"ICE Out for Good" protest draws large crowd in Sacramento's Capitol Park
An estimated 2,000 people showed up at Capitol Park Saturday afternoon in response to the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on Wednesday in Minneapolis.
"It was great. The turnout was four times as big as we thought it was going to be, maybe even more. We were very touched that people came so quickly," said Haru, a volunteer with Indivisible Sacramento.
"We are here to express our solidarity with her and mourn her loss," said Preston Rudy, who was talking about Good.
"We're here to recognize the injustice that was done," said Bill Westerfield, "and to rally people against ICE being out of control in our cities."
The protest was part of the "ICE Out for Good" weekend of action, which included demonstrations across the country on Saturday. Sacramento's started and ended at Capitol Park after a march through downtown.
"We surrounded the entire memorial auditorium and had to continue to proceed forward because it was full. We were taking up the whole sidewalk and we didn't want to block the sidewalk," said Haru.
"The turnout is fantastic. The energy is high because people are fed up. People are fed up with this administration terrorizing our streets, somehow in the name of public safety. What we're seeing with ice and this buildup of this private army in the trump administration has nothing to do with public safety; it's about creating fear. But we're not going to succumb to fear and that's why we're out here today," said Josh Fryday, a candidate for lieutenant governor.
Volunteer organizers with Indivisible Sacramento ended the protest by reading off names of some of the people who have been killed by ICE agents, followed by a moment of silence.
"Our goal today was to commemorate them, to remember them and to honor them. And to give people a view of what they can do and a view of what's to come for the rest of the year," said Haru.
"The message to residents is you need to come out and demonstrate to political leaders and public officials that this is not something we accept and we want them to stand up with courage against the intimidation," said Westerfield.
CBS13 didn't see any counterprotestors during the demonstration.