Photos courtesy Good Loser / goodloser.me
TRI-CITIANS SAY “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”
In the first ten days of the new year, several news-making events have spurred Tri-Citians to take to the streets.
Two different protests took place on January 10. One was organized by Indivisible Tri-Cities in response to the killing of an unarmed mother in Minnesota by an ICE agent. The other one was organized by Tri-Cities for Palestine, Tri-Cities Socialists, and Tri-Cities Distribution in response to the military action in Venezuela.
Photos courtesy Indivisible Tri-Cities
ICE OUT FOR GOOD
https://www.facebook.com/events/1598228484665452
On January 7, 2026, Renée Nicole Macklin Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, was fatally shot by a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The shooting was filmed by multiple witnesses, including the ICE agent that killed her. Good was sitting in her car when multiple ICE agents descended on her, giving her conflicting orders. Some agents can be heard in the video evidence yelling, “Get out of here!” while others were commanding Good to get out of her car.
All of the video evidence shows the ICE agent shooting Good as she began to drive away from him. The Minnesota Star Tribune reports that when a doctor asked to check Good’s pulse, an ICE agent replied, “No, back up now!” The doctor then said, “I’m a physician!” The ICE agent can be heard on video replying, “I don’t care.”
Indivisible Tri-Cities put out a notification to wear black and go to Columbia Center Boulevard from 11am to 1pm to protest ICE in what they called ICE OUT FOR GOOD.
One member of Indivisible took photos of the event. When describing the photos, she said:
Look at those faces. Thank the persistent, kind-hearted Americans who see what's going on and refuse to quietly accept it. They show up in the cold, on short notice. The senseless execution of Renee Nicole Good had taken me to a dark place. Spending a few hours mingling with these loving souls brought me out of that.
Tumbleweird spoke to Chuck Wood, one of the organizers of Indivisible Tri-Cities, on January 10, and he explained that every week, Indivisible has a meeting with all the chapters in the country where they discuss upcoming actions and priorities. The national organization held an emergency meeting on January 8 in response to Good’s murder, calling for a nationwide protest. Wood said they quickly posted on their social media channels, and were heartened to see 618 people show up on Saturday.
Photos courtesy Good Loser / goodloser.me
NO WAR FOR OIL
https://www.facebook.com/events/2652047651831836
The organizers of the NO WAR FOR OIL protest was a collaboration of three different groups in the area. Tumbleweird spoke to one of the organizers, Amber Bruce from Tri-Cities for Palestine, who is a mother of four living in Pasco. She describes herself as a Christian who grew up as a strong supporter of Israel. Bruce even lived there for a year in high school. A few years ago, Bruce said she realized she needed to do a lot more research about what actually was happening in Israel and Palestine.
Bruce said that she helped organize smaller protests in response to ‘Operation Absolute Resolve’ — the January 3 U.S. military operation that most experts are criticizing as a violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions. JustSecurity.org explained that the president did not have the authority to carry out this “dramatic, forcible military operation without congressional authorization.”
After that, they began planning a large-scale protest for January 10. Bruce explained that this particular protest was all about the U.S. invasion of Venezuela. She said:
We believe all peoples have the right to self determination, rather than the interference of foreign powers. And so our focus here is that one U.S. military action without clear congressional authorization sets a dangerous precedent. We think the U.S. resources are better spent on addressing U.S. priorities — like health care, education, housing — than foreign intervention. And more importantly, Venezuelans have to determine their own future without foreign military involvement or occupation.
This is not the first time the U.S. has invaded another country or deposed a foreign leader. Bruce said that what is happening in Venezuela is very similar to what happened in Iraq in the early 2000s. Bruce said, “A lot of the talking points leading up to [the Iraq invasion], they talked about chemical weapons in Iraq. They're talking about drugs in Venezuela as chemical weapons.”
Bruce also drew parallels between the talking points of ‘freeing Iraq’ from a dictator and ‘freeing Venezuela’ from a dictator. She said, “We saw in Iraq reports early on that everybody was celebrating and glad; but then some of those turned out to be fake, and a lot of it turned out to be not so good for Iraq when we're there trying to set up a government for them.”
Bruce explained that the group's main concern is that the U.S. is going to be stuck in another Forever War. And she doesn’t believe that the reasons we are being given are legitimate. “It's so clear that this war is not about drug trafficking,” said Bruce. “It's not about democracy; it's about stealing Venezuela's oil and being the dominant force in Latin America.”
Bruce sent Tumbleweird an email following the event on Saturday, saying that 34 people came to the protest. Many of the protestors came to both demonstrations that day. At both, people brought signs protesting the attack in Venezuela and protesting ICE. Bruce wrote:
Tri-Cities Socialists led chants on and off, and the cars driving by were overwhelmingly supportive! We had a couple of detractors call from their cars, and one or two who were headed to Fiesta Foods grumbled about us, but the support from all the other drivers greatly outweighed those.
Tri-Cities Socialists partnered with us on this event, and they are working on neighborhood response trainings against ICE.
For more information about Tri-Cities for Palentine, you can follow them on Instagram @tricities4palestine. Tri-Cities Socialists have upcoming events that you can find on Instagram @tcsocialists.
A lifelong resident of Eastern Washington, Dori enjoys the outdoors, her family, and making good trouble. She has worked for many years in broadcasting and reporting and believes in the value of the 4th estate. She is a true community advocate that loves Washington.
