Seattle rally takes streets in response to ICE murder of Renee Good

Seattle, WA – On January 7, organizers with Seattle Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (SAARPR), Seattle Against War (SAW), and others held an emergency rally in front of the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building to protest the ICE murder of Minneapolis resident Renee Good which had occurred that same morning. The rally was held to answer the nationwide call to action from the Legalization 4 All Network and was organized within a matter of hours.

The event began as a press conference where SAARPR Branch Chair Jonathan Toledo laid out the four people’s demands: an immediate end to ICE raids in our cities; an immediate end to the mass deportations and terrorization of immigrant communities; full justice and accountability for the murder of Renee Nicole Good, and the immediate release of the name of the ICE agent who murdered her, along with the names of all ICE agents terrorizing communities across the country. Toledo continued, “They should not be able to hide! This is unacceptable! This needs to be stopped!”

The press conference quickly took on mass rally proportions as the crowd grew to 300 people. Other speakers spoke in solidarity with the demands. Many demanded full transparency not only of ICE agents but of Seattle PD, who murdered Jack Palelei and Christian Nelson within two months of each other just last year.

Ray Mitchell with Students for a Democratic Society at UW (SDS) spoke about the University of Washington, which “brands itself as a progressive university [but] has refused to do anything about ICE on campus. They told students that if they see ICE, the solution is to call the cops. When I spoke personally to UW President Robert Jones and told him international students on campus felt unsafe, he flat-out refused to make a statement to reassure them. Shame!”

Nolan Good, who spoke on behalf SAW stated, “When we see videos of armed vehicles rolling into neighborhoods, when we see Chinook helicopters fly across the sky, and when we see heavily armed foot soldiers murder people in broad daylight in front of cameras with complete impunity, we know that in Seattle and in Minneapolis and cities across the country, that the very same officers and agents that are killing the people of America on the streets are being trained by the people who are killing Palestinians.”

The growing size and energy of the crowd prompted the organizers to lead the group to take the streets of downtown Seattle and march, occupying the full breadth of the four-lane roads. At every turn, organizers led the crowd in chants of “Say her name! Renee Nicole Good!” Seattle PD blocked adjoining streets but kept their distance from the crowd, whose energy and determination far exceeded their own.

A member of Nidal, a Palestinian organization, echoed the fighting power of the people’s struggle, “When one of the occupation kills us through martyrdom, what we’ve seen today in Minneapolis, that doesn’t mean our movement dies, we keep fighting!” La lucha sigue!

#SeattleWA #WA #ImmigrantRights #ICE #InJusticeSystem #KillerICE #KIllerCops #SAW #SAARPR #SDS