Two Protest Day

Renee Nicole Good. 

If the name is meaningless to you, google her. Learn about her tragic murder by ICE agents. Learn about how the MAGA side is still trying to promote her death as hear fault. 

I believe what I saw in the news on January 6, 2021.

I believe the video of Renee's murder on January 7, 2026.

On January 8, I said to Don that it is a "good" thing she is a white woman who looks as innocent as they come. That night Heather Cox Richardson said this might be (could be? is? history will tell) the turning point, just like Harriett Beecher Stowe's novel "Uncle Tom's  Cabin" made a generation of white women finally realize the horrors of slavery.

As a minister in Trenton said today, this should have ended with the murder of innocent Black and brown people. Now that a white woman has been murdered people are starting to see how this could have happened to their wife or daughter. Renee was dropping her six-year-old son at daycare when she ended up in the middle of an ICE raid. She tried to diffuse the situation. People, including her wife and the shooter, used their cell phones to recorder the situation. 

As a result, at least a thousand protests sprang up this weekend -- January 10 and 11. Hopewell's weekly protest drew about a dozen when I went on a bitterly cold day two weeks ago, but draws hundreds on warm days, drew 150 people on a cold, rainy January day.

Today I went to two protests. One in Princeton along Stockton Street near Trinity Episcopal Church from 1-2 pm.When I hear the numbers I will update this post. I recognized a few people, including Sue from the Hopewell protest, and a news photographer who often attends. People carried signs and waved to passing cars, which reciprocated by waving and honking their horns. It was very peaceful, though I felt some were itching for a fight. One woman with a bullhorn announced whenever a large pick up truck was about to pass them, anticipating the owner is a supporter of 47. I did not witness any negative reactions to our protest.

I met a couple of women of a certain age spotting green frog hats. Using the same square hat pattern used in 2017 to create pink pussy hats in response to 45's made in China red Make America Great Again (MAGA) mass produced hats, they are now made with green yarn and attaching big eyes to them. The women said they hand them out with two caveats: you must agree to wear it in public, and you must share the background (I thought of the lone protestor in Portland wearing a giant frog costume, they said that, plus the story that if you put a frog in boiling water he will jump out, but put him in cold water and slowly turn up the heat, he'll grow used to it until he becomes dinner). Unfortunately they were out of them, perhaps I'll finally learn how to knit or crochet and make my own hat. My pink pussy hat was handed to me on a bus ride to Washington, DC on January 21, 2017.

The next protest was in Trenton across from the State House from 3-4 pm. That gave me just enough time to swing by the house, go to the bathroom, and pick up my 2017 pink pussy hat. I fiddled with the radio dial on the drive landing on a station playing folk songs. The lyrics "hate can't be the face of American dream" by Raye Zaragoza resonated with me, along with "change can start with me." It is a personal story that feels particularly poignant.

In Trenton I parked in my usual protest parking spot in a state worker employee lot. There are a lot of emotions that run through me as I protest. Any hurdles I can eliminate gives me more bandwidth to handle new obstacles. I know where to park in Princeton and Trenton. I know where they will take place. I feel safe in those places. I would feel like I am with my people at most protests, but eliminating the issue of where to park helps a lot with my overall energy level.

I got to Trenton closer to the start time, which made it feel less crowded. Again, if I hear numbers, I will update my post. Trenton had speakers. We had a safety briefing. I did not see police here or in Princeton, but there were some volunteers wearing safety vests. They identified the two major exit points (State Street, and the street behind the peace memorial). Some clergy members were guest speakers. One of the first things they did was say the names of the 37 known victims of ICE. The 37 names officially identified as dying at the hands of ICE agents, leading those of us there to believe the number is higher. I recently read that there have been nine murders attributed to people here illegally. ICE agents are more dangerous than the murderers living here illegally. The poster has room for more names, and the count had already been changed at least once since the sign was made. 

I bumped into a friend who was at the protest with her friends. It was odd seeing her out of context. Normally we are both wearing Colonial attire when we speak.

I saw a young white mom with her son, both approximately the ages of Renee Good and the son she dropped off at school just before her murder. Likely the people in Trenton were a little younger, but it was still a stark parallel. I did not catch her name. She said this was their seventh protest together. They live about 45 minutes south of Trenton, closer to Camden, but the one protest they went to met with a bunch of people from the other side (I still refuse to type his name), it just didn't feel safe for her son, especially when people drove by throwing things at them. For anyone still supporting this regime, when they are out of power feel free to protest the next person in power, especially if it is someone I admire. I promise to not throw things at you as you exercise your first amendment right -- democracies don't feel threatened by protests, but dictators do.

Around the 45 minute mark the winds shifted and rain started to come down. As I walked to my car with a few others also hoping to beat the storm we walked into a snow squall. The sun came out almost immediately, but it was still windy and the temperature felt like it plummeted. 

Protest signs. I felt a stab of nostalgia reading signs that say "No Kings" and other earlier fights. It is said the Republicans are very good at turning their platforms into sound bites ("Lock her up") and that Democrats are better at coming up with polies too long and detailed for the average person to read and absorb, leaving some to feel the Democrats have nothing to offer. 

May that statement not age well.

We need concise message, such as No Kings, but today was in memory of a woman who likely never wanted to be a martyr, who would have been happy to live with her wife and raise their three children in anonymity. Instead, Renee Nicole Good is an international household name.

PRINCETON:

TRENTON: