Mayor says keep demos peaceful after US ICE shooting
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey urged demonstrators protesting the shooting death of a motorist by a US immigration agent to remain peaceful and said any illegal action would play into US President Donald Trump’s hands.
Frey, a Democrat, warned as civil liberties and immigrant rights groups prepared rallies across the United States to protest the killing of 37-year-old Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Wednesday.
Minnesota and U.S. officials offered starkly different accounts of the shooting.
City Police Chief Brian O’Hara said 29 people were arrested overnight as police responded to protests, including demonstrators gathered outside a hotel in Minneapolis believed to be hosting a visiting contingent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
O’Hara said at a press conference on Saturday that one police officer was injured in the response.
Frey, who criticized immigration officials and the shooting, said demonstrations so far have remained mostly peaceful and anyone who destroys property or engages in other illegal activities will be arrested by police.
“We will not respond to Donald Trump’s chaos with our own brand of chaos. He wants us to take the bait,” Frey said at the press conference. he said.
The shooting death of Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, came shortly after 2,000 federal officers were dispatched to Minneapolis for what ICE’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, called the “largest DHS operation ever.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, condemned the deployment as a “reckless” example of “governance through reality TV.”
O’Hara said more than 200 law enforcement officers were dispatched to the Hilton Canopy Hotel on Friday night to respond to what started as a “noise protest” but later escalated, with more than 1,000 demonstrators gathering in the area.
“We initiated a plan and took our time to de-escalate the situation, issuing numerous warnings, declaring an unlawful assembly, and eventually getting in and beginning to disperse the crowd,” O’Hara said.
Federal-state tensions escalated further Thursday when a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Portland, Oregon, shot and wounded a man and woman in their car after an attempt to stop the vehicle.
Using language similar to the Minneapolis incident, DHS said the driver attempted to “weaponize” his vehicle and run over agents.
Two DHS-related shootings this week drew thousands of protesters to the streets of Minneapolis, Portland and other US cities; Many more demonstrations under the banner “ICE Out for Good” were planned for Saturday and Sunday.
Protest organizers said more than 1,000 weekend events were planned across the country demanding an end to the large-scale deployment of ICE agents, mostly in cities led by Democratic politicians.
The rallies were organized by a coalition of groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, MoveOn Civic Action, Voto Latino and Indivisible, some of which were at the forefront of anti-Trump “No Kings” protests last year.
