Photos: High turnout ahead of weekend snowstorm keeps ICE protests rolling
Kansas City ICE Detention Center Possible
Protesters in Oppenstein Park // Photo by Samantha Russell
Rock salt coats the roads and snowplows are on the move as temperatures drop steadily to single digits.
Ahead of this weekend’s snowstorm, Kansas Citians turn out to protests across the metro following Renee Good’s death in Minnesota earlier this month. The crowd braves the cold to rally at Oppenstein Brothers Memorial Park before marching on the Downtown Kansas City area.
Signs showed support for MN and immigrants // Photo by Samantha Russell
Organizer Sunrise Movement KC fights for climate, social, racial, and economic justice. They used this location among downtown high-rises as key grounds to protest corporate and private company support for ICE detention facility in Kansas City.
Speakers came out to signal morale and speak to the transgressions at hand, standing in solidarity with Minnesota and voicing ICE opposition in Kansas City. Hoots and hollers welcomed and concluded the speakers with muffled glove claps and car horns in the mix.
Former City Councilman John Sharp was one such voice. His late stepdaughter was a murder victim at the University of Missouri 26 years ago, and he holds justice close to his heart.
“Most of the time when I’m getting up to say something, I’m standing up for victims. And again, I’m here today to stand up for the victim of a crime. Because murdering Renee Good—and that’s what it was—was a crime. They not only killed her, but did their best to assassinate her character after they killed her.”
He emphasized that she was an observer doing her duty as a citizen, posing no threat. Sharp spoke for the people who knew Good when she lived Kansas City. He choked up recounting her character.
“What a wonderful person she was, and what a wonderful mother, and she cared about her neighbors, she’s the kind of citizen we need more of—we don’t—we don’t need her in the ground, and we don’t need her character assassinated.”
