Powderhorn Today

I went to the large anti-ICE march that started from Powderhorn Park in South Minneapolis this afternoon. 

On the way there, I could tell it would be large because there were a lot of people (young people, at least to me) who didn't know how to navigate the bus system who were heading there. I helped them figure out where to get off the connecting bus for the B line on Marshall Ave. 


On the way to the march with my sign, coffee can, and drum stick. And mittens.

About six of us got on the B at Cleveland. More and more people got on at every stop going west on Lake Street, and almost all were going to Powderhorn Park. Some of them got off at Cedar, many at Bloomington, and our original group exited at Chicago. 

Too many of the sidewalks as we went south from Lake Street, as I expected, were terrible — never shoveled, so the surfaces were completely uneven ice. Dangerous. At Powderhorn Park itself, 10th Avenue alongside the park had ruts in the driving lane with a wide, flat, hard ice ridge between them. The protected bike lane next to the park had a 2-foot-tall ice ridge crusted between the plastic flex poles, which was dangerous to clamber over as you went into the park. Walking was a dangerous enterprise. I'm surprised I only saw one person fall the whole time.

The northwest corner of the park is flat, but not large enough for the huge number of people who arrived for the event, so people filled 10th Avenue and probably 32nd Street at the north edge and maybe 33rd as well (I couldn't see that far). 



As usual, my goal was to find the Brass Solidarity Band, but I never managed to do that. Too many people this time! So I found another person with a drum to join up with so I could accompany him with my coffee can. 

I think there were a lot of people there who have not been to marches before. There were so many signs made from unfolded cereal boxes, or unfolded Amazon boxes, and just miscellaneous pieces of cardboard. There was one couple who each carried signs made from small pieces of cardboard taped to wooden yardsticks. The funniest improvisations I saw were a person who had used a purple magic marker to write an anti-ICE message on the inside of a gray Rubbermaid tub cover, and a person who had made crude lettering with masking tape on the back of their winter coat.

Anger was the primary mood. The chant of the day had to have been "Fuck ICE – ICE out!" It wasn't one of the unofficial chants done by the person leading from the sound truck. It started from behind me, after the march finally started to move. At first I didn't understand what the words were. I could only hear the rhythm of it. But it carried forward through the crowd until it reached the spot where I was. This chant was repeated over and over spontaneously by people who just started it, block after block, interspersed with other chants.

The march route went from the park up to Lake Street then west past Chicago Avenue. There were also a lot of FUCK ICE tags on various signs along the way on Lake Street. I have very few photos of anything, though, because I was banging on the coffee can, I had mittens on, and as usual at these things, I had turned off touch ID on my phone for security purposes, which makes it even harder to take photos quickly. 


The last photo I took before turning off touch ID (also taken on 10th Avenue by the park).

When the march turned south off of Lake Street onto Portland Avenue, I knew the intent was to go to the site where Renee Good was killed, between 33rd and 34th Streets. Which is what happened.


The X marks the spot of Renee Good's killing.

It was strange being back on that block again after I was there on Wednesday, just after the killing. There were too many people there today for it to be about her, and the people were too angry about ICE and the federal government. 

Another person who was at the march posted this:

The march was so long that when we finished, after an hour of marching, there were still people waiting to start matching. We made a protest ouroboros.

Another:

I stood by the Midtown Global Market [at Lake and Chicago] chanting for the march as it passed. It was 2 hours long from front to back. Steady flow the entire time. Huge numbers.

Yesterday "Homeland Security" announced it is sending another 1,000 storm troopers from other cities it has previously invaded to Minnesota, so there will be 3,000 of them here. That means they will even more overwhelmingly outnumber the number of cops in our two cities and our state troopers.