Wednesday morning, about 9:37am in Minneapolis, an ICE agent shot to death a 37-year old mother of three. It was the kind of situation that is immediately polarizing, and within minutes people we talking sides, comparing videos, and voicing their opinions.
After 48 hours the shock of witnessing the killing via several video feeds wore off, and the outrage began. Friday morning, Indivisible Healdsburg called for an “Ice Out for Good” rally in the downtown Plaza, from 11am to 12:30pm, posting on Facebook and other social media sites. They joined several other Indivisible chapters nearby who also held rallies at staggered times on Saturday.
In Healdsburg, the rally could not use loudspeakers or amplified music, as it was a non-permitted, free speech event instead of an “event” by the city’s new rules governing use of the downtown Plaza are.
It was allowed to run for 90 minutes, but that was enough time for about 200 people to show up at the corners of Matheson and Healdsburg Avenue, bearing signs they had made for the occasion or left over from the last No Kings march, and changing well-used slogans.
“We’ve got a great turnout,” said Mayor Chris Herrod, who stood at the southwest corner of the Plaza with his two sons and family friends. “It’s great to see a lot of people showing up on short notice, for a very important cause—not just to protest the shooting in Minneapolis, but to show support for immigrant neighbors, friends, co-workers and so-on.”
Familiar faces may have included some who started protesting the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 at this same intersection, though since many of them have passed on, their spirits were. Though a relative newcomer to that legendary cadre, Brigette Manselle – herself a former council member an mayor – was loud and proud at the scene.
“I’m really glad I am here in the community,” she said, holding a hand-made anti-ICE sign. “We really need to look at our responsibility in all this. We have to take a stand, not only for our town, but [about] the wealth that our town attracts. That is part of what’s happening at the national level.”
Then she pointed out a sign that called attention to General Dynamics facility in town. “Healdsburg has a responsibility. That’s still an issue,” she said.
Most photos in the below gallery by Rick Tang, unless otherwise noted
A large banner was unfurled on the sidewalk directly in front of the walkway to the Plaza Gazebo – “Shut Down General Dynamics,” it read, with an anti-bomb graphic. The issue drew its own protest rally in April, 2024.
But Renee Nicole Good was the name of the day, and the latest cause for the legion of anti-Trump demonstrators and voices at the scene, and nationally. No signs in dissent or pro-government supporters were visible, though a few people muttered unhappily to themselves, and sometimes it was hard to tell what kind of wave came from a honking car.
Ron Edwards, a current council member (and vice-mayor) offered a couple pithy observations. “I don’t care how many times you watch the video, but the ICE rules say, you don’t get in front, you don’t get behind a vehicle.” ICE officer Jonathan Ross, seen on the videos of the incident and himself the videographer of one such piece of evidence, is clearly seen to have done both.
Ross was later found to have suffered injury in a dragging by a suspect’s car just months earlier, in June in Bloomington, Minnesota. He was dragged 100 yards and his injuries required 50 stitches.
“And also if you have somebody that was traumatized on the job, why are they back?” asked Edwards.
He went on, “I’m just sad about a couple emails I’ve gotten, that say that White America now has to have The Talk with their kids. That’s messed up,” said Edwards, a Black man. “It’s bad enough that I had to have it, but now you all have to have that too.
“That’s a sad state of affairs.”
