Residents of Colorado Springs expressed their shock and outrage during three separate events since the Jan. 7 shooting of Renee Good, a legal observer, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis. Good, a 37 year-old mother of three, was a graduate of the local Coronado High School. Video of Good’s shooting was widely distributed on social media, with many, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, claiming the shooting was unjustified. President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have defended Ross, claiming Good’s actions during the encounter with ICE were “domestic terrorism.”
Colorado Springs Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression (COSAARPR) organized an emergency rally on the evening of Jan. 7, drawing approximately 50 people to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office downtown. “We’re not just standing with Minneapolis, but we are standing with cities all across the country who are demanding justice right this very second,” said Brandon Rincon, a COSAARPR organizer.
Among the speakers that night were members of Colorado Springs’ faith community. “This is not only about one tragic death – it’s about the kind of country that we are becoming, and the kind of people that we’re willing to be,” said First Congregational Church Pastor Lee Ann Bryce. “Blocking [ICE agents] with a vehicle is not a capital offense. Civil resistance is not a death sentence. When non-violent intervention is met with lethal force, something is wrong. As a pastor, we want to say clearly that this violence is not inevitable. It’s the result of systems operating without sufficient accountability. In [our] faith tradition we believe — we truly believe — that every person is made in the image of God. Not some people, not citizens only, not the documented only. Every person and authority exists to protect a life, not to extinguish it. So tonight we’re here because we refuse to be silent. We stand with Renee’s family and loved ones. We stand with immigrant communities living under constant fear, and we stand with all who dare to show up to intervene and to say this is not right.”
On Jan. 10, COSAARPR and approximately 100 community members gathered in Acacia Park, marched to the El Paso County courthouse, and then took part in a vigil on the steps of City Hall. Among the speakers that night was Mel Flores, a volunteer with the Colorado Rapid Response Network (CORRN), a volunteer organization “committed to responding to raids, deportation, and any Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity.” Flores was recently charged with reckless endangerment, obstructing a peace officer, and obstructing government operations for his actions during an ICE raid in October, according to COSAARPR.
“I signed up for a confirmer [with CORRN] to make sure that my neighbors were safe,” said Flores after Saturday’s march. ”I made contact with them. All I did was roll down my windows and scream, ‘ICE is here.’ That’s all I did. I alerted the workers they were harassing that ICE was here. I never made contact with the sheriff. I never talked to the sheriff … Instead of giving [me] the dignity of a ticket or a citation, I was given a warrant. I lost my job. I had to turn myself in like a criminal. All I did was warn my neighbors ICE was here.”
On Jan. 11, local chapters of Indivisible and 50501 organized a rally in front of City Hall, featuring Coronado High School faculty and alumni who knew Good. “When I worked with Renee at Coronado High School, back in those high school choir classes where girls competed for star solos, Renee was steady and matter of fact,” said Ruth Schubarth, Good’s former music teacher. “As a young teen on a mission trip, her kindness was bold. To her peers, she was voted best personality. She was uncompromising in her summations of sticky situations. She looked deeply at people. She took time with quiet ones. If she believed in you, she would not be moved. Renee met her boyfriend in choir class, and when they married soon after graduation, she asked me to play for her wedding, and I attended the baby shower for their first born. Y’all, it is time to bear witness to the truth. Renee was not a domestic terrorist intent on using her car as a weapon for the destruction of human life. This was not Renee. Bear witness to the truth today of Renee’s life.”
