Protesting the protestors: Counterprotesters at Hands Off! rally condemn their treatment

While organizers of the Hands Off! protest of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk on April 5 in Geneva say it was a peaceful rally with no injuries or arrests, two counterprotesters say it was not so for them.

Geneva barber Matt Belding and Vanessa Bell-LaSota of St. Charles said they were among the two dozen or so Trump supporters who countered the thousands protesting against the Trump administration.

Belding said while he was using his bullhorn to oppose the rallygoers, they pushed his bullhorn into his face with their signs and directed rude gestures at him.

“We were overrun,” Belding said. “People would not allow us to have the space. We were intimidated. ... People around me had the most vile ... most disgusting tongues.”

His shop, Belding Barbering and Co. at 1 W. State St., is on the north side of the Route 38 bridge over the Fox River. The rallygoers packed both sides of the bridge.

Bell-Lasota said one person who approached her with a hot pink poster board hit her in the nose with it.

“They have a right to be there,” Bell-LaSota said. “They have a right to their signs and their voice, but not a right to intimidation. ... Motorists decorated cars with obscene signs ... and giving us the bird and swearing and shouting at us. ‘Family, freedom, faith.’ That is all I said. One woman leaned out and started swearing at me.”

Trump supporters who drove past also yelled expletives and extended middle fingers at the protesters.

There were no police reports filed related to the protests on April 5 despite the reported bad behavior.

Some bad behavior is to be expected in these situations, said Simón E. Weffer-Elizondo, a sociology professor at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.

“I have no doubt the man with the bullhorn had it shoved back in his face and that the two dozen counter protesters got the finger,” Weffer-Elizondo said. “I don’t doubt if they had been ... on the pro-side of that protest, that they wouldn’t have done the same thing.”

To counter a protest, no matter its size, comes with risk, he said.

“Every time you are a counter-protester, you are putting yourself at risk,” Weffer-Elizondo said. “In today’s world, we run a risk when we engage in protest. No matter what side we’re on, things get inflamed much more quickly.”

Weffer-Elizondo teaches a class about protests at NIU and urges his students to be as respectful as possible if they attend a protest.

“The important thing for me, as a scholar of protests, that both sides get to have their opinions heard,” Weffer-Elizondo said. “I always hope people bring their opinion and their best behavior, because they are out in public. I don’t expect everyone to side with their better angels.”

Weffer-Elizondo compared the Geneva protest to the 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina, where white supremacists and neo-Nazis were met by counter-protesters.

One man purposely drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 35 people.

“That’s very different than someone giving you the finger or a thumb’s up or down,” Weffer-Elizando said.

“When you engage in protest, someone is going to object. We hope they do it semi-respectfully in a non-physical, non-confrontational manner,” Weffer-Elizando said. “I always emphasize to my students during protest class that America was founded in protest. That is why we enshrine that right in the First Amendment. It’s part of the DNA in our country.”