sbrobert
“Hands Off” was an international rally in every US state and many countries around the world. The message was a fight back against the lawless behavior of Trump and Musk. A call for a long list of things the people want them to keep their hands off of. The Santa Barbara event started with a rally in De La Guerra Plaza. Continued as a march down State Street to West Beach. Where a drone captured a photo of the crowd spelling out “Hands Off”.
Here are my many photos. Here are my videos.
When Merlie and I arrived at 1PM, De La Guerra Plaza was completely packed. People were spilling out beyond the plaza. I was very fortunate to secure an elevated spot where I could capture the speeches and the crowd and the crowd reaction. I could also read many of the hundreds of original hand made signs. Some were quite elaborate. This was a panoramic shot of how it looked as people were still arriving.
And how it looked once the speakers began talking.
It is impossible to capture all of the signs here. Please look at my photo set to see many of them. But here are some of the messages.
Hands Off Social Security, Museums, Medicaid
How Did We Nazi This Coming? (With Musk giving his bizarre gesture)
Two Wrongs Won’t Take My Rights
Too Much Wrong For One Poster
Trump is Putin’s Lap Dog
Tiny Hands/Tiny Heart
The Cruelty is the Point
No More Fascists/No More Con Men
Tariff-ically Stupid!
The Power of the People is Stronger than the People in Power
DOGE: Destroying Our Government Entirely
Make Lying Wrong Again!
Only You can Prevent Fascist Liars (With Smokey Bear)
Bring Back My Father/Deport Elon
Today: Journalists, Universities, Law Firms/Tomorrow: You and Me
Choose People Over Corporate Greed
Stop Making Things Up/Hands Off Science
Hands Off: Clean Air, Clean Energy, Science, History, Education, National Parks, National Security, Veterans Services, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, Truth, Fair Elections, Due Process, Rule of Law, Bodily Autonomy, Academic Freedom, Personal Data, Independent Oversight
MAGA: Morons Are Governing America
Stop The: (S)tupidity (H)urtful Policy (I)nsanity (T)rump Bozos
This is Not a Left or Right Moment/It is a Right or Wrong Moment
Resist It All!
And there were these images.
The rally began with an introduction by organizer Myra Paige.
Luz Reyes-Martín of Planned Parenthood talked about the importance of women having control over their bodies.
Vivian Lee Nyitray of UCSB talked about the Trump/Musk assault on universities and freedom of speech.
Primitiva Hernandez of 805Undocufund talked about the horrific treatment of undocumented Americans under this administration. People like her, who have lived here their entire lives, live in constant fear now of deportation. Even being documented is no guarantee. Trump and Musk have kidnapped people here with valid documentation in an attempt to terrorize people into silence. There has been little or no due process as people simply disappear. Some showing up in torture camps in places like El Salvador.
Jon “Bowzer” Bauman was a musician with Sha Na Na. He used his booming voice to energize the crowd before the march.
And then the crowd moved out onto State Street from both ends of De La Guerra Plaza.
I ran down the street to stake out a good elevated position, so I missed the first few minutes of the parade in my video. But this video runs for 17 minutes, capturing the enormity of the size and energy of the crowd.
A fellow journalist and I used the march to estimate the crowd size. The march took about 20 minutes to pass where we stood. The crowd was about 10 wide across the street. Counting for three seconds, we counted five rows pass. 20X60x10x5/3 comes to 20,000. That may be a record number of people in the street in Santa Barbara.
I followed the crowd down to the freeway underpass and climbed up onto the overlook. I met up with fellow photo journalist Rod Rolle who kindly posed for me.
We thought the crowd would eventually come back and that we would get a nice view of that. But that is not what happened. Instead, the crowd went out to West Beach. Letters were mapped out on the beach spelling out “HANDS OFF!” and people were instructed to fill the letters.
Myra Page kindly provided me with this aerial drone photo. Myra told me it was taken by Ann Shaw.
It is difficult to read, but there was a large pink banner that said:
THE SEA IS RISING AND SO ARE WE!
I was glad to see that, because I really didn’t see any signs directly mentioning the Climate Crisis in the march.
After the beach event, marchers made their way back up State Street. But the police had reopened the street to motor vehicles. So, people were squeezed onto the sidewalks on both sides.
Here I captured a bit of that scene on video.
I eventually found Merlie and our friend Ginny three hours after it all began.
It was good to see so many people organized and energized. However, this needs to turn into action. And in a democracy that means political action. Electing people who will reverse the lawlessness and start solving the urgent problems that are all still there and growing. Problems like the Climate Crisis, a broken healthcare system and extreme wealth inequality.
Our country needs to invest in the energy, transportation, science, medicine and technology of the future. All of this “America First” talk is actually putting us last.
It was good to see people enumerating their valid grievances. But progress actually begins with:
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A positive vision
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A plan to get there
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Specific requests of citizens to fulfill that mission
I hope that the next rally will begin to advance this program.
I will add one more thought. Planning for the 2026 election is urgent and important. But Trump and Musk keep behaving like lawless vandals and tyrants. We can’t wait until 2026. We need contingency plans to make it until then.
Organizations like Public Citizen and the ACLU are doing valiant work initiating lawsuits to hold these lawbreakers accountable. But the courts move very slowly. Creative solutions will be needed to fight back against these criminals.
– Robert Bernstein
Great read Robert – Thanks
One of the best acronyms in your list is:
MAGA: Morons Are Governing America
It says it all
Great article and fantastic photos, SBROBERT! I was out of town but will absolutely be at the next protest.
April 19, the 250th anniversary of the opening shots of the American Revolution against Tyranny, is a fitting choice for the next nationwide show of resistance to the barbaric, cruel and unAmerican policies being forced down the world’s throat. I urge everyone, Republicans too (you’re getting screwed over just as much as everyone else whether you believe it or not) to come out and stand against the closest thing to fascism this country has ever experienced!
Take our nation back!
It is disheartening that fascism seems to have bloomed so rapidly into prominence. It’s time to wake up and fight it before it entrenches itself in power. The really frightening thing is that so many of the rank and file in federal law enforcement seem to be going along with it.
I can’t stop laughing at this stuff
Simple minds are easily amused.
Fascism is the key word. As one of the signs said, “The Cruelty is the Point”. Trump is a very physically and mentally weak and small man. He tries in vain to find a way to deny that reality.
He has no legal way to accomplish his petty goals. So he resorts to intimidation and law breaking. Eventually he will be taken down by the legal system and by the power of the people.
In the meantime, he is causing massive suffering, including tens of thousands of deaths from disease and starvation in places that USAID provided essential services. This Impact Dashboard from Boston University Medical School tracks the current death toll of this homicidal attack.
https://www.impactcounter.com/dashboard
This New York Times article explains why Trump is sending people who have been charged with no crime to El Salvador torture prisons.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/opinion/trump-deportations-gulag-prison.html?unlocked_article_code=1.-U4.1MaT.AP088fN0USOp&smid=url-share
Trump knows he has no legal right to do any of these things, but he is testing what he can get away with. Step up sending money to Public Citizen and to the ACLU. They are doing the tireless legal work to fight this lawlessness.
And We the People need to keep up the pressure. We are far more powerful than that pathetic man in the White House.
Dude, the ACLU is really hard to put any support behind. They’ve gone so far away from common sense that they spend more time and money supporting criminals more than law-abiding, taxpaying citizens and law enforcement.
That’s just one small example of your huge fascist tendencies.
Robert: Spot on….thank you for the photos, article, and your comment. More so than any time in history US citizens are leaving the country. This is not an option for everyone, especially those living in Santa Barbara. IF one is considering a change of venue to another country, be SURE to visit/rent there first. When visiting foreign destinations as a tourist, things are usually “wonderful” and “fantastic.” Long term/permanent can be vastly different, especially if you look and act like a “typical” (or stereotypical) American.