Faith leaders, protesters criticize arrests in march at Whipple building
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Hundreds joined a protest at the Whipple Federal Building Friday morning after the arrests of two journalists and two activists, and federal charges brought against protesters earlier this week.
Speaking to the crowd, state Rep. Aisha Gomez, DFL-Minneapolis, called the arrests and charges an intimidation tactic by federal leaders.
“What we've seen from day one is a concerted effort to get us to go back in our houses, to get us to look at our neighbors with suspicion,” Gomez said. “None of this intimidation is working.”
More than a dozen protesters and ICE observers have been charged with assaulting and impeding federal agents. Some have pushed back against those allegations, and say they were protesting peacefully.
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A coalition of faith leaders led Friday morning’s protest. They marched between high fences that now line the roads leading to the Whipple building and briefly blocked the road leading into the building’s front parking lot. After a warning over a loudspeaker, personnel with the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office set off a flash-bang and pushed protesters back out of the roadway.
Members of Minnesota’s National Guard have also been at the site this week, as daily protests continue.
Tess Benson attended the protest and said she and her partner have both been observing ICE and helping neighbors get groceries in Minneapolis. She said the news of observers and protesters facing arrest is worrying.
“We've made plans for what we need to do if one of us, or both of us, were taken,” Benson said. “It's disturbing.”
But she said she’ll keep protesting, blowing her whistle and taking videos of ICE agents until the federal operation ends.
— Estelle Timar-Wilcox, MPR News
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