No arrests made after thousands participate in ‘No Kings’ protest, Knoxville police say

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - The Knoxville Police Department said no arrests were made during a “No Kings 2” protest Saturday afternoon.

It was one of about 30 protests that took place across Tennessee and hundreds more across the country.

Previous Coverage: Number of ‘No Kings’ protests planned throughout TN in mid-October

The organizer of the protest, Indivisible Knoxville, said about 8,000 people took part on Saturday. Of those, KPD said over 1,500 people lined Western Avenue and Henley Street with signs and some were even in costumes.

Amanda Collins, one of the co-organizers, said people made their voices heard on Saturday.

“What we saw today was more people, more joy and more support for our democracy than we have seen even in the previous two large scale events. We are definitely a movement that is growing, and people are ready to make their voices heard and they did that today,” Collins said.

Protesters in downtown Knoxville said this helps them raise their voices and express concerns about what’s going on in the country.

“We are here because we support the Constitution,” said Katie DeRoose. Another protestor, Rachel Borashko said, “We are pro-democracy, and we love being able to share that we don’t like what’s going on with our government.”

KPD said there were no significant issues surrounding the demonstration, but officers are investigating a minor hit-and-run that happened on Summit Hill at Gay Street.

There, KPD said the preliminary investigation shows that a motorcycle was parked in the left turn lane of Summit Hill, and the motorcyclist got off the bike. Seconds after this, the motorcycle was clipped by a pickup truck that left the scene.

The motorcycle was damaged and towed away from the scene, KPD said, but no injuries were reported.

KPD said efforts are still ongoing to identify the driver of the pickup truck.