From Lynnea Kaylor / KYRS Community Radio
Lynnea: Two events triggered protests, and outrage continues to fan the flames immediately after the New Year: U S forces attacked Venezuela, capturing its president, Nicolas Maduro. Then, an officer from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE, fatally shot Rene Good in Minneapolis.
Protesters responded to the former within a day. The latter case spawned what would be called the ICE Out For Good protest at B. A. Clark Park on Saturday, December 10. Freezing and snowy conditions don’t stop protests. At 2pm drivers could see a sign saying, “Justice for Renee Good, poet,” while the P-jammers drummed away, as they typically do at protests.
Emotions were no less raw than at the beginning of 2025. In fact, they heightened from grief and outrage. Not all wanted to be interviewed, and those who did express opinions that are their own and not necessarily those of this reporter or of this station. I just spoke to somebody who did not want to be interviewed for broadcast, but she had a sign saying “No badge grants the power to act as prosecutor, judge and executioner,” on top of a
cartoon showing three ICE mass enforcement people who gunned down the Statue of Liberty saying, “Well, she was carrying a torch.”
It’s a condition that has brought remembrance of those in Germany just prior to and during World War Two. It’s easy to see why. Germany had gained control of neighboring countries. The US has assumed control of Venezuela and has threatened Cuba, Iran, and seeks to annex Greenland to the detriment of NATO. Many perceive streets to have become less safe, not because of drug lords, but because of marauding representatives of
what’s increasingly perceived as an administration out of control. Some drew historical parallels to the Nazi horror.
Tell us about your sign; it’s a quote from Anne Frank in 1943.
Protester: Yeah. And when I came across it, I thought it was so sad how terribly relevant it is. I’ll read it for you now. It says, “Terrible things are happening outside at any time of day and night. Poor and helpless people are being dragged from their homes. Families are torn apart, men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school and finding their parents have disappeared.” Anne Frank, 1943.
Lynnea: Wow. What was it that drew you to that statement, besides its obvious relevance?
Protester: just the fact that it is so tragic to see history repeating itself. I have another sign: “ICE, Gestapo, cruelty by design.”
Lynnea: The last protest that I covered Gestapo was a word that was only beginning to be used. Why do you think it might have taken so long for people to make that connection?
Protester: Oh, no, I made this sign six months ago. Maybe some people have just are starting to become aware of the autocracy that’s happening in our country.
Lynnea: One protester literally wept over America.
Protester: I’m out here protesting because I can’t stay home and cry every day. So, I’m trying to be part of a voice that I think is larger than people know. I’m one voice, but I probably represent a lot more people.
Lynnea: Your friend here has a sign memorializing of Renee Nicole good In Memoriam, speaking of her as good, and then Kristi Noem with a arrow, saying evil. When you saw these events in full, what went through your mind?
Protester: I was completely shocked – absolutely. Every day, there’s a new horror, and I never expected it would go this far, and I literally cry every day.
Lynnea: Whether with or without comparisons to Nazi Germany, outrage sometimes took quieter forms.
Protester: I am protesting because I am so distressed about America. We now have ICE agents executing people in the streets. And that’s not America. It’s not the rule of law. This regime is ignoring the courts. They’re not being controlled by Congress at all. The Republicans are rolling over, not doing anything to enforce the constitutional rights of Americans, and as a result, now we have an ICE team that is executing people with no good cause in the streets of America. Citizens of America. Nobody is safe.
Lynnea: While much dissent in the Islamic Republic of Iran is centered upon women. A case can be made for women in the United States in much the same way.
Protester: It says a woman’s place is in the revolution with the word “love” highlighted in revolution.
Lynnea: What kind of revolution would you really seek?
Protester: I would really like to see equality for all
Lynnea: Midway through the protest between 2003 1000 people lined Division (Street) from south of Garland to north of La Crosse and on both sides of Division. Many carried American flags. A couple carried Venezuelan banners. Some carried LGBT flags, including one who flew her Progress Pride flag upside down that is with a violet stripe on top. One
carried a Ukrainian flag in solidarity with that nation. For some, the support has been more systematic and less of a reaction to a single issue.
Protester: I’ve been here almost every Saturday since June, and our government is not supposed to be run by one person. It’s supposed to be run by three branches of government, and it’s being run by one who’s a compulsive liar thief, so I would like him out of office, or at least put under control.
Lynnea: Some, like him, seem to feel a sense of duty as well as connectiveness in their protest.
Protester: I always want to get together with people who want to stop the violence against the most vulnerable people in our community. This is certainly a national event today, and as a former resident of Minneapolis, I feel very much in solidarity with the people demonstrating there and for their loss of a fine citizen at the hands of the thugs that are trying to run our country.
Lynnea: Duty, of course, takes many forms. As government services continue to be curtailed, others are using protests to step up to fill societal voids like food for those going hungry.
Protester: What I’m doing is collecting food every Saturday from two to four for our community’s food banks and food pantries. We go up north, and then we also drop food off at Second Harvest for distribution for our community neighbors. When we had the No Kings rally, and there were so many people in this park, and I was part of it, I started asking around why we didn’t have food collection here, because the SNAP was starting to be an issue for everybody.
Lynnea: While protests continue peacefully, what has not yet happened is the disruptive, nonviolence advocated by figures like Gandhi and King. It’s in such disruptions that people accept sacrifice on a large scale, to effect change. What we’ve seen so far is a lot of community building, something in the first phase of movements that typically take many years to bring to fruition. What’s clear is the basic moral drive behind protests like ICE
Out For Good. Not all accept words at face value as they come from the White House or right-wing media. Not all accept that ICE has followed procedures that could have made their effort a noble one but instead appears to have devolved into what’s perceived as indiscriminate violence.
Protest photo by Master Steve Rapport on Flickr