Atlanta demonstrators join ICE protests breaking out across the nation
Demonstrators in metro Atlanta filled the streets for the fourth day of protests after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minneapolis woman on Wednesday.
Several protests were planned across Georgia, including one on the 17th Street bridge in Midtown Atlanta, another in East Cobb County and events in Augusta, Fayetteville and Gainesville.
Some of the demonstrations were part of the grassroots group Indivisible’s “ICE Out for Good Weekend of Action.” The organization estimates its state chapters planned 1,000 demonstrations over the weekend.
The protest on 17th Street in Midtown was organized by a coalition of activists, including the Party for Socialism and Liberation Atlanta. About 300 people braved 45-degree weather and high winds to show support for 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, a Minneapolis mother of three who was shot three times after a verbal interaction with an ICE officer.
“This was a brutal murder of a U.S. citizen, a legal observer, as she was conducting her civic duty,” Stephan Sellers, an organizer with PSL Atlanta told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “So … we demand justice for Renee. We demand that her killer be arrested.”
Viral videos of the incident show Good’s interaction with the ICE officer, which some news outlets have identified as Jonathan Ross.
Trump administration officials have said Good tried to hit Ross with her car and that he shot her in self-defense.
But demonstrators, like Alyssa McNerney, didn’t believe that.
“I’ve been in more danger … in a Walmart parking lot,” she said. “I don’t even think he got hit by the car. There’s so many angles where you can see he was out of the way. The wheel was turned the other way.”
Her sister, Jami Herron, agreed, saying that Good was not trying to hit Ross.
“She was also given conflicting orders, ‘Leave,’ and ‘Get out of the car,’” Herron said. “So what is she supposed to do?”
In addition to protesting Wednesday’s shooting, the demonstration also opposed the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. Included in dozens of chants pleading for “Justice for Renee,” and “No justice, no peace. We want ICE off our streets” were also refrains like, “From Venezuela to the Philippines, stop the U.S. war machine.”
PSL Atlanta organizer Miles Wetherington said the two issues are connected because they show an increase in militarization.
“The imperial aggression right now is outrageous,” he said about U.S. intervention in Venezuela. “So, people are in the streets all across the United States in opposition to these complete, blatant attacks and lawlessness.”
The protest was peaceful and mostly consisted of signs with clever slogans (“ICE in my margarita, not in my streets”), chants and speeches by various activists. Demonstrators stood on the bridge’s south sidewalk, so no one interfered with traffic. Many cars that drove by honked in support.
Wetherington said PSL Atlanta plans to keep protesting, especially as the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday approaches on Monday, Jan. 19.
“The legacy of Martin Luther King really speaks to the same thing,” he said. “The bombs that are dropped abroad land here at home, the connection between imperial aggression and the boomerang effect on repression here in the United States. So more than anything, we’ve got to build a movement and understand that, collectively, we have power.”
About the Author
Martha Dalton is a journalist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, writing about K-12 education. She was previously a senior education reporter at WABE, Atlanta's NPR affiliate. Before that, she was a general assignment reporter at CNN Radio. Martha has worked in media for more than 20 years. She taught elementary school in a previous life.
