CCB Plaza was overflowing with hundreds of passionate protestors Saturday, holding photos of Renee Nicole Good. By 11:30 a.m., crowds filled downtown streets, waving signs decrying President Trump, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the recent U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Good, 37, was fatally shot Wednesday in Minneapolis by ICE agents. On Saturday, several speakers decried her death, lashing out at government overreach and the danger of ICE.
“They are not trained to deescalate, they are not trained to resist their temptation to lash out,” said John Ouellette, who served 20 years in the U.S. Navy during Operation Desert Storm. “We have seen time and time again [ICE] shoot reporters with rubber bullets… and beat citizens for no reason.” He called on those present to stand up to ICE. “We’ve done it before, we’ll do it again,” he said and the crowd roared.
Jane Peppler moved through the gathering waving a sign that read, “Trump’s Gestapo is coming for us all!” and pausing for people to take photos.
“I am sorry to have lived long enough to see how many people are venal,” Peppler said. She recalled a time in junior high when she was cooking dinner and misunderstood her mother’s instructions for how to use the pressure cooker.
“I thought she said, ‘Hold your finger down to hold the seal,’” Peppler said. Then Peppler pantomimed the eventual explosion. “The whole stew was all over the ceiling.”
“That is the place the Republicans are at right now….,” she said. “They have been suppressing any decency for so long,” she said with a quivering voice. “It’s all gonna come home to roost.”
While some attendees circled close to the speakers, others watched from a distance or waved signs at passing cars. Clayton Rugh stood quietly holding an upside-down American flag. “It means we’re in a state of distress,” he said calmly. “It seems so self-evident — the cruelty and greed.” As he spoke, the group, led by local activist Prince Williams, began marching and chanting, “Up, up, with liberation. Down, down, with deportation!”
The marchers headed towards Durham Central Park, where the Farmers’ Market was wrapping up and a band was playing. The band switched to “This Land is Your Land,” playing guitars and banjos as the protestors sang along. As the crowd moved towards the park, John Ouellette left the front of the line to offer his views. “Come to the middle, come back to normal senses,” Ouellette said about supporters of the current administration. “Stop giving Trump immunity, stop giving ICE immunity.”
The group slowed and circled the sloping lawn of Durham Central Park. As chants echoed through the park and speakers thanked participants for showing up, Prince Williams had a chance to step away from the mic.
“Most people’s reaction to that was rage,” he said, referring to Good’s death. “That brazen act of violence, that murder, needed to be responded to.”
Nearby, some protestors took photos of each other’s signs and others gathered in clumps of conversation. And with that, the crowd began to disperse.
Above: Marchers gathered downtown Saturday to protest the recent killing of Renee Nicole Good by federal ICE agents. Photo by Reece MacKinney — The 9th Street Journal
