By Sunayana Prabhu
RED BANK – Activists in Red Bank will take to the streets April 5, to voice their opposition to federal policies being initiated by President Donald Trump and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla. The volunteer-driven rally, dubbed “Hands Off! Red Bank, NJ Fight Back!,” will take place at Riverside Gardens Park and is one among many to be held across the nation Saturday.
The call for action posted by Hands Off! organizers online states, “Donald Trump and Elon Musk think this country belongs to them. They are taking everything they can get their hands on – our health care, our data, our jobs, our services – and daring the world to stop them. This is a crisis, and the time to act is now.” DOGE has overseen thousands of federal job cuts.
According to the Hands Off! website, organizers have planned a “national day of action” on Saturday. The Red Bank rally, which will be held from 1 to 3 p.m., is part of a nationwide mobilization to protest what organizers view as harmful policies pushed by Trump and Musk.
Participants will gather at the park to demand an end to what they call the “looting” of America, according to the details in the event description. Organizers are calling on attendees to help “de-escalate” any potential confrontations during the demonstration.
Borough law enforcement has dealt with large crowds at previous rallies, but this event is “hard to judge,” said Red Bank Police Chief Michael Frazee. Volunteer organizers from Hands Off! have yet to reach out to borough police to notify them of the upcoming protest. Frazee said his team handles such protests “very carefully.”
“The last protest was pretty simple,” Frazee said, referring to the International Women’s Day march and protest organized last month by Deputy Mayor Kate Triggiano. The rally drew a large crowd that moved from the train station down Monmouth Street, ending at Riverside Gardens Park. “We call and try to get an estimate of how many people they expect to be there. The last event, 1,500 people, was kind of just manageable,” Frazee said.
However, he expressed some concern over the scale of the upcoming rally. “This event for Saturday, if you look at the publication that’s on the internet, it says mass mobilization,” he said.
While “it’s kind of frightening to hear that, right? You don’t know what to expect,” Frazee noted the police department has safety protocols in place and has planned accordingly.
Although organizers have stated that the protest will not be a march and will last for just two hours, Frazee’s team is still preparing for a range of scenarios.
“For preparation purposes, we usually bring in bomb-sniffing dogs that we’ll run through the park ahead of time. On this event, we’re going to plan on having up some barricades along the sidewalk to keep the sidewalk open for pedestrians,” Frazee said, in addition to having other protocols in place.
“It’s hard to prepare or organize the officers to be on standby in the event something does turn unruly. But for the most part, we adapt and overcome,” he said.
Although no organizers have been mentioned on the event flyer posted online, the Hands Off! website has displayed a list of partners supporting the events, which include the League of Women Voters, Planned Parenthood, National Education Society, New York Jewish Agenda, National Treasury Employees Union, Win Without War, and Women’s March, among many others. The state and national groups are in opposition to what they describe as a crisis threatening the future of the nation.
“Alongside Americans across the country, we are marching, rallying and protesting to demand a stop to the chaos and build an opposition movement against the looting of our country,” the online Hands Off! the online description states.
The event is expected to draw a diverse crowd. Attendees are encouraged to bring signs reflecting their stance against the influence of corporate elites.
“We understand the importance of freedom of speech,” Frazee said. “I’m willing to work with them to get their message across, but they have to do it peacefully.”
The article originally appeared in the April 3 – April 9, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
