Protesters wave their signs at the intersection of Broadway St. and Table Mesa Dr. in Boulder, Colorado during the “Hands Off!” march on Saturday, April 5, 2025. (Linus Loughry/CU Independent)
As Terry MacIntyre crosses the crowded intersection at Broadway St. and Table Mesa Dr., a woman gives a thumbs down to her and the stranger next to her. Upon seeing it, the stranger told MacIntyre not to respond with negativity, but rather to smile and wave.
“I appreciated somebody reminding us that we needed to stay positive,” MacIntyre said. Her family, friends and thousands of others flooded the sidewalks on Saturday, April 5 to march against changes made by the new U.S. Federal Administration. Organizers called for a nationwide day of demonstration, with marches happening throughout the country, including in Boulder, Colorado.
The “Hands Off!” march was organized by a coalition of advocacy groups such as Indivisible and MoveOn. According to NPR, over 1300 protests took place in different cities across the United States. The protests varied in size, with thousands attending in Boulder and nearby Denver. In Boulder, the protest stretched across multiple stop lights on Broadway St., with the majority of the crowd congregating around the intersection of Broadway and Table Mesa Dr. Protesters waved signs calling for democracy, anti-fascism, support for Ukraine, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration, science, climate awareness and a general lack of support for Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
Protesters crowd the sidewalks north of the intersection at Broadway St. and Table Mesa Dr. in Boulder, Colo. during the “Hands Off!” march on Saturday, April 5, 2025. (Linus Loughry/CU Independent)
MacIntyre’s longtime co-worker, Anna Villachica, was also marching in Boulder when she saw MacIntyre’s sister. Then she saw Terry and her husband and they shared a moment of excitement before parting ways. Villachica remembers her short, positive interactions at the march. At one point, an older woman asked if she could take a picture of Villachica’s sign that said, “No to the clown-ocracy,” with pictures of Trump and Musk. They laughed about it before moving along.
Besides the driver who gave MacIntyre the thumbs down, she said the march was completely positive. People were friendly and upbeat. Her group marched to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and back, stopping occasionally to wave their huge American flag and hold up their signs.
“One of them started with ‘Hands Off,’ and then she just listed everything,” MacIntyre said. “Hands off Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid and federal workers and the Department of Education, our National Parks, all of that.”
Her own sign focused on the branches of the federal government.
Protesters wave their signs near the intersection at Broadway St. and Table Mesa Dr. in Boulder, Colo. during the “Hands Off!” march on Saturday, April 5, 2025. (Linus Loughry/CU Independent)
Another participant, Thom Krueger, was standing contentedly in front of NOAA, watching protesters line up and down Broadway Street.
“I think for the first couple of weeks of this administration, we’ve been kind of rocked back on our heels in terms of seeing the speed at which the current administration is trying to disassemble – destroy, basically – our government structures and the people who work for our benefit,” Krueger said. “So it’s nice to see that there is now a building energy to oppose and resist what’s going on.”
He saw a recent increase in the energy of protests with good turnouts at the “Hands Off!” march and at the Bernie Sanders rally in Denver on March 21. Before then, there was less support. On February 5, MacIntyre had attended a much smaller protest at the State Capitol Building in Denver.
“It was very disorganized. So I guess that may have been why I was so pleasantly surprised with one last Saturday, because I had been to one and I came away kind of disillusioned,” MacIntyre said. Villachica had a similar experience at a protest at the State Capitol Building on March 5. The “Hands Off!” march made them hopeful.
Jack Donovan helps Roxy Walker cross Broadway St. onto the median during the “Hands Off!” march on Saturday, April 5, 2025. (Linus Loughry/CU Independent)
“It felt like for the first time in a few months, we had something that we could do, and we knew it wasn’t going to change anything, but it felt positive,” MacIntyre said.
As her group neared the intersection at Broadway and Table Mesa, she noticed a group of young girls marching and chanting. Being a retired teacher, MacIntyre said was proud to see them. She highlighted that teachers can’t bring their own personal or political views to the classroom, but it’s different at a protest.
“It’s very freeing to be able to applaud the girls because we were not there in the capacity of educators. We were there as citizens,” MacIntyre said.
She wants to continue showing up to marches and protests for her community, but is concerned that attendance may start to decline due to the volume of events. Her sights were set on the second wave of “Hands Off!” protests that happened yesterday, just two weeks after the original march. Krueger will also try to keep coming out.
“There’s nothing else to be done. I mean, we have an inert Congress, a complicit Supreme Court and an Executive that’s just totally off the rails,” Krueger said. “So I’ve got to keep going out and showing up and saying, this is not the right thing. This is not the way our country is supposed to be run.”
Protesters crowd the sidewalks surrounding the intersection at Broadway St. and Table Mesa Dr. in Boulder, Colo. during the “Hands Off!” march on Saturday, April 5, 2025. (Linus Loughry/CU Independent)
Contact CU Independent Video Editor Linus Loughry at linus.loughry@colorado.edu
