Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
One demonstrator said they attended the phallic protest, at which people pelted federal agents’ vehicles with sex toys, “because ICE likes to bend over for Daddy Trump.”
Demonstrators hurled insults and sex toys at federal agents outside a Minneapolis government building on Saturday to protest the Trump administration’s deadly Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown on undocumented immigrants and their supporters, with state and local police arresting more than 50 people.
Dubbed “Operation Dildo Blitz,” the protest outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building saw demonstrators place sex toys in a chain link fence while others handed out rubber phalluses to protesters who threw them at passing federal and local law enforcement vehicles.
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Demonstrators shouted “Eat a dick!” and “Fuck ICE!” as they pelted the vehicles with dildos. A local sheriff’s deputy was reportedly struck upside the head.
Activist Russell Ellis, who posted video of the demonstration on Instagram, said the protesters “showed real balls.”
“Dildos coming your way! Dildos! Dildos!” Ellis barked as the toys rained down on vehicles, landing with rubbery thwunks. “It’s raining dicks!”
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUd8txOjmDM/?utm_source=ig_embed
Anti-ICE activist William Kelly—who was arrested last month after taking part in a protest inside a St. Paul church—said at Saturday’s demonstration: “The community here at Whipple today is, you know, doing the right thing and handing out the dicks. People are able to do whatever they want with the dicks, it’s their choice.”
One protester told VisuNews that they were attending the demonstration “because ICE likes to bend over for Daddy Trump.”
Asked what inspired her to show up with a literal “bag of dicks,” another protester said she was motivated by last month’s fatal shooting of legal observer Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis. The protest marked one month since Good’s killing.
“The number one thing that you need to do right now is build community,” the woman said. “You need to talk to your neighbors. You need to start organizing. The local police are not going to help you. They are not your friend… so we rely upon each other.”
Later in the afternoon, police declared the protest an unlawful assembly before rushing in to arrest 54 demonstrators.
Far-right influencer and pardoned January 6, 2021 insurrectionist Jake Lang—who was arrested the previous day and charged with vandalizing an anti-ICE sculpture—crashed Saturday’s demonstration. Limitless Media reported that Lang and others arrived in a U-Haul truck carrying a wooden cross and firing pepper balls and chemical agents at anti-ICE protesters before leaving the scene.
Hundreds of people also showed up for an Indigenous-led Saturday gathering in Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis to remember Good and Alex Pretti, who was also shot dead by federal immigration enforcers last month in the Minnesota city.
“This is a generational burden that we carry, and we’re seeing that burden again today,” said Gaby Strong, vice president of the NDN Collective, who called Good “the example of what it means to be a good relative, to be a good neighbor, to stand up for people beside you.”
Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
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