Protesters gathered in Kansas City and elsewhere in the metro for the second wave of No Kings rallies, part of a national movement to protest the actions of the Trump administration.
Beverly Harvey, founder of Indivisible Kansas City, said the movement wanted to mobilize people to save democracy.
"We're not going to bow down to a dictator," Harvey said. "We're going to rise up. We're going to grow bigger and stronger until this dictatorship is gone."
Protester Cari Cavalcante, of Overland Park, Kansas, said Americans need to save democracy.
"They're trying to rule without law, they're trying to overthrow a government, and we are just fighting like heck to go back to where we need to be," she said.
The first No Kings protests were held four months ago. The ongoing government shutdown and immigration enforcement crackdowns across the country are some reasons why organizers believed another day of protest was necessary.
"They're going to extremes, you know, to empower the Trump regime and enrich themselves and their billionaire friends while cutting jobs and services to the rest of us," Harvey said. "It's just gone too far."
Many people attending the protest were in costume — as dinosaurs, unicorns, President Donald Trump himself. There also were a number of booths selling merchandise, and others were handing out signs and American flags to anyone they could find who didn't already have anything.
Michael Bentley, of Olathe, was dressed as Shrek.
"We just want to make sure marginalized people feel heard, we want to make sure that women get their rights back because they're being stripped away, and so many other people's rights are being stripped away," he said.
As with the protests in June, the Kansas City rally was peaceful, with plenty of people waving to each other, arriving in matching costumes and taking photos in big groups with their signs.
Sara Crow and Michael Terlouw were at the protest dressed as unicorns. They said they were fighting for democracy and against tyranny and oppression.
"Unicorns may be a fanciful thing, but I believe that the current administration and the Republican Party at large are living in a fantasy world," Terlouw said. "And we're here to basically fight back against that."
Across the state line, protesters gathered in at least two locations in Johnson County — at 75th and Metcalf in Overland Park and at Johnson County Community College.
Roseanna Pollina is a former therapist in Prairie Village, Kansas, who now works with victims of sex trafficking. She started protesting at 11 a.m. Saturday at the college and moved to the Overland Park intersection at 1 p.m., joining hundreds of other Kansans lining the sides of the streets for blocks.
She said she was attending to protest on behalf of victims of domestic and sexual violence. She noted that in October 2016, before Trump was elected to his first time, a video from a 2005 "Access Hollywood" interview surfaced in which Trump made obscene comments about women, including that one can "grab them by the p***y."
A man who identified himself only as Chris dressed in a costume of Trump in a diaper. He called the president a "big baby" as cars passing by the intersection honked their horns.
"The world is crazy and he's not helping," he said. "We're becoming a laughingstock."
"He needs to go. He's not a king, and this is a democracy," he added.
Fred and Genola Mason, of Kansas City, Kansas, said they were protesting because they no longer recognize the America they grew up in, and they're worried about the country they're leaving for their four grandchildren.
"Trump himself and the whole MAGA movement is disturbing," Fred Mason said.
"I don't like the fact that Trump is acting like he can make all decisions and he can cancel anything at whim and he can break the law and none of that matters," Genola Mason added.
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