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For just shy of two hours, a blaring orchestra of honks reverberated down El Camino Real midday Saturday, when protesters occupied close to two blocks of the busy street.
Spilling onto a traffic island, the demonstrators, around 700 of them according to organizers, took over the area from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., occupying all four corners of the El Camino Real and Jefferson Ave. intersection in protest of President Trump’s agenda. Most signs denounced the president’s ambitious utilization of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including its killing of an American citizen this week.
A white mother of three, Renee Nicole Good, 37, was fatally shot in her car by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday in Minneapolis, blocks away from the site of the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a police officer.
Signs reading “Trust your eyes, not lies!” refer to the controversy spun up over whether Good was unlawfully murdered by a federal agent, or if the agent’s gunshot was a legitimate means of his own self-defense. Video footage from an agent’s cellphone made publicly available Friday includes Good’s last words before the agent killed her — “That’s fine dude, I’m not mad at you” — which ICE critics argue demonstrates Good’s innocence.
Among the dozens of protesters was Ron Hess, 79, a Redwood City resident born in 1946.
“I’ve never seen anything like it in my lifetime,” Hess said. “After 250 years of democracy … they really think they can just take that away from the American people. It’s just stunning.”
Hess said he couldn’t recall attending any protests before Trump’s second term, in part because he was busy raising a family, but also because he believes the stakes have escalated.
“It’s up to us older people who are still paying attention to protect our grandchildren,” the 79-year-old resident said.
The majority of the attendees had white hair, which the protest organizer, JoAnn Loulan of Portola Valley, said she expected. She told this news organization on Friday that the demographic at many of her protests is “basically old, white people who aren’t afraid of being arrested.”
Even so, Josh Levinson, a Redwood City dad of three, attended the protest with his children because he wants his kids to understand that “if you ignore what’s happening, eventually it will come for you.”
“It just feels like we’re going down the toilet bowl,” Levinson said.
Regardless of the demonstrators’ demographics, folks of all ages and races who drove everything from two-seater Smart cars to hefty semi-trucks honked with gusto down El Camino Real in solidarity with the protesters.
Indivisible Mid-Peninsula and Indivisible Portola Valley, local groups dedicated to progressive, grassroots activism, coordinated the Saturday protest and will have many more planned this month.
A “No War on Venezuela!” event, for one, will be held on Saturday, Jan. 17, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at 1250 Jefferson Ave., as part of Global Day of Action, when other resisters across the country will speak out against the president. The demonstration is based on President Trump’s polarizing direction on Jan. 3 to capture the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, in his stated interest to capitalize on the country’s rich oil reserves and address alleged narco-trafficking national threats
Concerned that we’re “already in fascism,” Leslie McNeil, 70, said she’s not close to backing down. The Palo Alto resident who came out to Redwood City on Saturday is planning to attend a protest outside the headquarters of Palantir Technologies Inc., a powerful data analytics company that partners with the U.S. government and military. Organized by the nonprofit Women’s March, the “No Tech for ICE” protest will be held on Jan. 20 from 2 to 5 p.m. at 100 Hamilton Ave. in Palo Alto.
A candlelight vigil in memory of Good, hosted by Indivisible’s Palo Alto unit, will be held Sunday, Jan. 11, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at King Plaza at the Palo Alto City Hall. For more information, visit this link.
Editor’s Note: This post has been updated to correct the protester count and acknowledge another event organizer.
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