THE BRIDGE BOUNCED and car horns blared.
Between the street corners below and the pedestrian bridge above, the spot where Treat Boulevard meets Jones Road in Walnut Creek was hopping Thursday evening.
More than 100 sign-wielding protesters — one in a dinosaur suit — were at the Good Trouble Lives On rally, one of many nationwide Thursday celebrating late congressman John Lewis’ famous concept of getting into “good trouble” while protesting oppression, on the fifth anniversary of the Georgia civil rights leader’s death.
The target of protesters’ ire was President Donald Trump and his targeting of immigrants, though participants had a wide variety of complaints.
Many began in Walnut Creek around 5 p.m. to catch commute traffic down Treat Boulevard before heading to Concord to continue the demonstration outside Gateway Concord, which holds the immigration court from which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have detained immigrants the past two months.
Pat Baxter of Concord is the daughter of two Irish immigrants. Her father was wounded in World War I and her brother was killed in Vietnam. She said she “can’t stand Trump” and doesn’t understand how veterans are being deported.
“A lot of the people here are Vietnam vets,” said Baxter. “If you are (a veteran), you should certainly get citizenship. That’s when my father got citizenship. He came here from Ireland, and he was drafted.”
‘Dinosaurs for democracy’
Shae Jewell from Martinez said she dressed up as a dinosaur because “I never want to see democracy go the way of the dinosaurs, you know, become extinct. So I came up with dinosaurs for democracy.”
Jewell said she came out because she can’t help if she’s sitting home.
“I believe in community and I believe in the power of speaking up,” Jewell said. “I have a lot to say and I want to be positive about that. So I’m here to be a force of joy.”
Kelly Welsh is an attorney and a member of the Contra Costa County Democratic Party’s central committee. Holding a sign saying “ICE always melts in California,” Welsh said she’s frustrated by her party’s reaction to the Trump Administration’s actions.
“I feel like there is no plan of action to flip the House of Representatives in the midterm elections or to take back the Senate to fight Trump legally,” Welsh said. “In some ways, we’re hoping that all of the things that have happened since he’s taken office have shown even Republicans that, you know, this is evil, this is inhumane.”
“Our political leaders are not speaking out enough and not educating folks enough because if people were more educated, they’d be more outraged,” she said.
The scene was more subdued and organized in Concord, where speakers held court to a crowd of 300-400 people in front of Concord Gateway, the site of the federal immigration court.
Concord Vice Mayor Laura Nakamura said she was there for “good trouble.” Nakamura was also there with protesters two weeks before, when ICE agents armed with an assault weapons arrived.
“They jumped out of the vehicle with AR-15s; It was very unsettling,” Nakamura said.
The episode prompted her to have a conversation with Concord’s police chief.
“What we’re experiencing here is that we don’t have a lot of control over the state and local level. This is something that we need to see change at the federal level,” Nakamura said.
Respecting anonymity
Organizers from political activism group Indivisible ReSisters Contra Costa read quotes from John Lewis and sang Bob Dylan songs. They also asked everyone to put away their phones before someone lacking permanent legal status walked up to the microphone and told a powerful story about what a father and son had to go through as undocumented immigrants to still get a better life for their family.
Ogie Strogatz from Indivisible ReSisters Contra Costa said outrage “at the cruelty and brutality that this administration is unleashing on our immigrant family, friends and neighbors is what brought the crowd out.
“We are standing up, we are speaking out. We are saying ‘This cannot be,’” Strogatz said. “We’re here to generate community, to remind ourselves we all stand together, and we’ll fight harder and harder and harder until we bring this to an end,” she said.
Walnut Creek Mayor Pro Tem Kevin Wilk said he came to Concord to stand up for democracy.
“I like seeing people standing up for immigrants, which have made our country the great country that it is, and I think it’s important to support those people that do show up,” Wilk said.
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