WINONA, Minn. — About 75 protesters continued their Monday practice of gathering on Broadway Street behind the post office. The focus again: Brutal excesses by ICE deportation agents in President Trump’s growing military-style surge into Minnesota. Commute-hour motorists honked support none louder, though, than a semi-truck driver with a deep throaty burst. The Monday demonstrations at Central Park have become a 4 p.m. ritual and growing. This week several Winona State University students were among first-timers. The demonstration was peaceful albeit vocal. There were two antagonist incidents, both short-lived and nothing physically violent. A car with two older men pulled over, one giving a thumbs down gesture through a closed window and driving off. Another driver rolled down his car window and shouted unintelligible negatives while claiming he was a military veteran. One protester, a Vietnam-era vet, shouted back that he was also a veteran. A female protestor on the sidewalk shouted that her father was a World War II veteran and was rolling over in his grave. The man then accused the protesters of all being paid to be here, to which everyone on the sidewalk laughed and shook their heads no. The man raised his window and drove away.
Pillow in a box One Winona protester was inspired by buttons that celebrities wore at the Golden Globe awards ceremony after Renee Nicole Good was killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. By all accounts from people who knew her, Good was a nonviolent person, loving her family and neighbors, and with no history that could have put her life on the line while peacefully protesting and being polite to ICE agents. The homemade sign, looking like a pillow inside a shallow box, was created out of materials easily at hand at home. Image: Andy Frank