![\"Brent](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20250722-111839-444-Brent20Peak20headshot.jpg\")
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBrent Peak\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubmitted photo\/Brent Peak\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
By Brent Peak | Phoenix<\/p>\n
On Oct. 18, over 8,400 residents across Arizona\u2019s 8th Congressional District \u2014 represented by Rep. Abe Hamadeh\u00a0 \u2014 gathered for No Kings, a nationwide day of peaceful protest affirming that democracy belongs to the people. Ten protest sites stretched across Phoenix, Anthem, Peoria, Glendale, Sun City, Sun City West and Surprise.<\/p>\n
From start to finish, the day was peaceful. Except for one hit-and-run incident involving a golf cart driver in Sun City, there were no arrests, minimal confrontations and a great deal of mutual respect.<\/p>\n
Participants exercised their First Amendment rights responsibly, and the vast majority of passersby responded with equal calm and courtesy \u2014 and many with equal enthusiasm. It was a day that reflected well on both sides of the political aisle \u2014 a reminder that disagreement doesn\u2019t have to mean incivility, aggression or violence.<\/p>\n
We want to express our deep gratitude to the law enforcement professionals who made this possible: the Phoenix Police Department, Glendale Police Department, Surprise Police Department, Peoria Police Department and the Maricopa County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
Their professionalism, presence and coordination with protest leaders helped ensure safety, civility and the free expression of ideas throughout the day.<\/p>\n
At a time when polarization so often dominates headlines, Oct. 18 stood as proof that democracy still works when people show up, speak up and treat one another with respect.<\/p>\n
We are profoundly thankful.<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s note: Brent Peak is co-chair of the progressive grassroots group Northwest Valley Indivisible. Please submit comments at\u00a0yourvalley.net\/letters<\/a> or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org.\u00a0We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our\u00a0Civility Guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brent Peak Submitted photo\/Brent Peak By Brent Peak | Phoenix On Oct. 18, over 8,400 residents across Arizona\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":341865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,1589,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-342127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-phoenix","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115460762233070334","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}