The fine art of protesting Trump
1/28/26
Of course, there’s not much chance that such an ordinance would pass, and when I sent it to the council persons, the mayor, and the group that manages the statues, only one councilman replied, and he thought it was a funny idea.
So, if the city council doesn’t take you seriously, what to do? I thought to demonstrate by the statue and hand out flyers about the ordinance. And thus, flyers, sign, and traffic cone packed up, I drove downtown to demonstrate for about an hour (10-11). Nice weather, by the way.
When I got to the statue I immediately put the traffic cone on Trump’s head. It had taken me a few days to find a cone that would fit his head, and I actually only found one place with the proper size cone. I took a few pics and thought to take a bunch more when I was about to leave.
I just sort of sauntered back and forth on the wide sidewalk with my “Trump is a Felon” sign and flyers at the ready in my pocket. There was less foot traffic there than I expected, and I probably only handed out about 10 flyers. There were positive and negative reactions. One negative reaction was a guy who took a flyer, and as I was explaining my ordinance said, no, I don’t want that. I’m a felon and people make mistakes. 2 guys looking like businessmen came by and we had a strange conversation in which I think they were undecided about how antagonistic they should be. One did take a flyer though. A couple of people took photos with me.
There were a lot of car honks and waves as traffic went by. One guy did yell “f*ck you” but the vast majority of responses were positive.
Maybe 45 minutes in a guy in a yellow-green work vest walked toward the statue. I thought he might be a city employee upset about the cone. We had a brief conversation in which I was trying to feel out who he was and explain the purpose of the cone. Then he grabbed the cone. I said that’s my cone and I’m using it. He said I don’t care. I said if the statue had a stocking cap on (a local group puts winter wear on the statues sometimes for the homeless to take) would he take that too? He said sure. I said again that it was my cone, and he walked to his nearby tan van. I turned away then thought to get pics of his license plate, and as he drove by I got a few shots.
Just then a cop came over from across the street. He had seen our interaction and asked if the guy had stolen the cone. I said yes. He looked at my van pics and called in a theft. He asked if I wanted to press charges. I said not if he brings it back, but yes if he doesn't. Maybe 15 minutes later, the cop came back and said they'd talked to the thief and he would bring the cone back "within a half-hour." I said I'd wait. After a half-hour, the cop came back again and was talking to the thief on the phone. The thief was trying to get the cop to come to his job site so the cop would deliver the cone. Cop says no. So about 15 minutes later the dude parked in the alley and handed the cone over to the cop. The thief had written "Scull Construction" on it with a magic marker, implying that I had stolen it.
I thanked the cop profusely and just left then, as it was much later than I had planned to stay anyway. At home it took me about ½ hour of scrubbing and trying different cleaning material to get the writing off the cone. Brasso worked. Lesson learned: mark your cone so you can show it's yours!
* * * * *
An ordinance to designate presidential statues that represent those convicted of a felony or felonies
Whereas, the city of Rapid City has statues of every president in its downtown corridor and
Whereas, an elected president who has been convicted of a felony should not receive the same homage as those who have been lawful citizens,
Now Therefore, this ordinance will clearly and safely designate which presidents have been convicted of any felony.
A. This ordinance applies to any statue of a United States president within city limits that is on public property. Any statue of a United States president who has been convicted of a felony or felonies must at all times have a traffic cone on the top of the head of the statue. The traffic cone must be at least 12 inches high and be the shape and color that is normal for traffic cones. It must be made of a solid plastic weatherproof material that is not damaging to the statue. It must be placed as upright as possible.
B. The city street department will be responsible for placing and maintaining the traffic cone. If deemed necessary, a strap or wire may be placed from the cone around the statue’s chin in order to keep the cone in place. If the cone is stolen or is missing, the cone will be replaced within 7 days. Nothing is allowed to intentionally hide the traffic cone.
C. Any unauthorized removal of the traffic cone from the statue will be treated as theft of city property.
Comments