited).
Ken Klippenstein, an independent journalist, reported on Bluesky on Friday evening that the “U.S. military is planning for a sustained deployment of 500-1,000 troops at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles.” (I could not find a second source for Klippenstein’s report.)
If true, the placement of troops in MacArthur Park can only be seen as a provocation. The park and the surrounding neighborhood have been peaceful. But MacArthur Park is one of the centers of the Latino community in Los Angeles. Placing troops at a city park miles from downtown LA has no relationship to the sham reasons for sending troops to LA—”protecting federal property.”
Block by block, mile by mile, Trump is expanding the presence of the military in Los Angeles—a threat against every city in the US. Earlier this week, Trump said that Los Angeles was “the first, perhaps, of many” cities to be occupied by the US military. See Time, National Guard Could Be Sent to Other Cities, Trump Says.
I recite these facts not to frighten or discourage anyone. Instead, I am pleading with everyone who reads these words to attend a No Kings rally on Saturday, June 14. If you can’t participate in a rally, consider driving by and honking your horn in support. If you can’t leave home, display a flag or poster signaling your support for the No Kings movement.
Concluding Thoughts.
A few days ago, a reader wrote in the Comment section, “After No Kings Day, then what?” While the presumptive defeatism of the comment was off-putting, the implication of the question is important and deserves an answer.
Question: What do we do after No Kings Day?
Answer: Repeat as often as necessary until we achieve victory.
Assuming No Kings Day is wildly successful as measured by turnout, it is merely one step on a journey to reclaim democracy. It is not the end but the beginning of the next round of protests, political action, boycotts, and strikes.
Let’s march into No Kings Day filled with confidence, hope, and joy. We are winning. Let’s keep up the momentum!
[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]
