For some, attending a rally may feel like enough activism to let their voices be heard. For others, they wish to ensure safety at activist events, just like the attendees of 50501 Springfield’s de-escalation training for the No Kings rally.

To help prepare for the March 28th No Kings protests, the third nationwide gathering to rally against the Trump administration, 50501 Springfield has been hosting de-escalation training for ushers for the No Kings rallies.

50501 is an organization that emphasizes non-violent activism, so the Springfield chapter is training ushers to help prevent and manage conflict at protests.

Dr. Albert Capati, owner and lead dentist of Capati Dental in Springfield, hosted the de-escalation training event.

“I started going to some rallies at the beginning of 2025, and after a couple, I noticed that [there] were people in yellow vests [who] were helping out,” Dr. Capati said. “And I said, ‘I might want to volunteer and help.’ So, I went ahead and started to get to know the organizers, and I got to help.”

Initially, an active volunteer of 50501 led training and gave out specific instructions on how to de-escalate. Capati recalled that his initial training included watching a playlist of YouTube videos. 

Capati felt that watching videos as training wasn’t enough to make him comfortable with ushering. So, when he hosted his own de-escalation event for 50501, he decided to take it a step further and introduced roleplay scenarios to give volunteers hands-on experience without the risk.

“We separate after the lecture part into what I think really is the best value here, the roleplaying part,” Capati said. “We get to just try out a few scenarios and see whether or not you can do this under pressure.”

Capati wishes to build confidence, community, and consistency among the volunteers. He hopes to facilitate monthly de-escalation training courses. 

Even though ushers are trained to de-escalate highly charged situations, they are not law enforcement. So, if tensions get too high for an usher to manage, they are trained to call nearby authorities. 

The addition of roleplay in the training specifically helped attendee Rhys Moyar, an experienced rallygoer and member of the group, the Democratic Socialists of America. 

The most impactful part of the training for Moyar was applying what he learned in the roleplay.

“At the end, we did some mock situations, some practice sessions,” Moyar said. “That was really helpful and insightful. I feel like that really helped us get over some of the first errors we might make.”

While many attendees found the de-escalation training informative, those putting it into practice at the No Kings rally emphasized how crucial it is to get involved.

Patty Morton, who has attended more than 20 protests and served as a first-time usher at last week’s No Kings protest, said that the instructions the organizers gave her helped her manage and monitor the crowd. 

Morton wanted to become an usher so she could contribute more.

“I want to help,” Morton said. “I want to do something. I want to feel like I’m accomplishing something, and just going to protest is not enough. We all have to do our part.”

Thankfully, the No Kings rally went smoothly with no reported incidents. 

Morton stated that it is wonderful that they didn’t have to use what they had learned, but that it is a good skill to have in both daily life and future protests

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