The name of Renee Nicole Good bounced off buildings in southwest Detroit as hundreds marched on the evening of Friday, Jan. 9, following Good’s fatal shooting by an immigration agent in Minneapolis earlier in the week.
A candlelight vigil in memory of Good was held at 6 p.m. on Jan. 9 at the city’s Clark Park in an area sizably populated with immigrants and Latinos. The crowd later took off down Vernor Highway and into residential areas. Marchers chanted against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and in defense of immigrants, and at one point, a little girl clapped in a doorway and the words “¡Viva la Raza!” rang out near a home still covered in Christmas lights.
The gathering was just one of numerous planned actions in metro Detroit following Good’s death.
Video circulating online shows the 37-year-old mother was in her vehicle at an immigration action in Minnesota when agents approached and sought to get her out. Leaders in her city and state have blasted the shooting as an unjustified attack, while federal officials and President Donald Trump have said the agent involved shot in self-defense, USA TODAY reports.
The formal vigil began with a poem attributed to Good, “On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs,” which ends with a reflection on what life is. The vigil also included a moment of silence and an opportunity to name those taken or killed by ICE, police or prison.
Attendee Lorena Dosti, 40, of Ann Arbor, cried at the news of Good’s death, she said.
She has been a U.S. citizen for more than two decades, having escaped war in Albania, but has been fearful of leaving her house these days, she said. She’s a freelance interpreter and frequents southwest Detroit.
“It could have been me,” she said.
People need to stay united and remember to “protect thy neighbor,” she said.
She wasn’t the only one who saw herself in Good.
Elizabeth Grutza, 40, of Allen Park, and Celina Peters, 35, of Trenton, stood together in the park and reflected on just that.
As a mom, Peters thinks of the images circulating showing stuffed animals in Good’s glove compartment. She thinks of video showing Good waving apparently to have cars pass her ahead of the shooting.
“I would have done everything she did, and that scares me,” she said.
She’s also concerned that there hasn’t been more media reporting on ICE action in metro Detroit, and said people simply looking to have a better life are having their right to seek that violently stripped away.
“That’s not what Americans are supposed to be about,” she said.
Veronica Rodriguez, 45, of Detroit, echoed a similar sentiment while speaking to the crowd: “They say they are doing God’s work. No. This is God’s work.”
Organizer Joshua Medina, 35, of Detroit, of Asamblea Popular Detroit, or the Detroit Peoples Assembly, said the gathering was meant not only to stand in solidarity but to carry out Good’s legacy with action. He said his group patrols for ICE and provides legal aid, and he encouraged the public to join the movement in Detroit.
“The time for words is over, the time for action is now, right?” he said.
Loren Branch, organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, put it this way when he took a break from leading the march with a megaphone: “We have a responsibility to make sure there are no more Renee Nicole Goods or Keith Porters.”
Keith Porter was a Los Angeles man fatally shot by an off-duty ICE officer on New Year’s Eve, the Los Angeles Times reports.
As much as Good and Porter were on the minds of protesters, equally discussed were the immigrants that the agents were targeting in their actions.
Chants for much of the march called to get ICE out of communities. Speakers called on organizations and leaders to come together to make it happen. Signs called for ICE to be abolished, or offered curses with the name.
An overall peaceful gathering and impromptu march, with police vehicles surrounding it, the evening did see short bouts of disagreement amongst protesters and involving at least one person suspected to be a contrarian.
Another group, known for short as By Any Means Necessary, or BAMN, was not an official organizer. But before official organizers could start, a BAMN member began yelling into a megaphone denouncing Trump and calling for strike actions. BAMN’s full name is the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary.
Additionally, roughly four individuals at the scene appeared to get into a skirmish, throwing punches and deploying apparent pepper spray as organizers and attendees sought to defuse the situation. Two of those fighting each other ended up running off down an alley together. Detroit police approached afterward with water in hand for the individual pepper-sprayed, but walked away as members of the crowd poured water into the man’s eyes.
When the event ended, and the slimmed-down group of protesters dispersed, along with coffee and shirt vendors that showed up, candles lit for Good continued to burn around photos of her and others with deaths tied to ICE.
One remaining organizer, having wiped tears from her eyes a short while before, said she’d let them burn a little longer before putting them out for safety.
Protests have occurred in cities across the United States since Good’s death, including gatherings in Michigan, and additional demonstrations are scheduled throughout the weekend.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Vigil, protest held for Renee Nicole Good at Detroit’s Clark Park
Reporting by Darcie Moran, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
