The March 28 Debrief: What We Got Right and What We Fix Next
A few days after the No Kings rally in Lexington, Lexington Alarm held a debrief session to gather reactions. There were several successes and a few things to change before our next event.
At a post-event debrief on Zoom, organizers, marshals, volunteers, and participants went through the rally piece by piece. The consensus: it was a success. Nearly 2,000 people attended, more signs were sold than at the 6,000-person October rally, and close to 100 new contacts signed up at the tables. The mood among volunteers was described repeatedly as “uplifting.” The table setup was the best yet — positioned closer to the crowd than in October, generating real conversations, sign sales, and genuine engagement with organizational literature.
Marshal coordination, led by Charlie Bauer and Margaret Heitz, drew particular praise. Twenty-one marshals were deployed with detailed preparation materials, diagrams, and clear protocols for crowd management and emergency response. The Lexington Police Department cooperated closely throughout. “The town was very pleased,” Bauer noted. “We were organized.”
The bus contingent to Boston — roughly 75 people marching behind the Lexington Alarm banner a couple of blocks to the Common — was a highlight. Tourists stopped. WBUR was there as we got off our buses and did a quick interview. People took pictures. People clapped as we marched into the center of the crowd. One participant said they felt “like a militia coming in from Lexington.” Exactly what we hoped to invoke, albeit in a peaceful manner fitting our movement strategy.
The group identified three things that should be fixed prior to our next large event. First, sound. People more than a moderate distance from the stage could not make out words. Concord’s same-day rally had a professional system audible from anywhere. The group discussed renting a professional rig with a technician ($1,500–$2,000 per event).
Second, the insurance problem is unresolved. Six insurers declined to cover the event. The town had made having an insurance binder a requirement for our permit. Through assistance from the Board of Selectmen, the town agreed to issue the permit, but said that was a one time occurance. Insurance companies throughout the country have been pressured by Trump’s allies not to provide coverage for No Kings rallies so this may be a continuing issue. What happens to political speech when outsiders try and repress it in this way, and how can our town respond? A meeting with the Select Board and Town Manager was proposed, and hopefully we will have further discussions on this issue.
Finally, there was confusion about the Minutemen who were to practice on the green until 11 am that morning. We had not known of this until a day before the event, and the town asked us not to start our speaking program until 11:00 am. But the Minuteman instead decided very kindly to move to St. Brigit’s, allowing us to start closer to our normal time. However the confusion did cause us to tell Rep Katherine Clark that she could not speak in Lexington since we could not accommodate her schedule. The whole situation means we need more coordination with the town for future events, particularly as we represent a large and vocal group of Lexington residents, all supporting locally our call to “resist tyranny.”
One detail from the day: a 99-year-old Lexington resident from Brookhaven attended and had one request — to be there when the official count was taken. He was counted by our Marshals.
