Weekend In Protests

 

Eureka CA

About the national shutdown protests initiated by students on Friday, the New York Times:

"They ditched school in Atlanta. Left work in Philadelphia. Blocked traffic in Los Angeles. And closed businesses in New York. Across the country on Friday, protesters marched, rallied and disrupted their everyday routines in solidarity with Minneapolis residents to demand an end to the Trump administration’s immigration tactics.

The actions, including gatherings in cities and towns from Boise, Idaho, to Gainesville, Fla., were part of what groups of organizers called a national shutdown, encouraging Americans to abstain from work, school and shopping “to stop ICE’s reign of terror” and denounce the recent killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

"The protests reflected widespread fury at the killings, which have endangered President Trump’s political agenda and threatened a government shutdown. The specter of masked men killing American citizens during protests has raised fears of authoritarianism and talk of resistance, with many residents saying America’s 250-year experiment in democracy is imperiled....

From city to city, many of those who participated said that after the killings of Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti, standing by and doing nothing was no longer an option. Many also wanted to show their gratitude to Minneapolis residents for standing up. Some said they no longer recognized the country they live in."

The Saturday ICE OUT OF EVERYWHERE protests, covered by the New York Times:

"Crowds rallied in dozens of cities across the nation on Saturday to protest the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, hoping to build on momentum from demonstrations on Friday against federal operations targeting Minneapolis and other liberal-leaning cities...

An afternoon rally in Portland, Ore., swelled to become one of the largest protests the city had seen in months, joined by demonstrators from other events held earlier in the day....

Church bells pealed solemnly throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., on Saturday, expressing solidarity with protesters and with people facing deportation."

Also on Saturday, a federal judge in Texas ordered the release of Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, in an order quoting the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and lambasting procedures of the Chaos Gestapo that would equally apply to many others languishing in substandard federal detention centers/concentration camps.  

Liam was photographed by two Members of Congress able to visit him in prison.  He never opened his eyes the entire time they were there, in a traumatized fugue state.

From ABC News:

"Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, asylum seekers who were arrested last week in Minnesota, were ordered to be released by a federal judge in Texas on Saturday. 

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ordered the boy and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, released from the immigration detention center at Dilley "as soon as practicable" but no later than Feb. 3. ..

In the order releasing Liam and his father, Biery said the case "has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children."

"Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency," the judge wrote. "And the rule of law be damned."