Interstate voices for Freedom. Two contingents of Freedom Day marchers departed from midriver on Latch Island and from Windom Park in Winona. They joined midway on the State Highway 43 bridge 64 feet above the frozen-over main channel. “Hello Wisconsin” was the chant. Passing motorists honked support. Image: Andy Frank
Protest was fourth in series, all peaceful
WINONA, Minn. — The arrival of dozens of sign-carrying, flag-waving marchers from a demonstration over the Mississippi River swelled the crowd to everal hundred at Winina’s Windom Park. Organizers called the bridge event “Freedom March Number Four.” Their point: To demand that President Trump end his ICE deportation attacks on immigrants and anyone who gets in their way. ICE agents in Minneapolis have shot and killed two persons, both U.S. ctizens, and detained dozens of other Minnesotans. Terry Schoonover, of rural Alma, chair of Buffalo County Democrats & Friends, expressed frustrations: “We are upset and angry and embarrassed with what’s going.” The Windom Park protest, he said, represents citizen pushback to “the fiasco going on,” Schoonover said. Organizing the protest were Buffalo County Democrats and the grassroots Winona Rapid Response Team. The Winona group has assembled teams in recent weeks to spot, track and record ICE intrusions and to alert anyone targeted by ICE to stay indoors. Speakers at Windom Park described ICE arrests — some of them violent, brutal and bloody — as affecting communities everywhere. The protesters’ call: Build connections between immigrant families and local communities.
Schoonover. Democratic leader from Buffalo County in Wisconsin.