Hundreds of protesters lined the streets of Detroit deriding President Donald Trump’s policy maneuvers as the president gave himself a verbal pat on Tuesday, Jan. 13, in the Motor City.
Protesters gathered on multiple sides of the Motor City Casino with signs cursing the president’s name and expressing support for immigrants ahead of a planned speech by Trump to the Detroit Economic Club.
The protesters’ key messages: To get U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents out of the city and to address concerns regarding what they see as authoritarianism.
Organizer Justin Cheong, who led one protest effort with the group known for short as By Any Means Necessary, or BAMN, said the goal was to express to the public that Trump has to go.
“This is a model for the nation,” he said.
Previously contacted regarding ongoing protests against the president in Michigan, a White House spokeswoman has said liberals are free to exercise their right to protest but referred to their various concerns as “lies.”
Michigan Republican Party Chair state Sen. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, has also previously defended the president and said terms like “fascism” are definitions Democrats use for those who disagree with them.
Cheong’s group led one of two similarly themed protests outside the venue on Tuesday.
BAMN’s full name is the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary.
That group started east of the casino in Cass Park, out front of Cass Technical High School, where speakers beckoned unsuccessfully for students in the school’s windows to join. The group of more than 100 then marched to the casino, where it faced off with police, who would not let it continue further and demanded that it go to a designated protest location at Trumbull Avenue and Temple Street.
Nearly 200 strong at one point, the group slimmed down but did not immediately leave, despite multiple police orders at multiple points and amid freezing rain. Two people were seen being taken into custody.
To the west, at that designated protest spot, a DROP Trump Coalition emergency rally also gathered and eventually marched.
Michael Muczynski, 29, one of the protest organizers on that side, arrived early to act as security for their event. He said, unlike other protests he attends across the city in support of issues like making Detroit a sanctuary city or city divestment from Israel, anti-Trump rallies tend to bring a more diverse crowd, and big ones at that.
“Anti-Trump brings everyone out,” he said.
Lars and Aaron Perry, 41 and 50, respectively, traveled to Detroit from Farmington for the gathering.
The married couple said they don’t agree with the Trump administration’s increased immigration enforcement and have gotten more active as a result, attending two No Kings protests ahead of the event on Jan. 13.
Lars Perry, a teacher, took the day off to attend the protest with her students in mind.
Aaron Perry wasn’t under any impression that the protest would change everything, he said.
“This isn’t going to make Trump quit, but I hope my presence here can make more people comfortable coming out,” he said.
Judy Kernozek, 82, of Clinton Township, challenged the economic success the president was set to speak about inside the casino and said she attended to show that the people have the power.
“There has never been a more cruel, corrupt, and criminal person in office,” she said.
Meanwhile, Sam Poireir, 21, had the day off work and drove from Adrian to protest on behalf of her siblings, some of whom she said are Latino and have voiced fear over getting pulled over or taken by immigration agents regardless of their status as American citizens.
Regardless of where someone stands on the political spectrum, government agents acting aggressively against their own citizens should be concerning, she said.
“When it happens to one person, it opens the door up for it happening to others,” she said.
Protesters spoke both of concerns with the police actions at the Tuesday event and regarding the death earlier in January of Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three, who was shot and killed by a federal immigration agent in Minnesota during an enforcement action.
The president and his administration have said the agent was acting in self-defense, but other lawmakers and protesters have said the agent wrongly fired shots at Good.
Ann Smith, a 52-year-old Ypsilanti resident, was among those who referred to that incident as murder. She said the police interactions at the Tuesday event were frightening and unlike anything she had experienced at a protest before.
“It’s scary as hell that they would just lick his boots like that. It’s not the America that I know,” she said through tears. “We’re living in a fascist state right now,”
She added that while she once believed warnings about Trump’s presidency were exaggerated, her view has changed.
Though protesters showed up largely to denounce the president, there were those present seeking Trump’s aid on a specific topic: supporting regime change in Iran.
Armand Ash, 74, said he has family in Iran he’s worried for as the government continues its crackdown on civilians protesting the current regime.
The irony was not lost on him that many of the anti-Trump protestors they had gathered with saw the current U.S. president as an authoritarian leader.
“Like him or not, we need his help,” he said.
Icy rain on Tuesday eventually gave way to sun as the protest wound down and protestors moved from the sidewalks to the middle of Trumbull in the intersection.
They continued cycling through a few different chants, including “Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here” and “Get up, take a stand, Detroit fights hand in hand.”
A lone vendor stood nearby selling shirts with slogans written on them like “No ICE.”
As the crowd – made up of veterans, young professionals, college kids, and retirees, among others – disbursed, a few stragglers stayed behind, some of whom had only just arrived after getting off work, and some who’d been there all day but didn’t want to leave their post in case Trump’s motorcade passed by.
Some crowd members marched back with the BAMN faction, which found itself out front of Cass Tech just as the school let out.
Teenagers gathered around, some clapping, some taking the chance to curse the president’s name into a microphone and many filming.
Protest leaders there reminded the teens that other schools have had walkouts. They called on the students to join their cause, saying protesters were fighting for their future.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Armand Ash’s age. This article has been corrected.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Protesters blast Trump amid visit to Detroit; police detain multiple
Reporting by Darcie Moran, Beki San Martin and Nour Rahal, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
