Damn! Nothing overtly happened but I am still shaking , 20 minutes later. I got off the bus and heard whistles and honking – – so I walked over to what was some sort of ICE action – –videoing with my phone– – the more footage there is if something happens, the better— for a different angles.
I was doing the breathing and the self-talk, and my adrenaline still shot through the roof. Besides the noise, those ICE guys are SCARY.
I walked past a van load of them sitting there with the windows down – –they cover their entire face except for their eyes in black masks.
Dual purpose to hide and to intimidate. Worked on me!
But I was SO PROUD of our young people—they were obviously coordinated with each other, on Signal or something— blowing whistles and coordinating their movements. At one point a slim young woman went running at full speed past me, blowing her whistle, toward the ICE vans were gathered —she was like an Olympic gazelle, and my heart ❤️ swells in gratitude for her.
Safe to watch—nothing happens —just some honking (which drowns out the whistles, which actually were very effective!)
It died down – – ICE drove off – – I couldn’t quite tell what…
The person walking and filming in front of me turned around and walked back towards me, and as they reached me, I held out my hand and said—so goofy, but I was so high-alert I was shaking—“touch me”.
They looked a little confused then said, “Oh, for grounding”, and gave me a big hug. We exchanged a few words of sophisticated analysis along the lines of “Those fuckers!”
I hung around for a few minutes—offered a whistle kit to a bystander, who took it—but it seemed the agents had moved on – – to spread fear and to arrest innocent people elsewhere. (I suppose some of the people they arrest are guilty of something, but mostly I’m hearing about people who’ve done nothing but lack papers.)
Well, I’m glad nothing happened, since this was my first time. Trial run, for me.
Maybe I’ll be calmer next time, but you can hear on the video, the noise in itself is enough to jangle your nerves.
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