Belleville attorney leads ‘good trouble’ protest in honor of John Lewis

More than 100 people assembled on Belleville’s Public Square on Thursday to protest the Trump administration and the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

Participants were as young as 18 and some were in their 80s, but all stood out in the rain and humidity to speak their message. The demonstration coincided with the fifth anniversary of the death of John Lewis, a Georgia congressman and civil rights pioneer.

“Folks nationwide are turning out for the anniversary of John Lewis’s death to protest the Trump administration’s attacks on civil liberties,” said Alex Enyart, a local attorney who organized the protest.

Enyart said that his work as a lawyer with occasional immigration cases has become more difficult since the Trump administration took power.

“He’s completely gutting our civil liberties in exchange for a more totalitarian government, and we don’t accept that.”

Protest messaging ranged from cuts to Medicaid and public media to immigration policies under the Trump administration. While these signs aren’t new at Public Square protests over the past few months, signs criticizing the administration for their handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files were a new.

“There’s a good chance we have a sexual predator leading this country,” Enyart said.

Jeffrey Epstein was a New York financier, a Trump associate, and convicted child sex offender alleged to have recruited women and children to have sex with wealthy clients at his Florida home. A coroner ruled his 2019 death in prison as a suicide. The case led national news over the last week amid an ongoing debate about the public release of records connected to the investigation.

Demonstrations and protests have been a regular occurrence on the Belleville square since January but some of the participants Thursday were new to political activism.

Demonstrators from Clifton, Monroe, Madison, St. Clair and even Jefferson counties were among the crowd Thursday. Many said it was their first time or that they wish they wouldn’t have the need to protest.

“I’m 78 years old,” said David Hoffman of Red Bud. “I’d rather be at home organizing my sock drawer or something, not out here protesting.”

Hoffmann, who came to the protest along with his friend Joe Yoch of Smithton, said the pair weren’t politically active in the past.

“We didn’t go out and protest Vietnam or anything,” Yoch said, “so that’s why we’re here now. It’s our time to stand up.”