Pickup Truck Barrels Into Jewish Activists At ICE Detention Center In Rhode Island

Never Again Action pro­test­ers said a Wyatt Detention Facility offi­cer drove into their group, injur­ing sev­er­al people.

By Carol Kuruvilla

A cor­rec­tion­al offi­cer at an immi­grant deten­tion cen­ter in Rhode Island drove a pick­up truck into a crowd of pro­test­ers late Wednesday night, injur­ing sev­er­al peo­ple, the pro­test­ers said.
Videos of the con­fronta­tion show the truck turn­ing toward a line of seat­ed pro­test­ers who were block­ing the entrance to a park­ing lot at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls. People imme­di­ate­ly jumped up, shout­ing while the dri­ver honked his horn. 

The truck paused for a moment as the pro­test­ers gath­ered around ― and then the vehi­cle tried to dri­ve straight through the crowd before stop­ping again. Minutes lat­er, addi­tion­al offi­cers arrived and used pep­per spray on the pro­test­ers, clear­ing enough space for the truck to pass through. 

Never Again Action @NeverAgainActn·17hThis is the line of peo­ple that an ICE Detention Center guard tried to dri­ve through with his truck. We are still try­ing to fig­ure out what all the injuries are

And the rest of us are try­ing to get the pep­per spray out of our eyes.406791.4K Never Again Action @NeverAgainActn·17hCORRECTION: It was oth­er Wyatt Detention Center guards who pep­per-sprayed us, not the Rhode Island State Police. The police just stood by and did noth­ing as we were run over and then sprayed by deten­tion cen­ter guards. We are #JewsAgainstICE and we will not let vio­lence stop us.479542.1K Never Again Action @NeverAgainActn·16hBREAKING: Tonight we expe­ri­enced a tiny sam­ple of the vio­lence ICE uses on our immi­grant neigh­bors every day. An ICE guard drove his truck into our peace­ful #JewsAgainstICE protest, then oth­er guards came out and pep­per sprayed the crowd. We’ll be back. http://​NeverAgainAction​.com1:0759.1K views

621.4K2.4K Never Again Action @NeverAgainActnReplying to @NeverAgainActn@amornetworkand 3 oth­ersBREAKING: Here is HD video of an ICE guard dri­ving his truck into us as we sat peace­ful­ly block­ing the Wyatt Detention Center. We’re putting our bod­ies on the line because we see the camps and the roundups. We’ve learned from our ances­tors: NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE. 

Natalie Lerner, a 23-year-old Jewish activist from Providence, Rhode Island, told HuffPost that she was in the line of the vehi­cle when it first approached. “I was kneel­ing down to talk to one of the oth­er peo­ple who was sit­ting to get arrest­ed and he got this look of fear,” Lerner recalled. “I turned around and this car was right behind me, com­ing right toward me.” At least five peo­ple were treat­ed at a hos­pi­tal for minor injuries sus­tained dur­ing the con­fronta­tion and the ensu­ing scram­ble, Lerner said. An old­er woman was pep­per-sprayed at “incred­i­bly close range,” she said.

Protesters said the per­son dri­ving the pick­up truck was a cor­rec­tion­al offi­cer employed by the Wyatt Detention Facility. Lerner said she and oth­er pro­test­ers were fright­ened ― and angered ― by offi­cers’ actions dur­ing the inci­dent. “If this is how you’re treat­ing us, a group of most­ly white, most­ly cit­i­zens who aren’t in prison, who are out in the open, how are you treat­ing peo­ple on the inside?” she asked. HuffPost has reached out to the Wyatt Detention Facility, the Central Falls Police Department and ICE for comment.

Wednesday’s protest was part of Never Again Action, a move­ment by young, pro­gres­sive Jews who believe say­ing “Never again” to the hor­rors of the Holocaust means speak­ing up about the U.S. government’s cur­rent treat­ment of migrants. Since ear­ly July, these activists have been orga­niz­ing protests at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cen­ters across the coun­try, includ­ing in Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Francisco. 

The activists are call­ing on Congress to shut down ICE, close the deten­tion cen­ters, and offer “free­dom and per­ma­nent pro­tec­tion for all undoc­u­ment­ed immi­grants, refugees and asy­lum seek­ers.” The Wyatt Detention Facility is a “pub­licly owned and pri­vate­ly oper­at­ed” cor­rec­tion­al facil­i­ty, accord­ing to its web­site. It began hous­ing ICE detainees in March, 10 years after a migrant’s death there put a tem­po­rary end to the prac­tice. Eighteen peo­ple were arrest­ed dur­ing an ear­li­er Never Again Action protest at the facil­i­ty on July 2.
Lerner said that hun­dreds of pro­test­ers, some with Never Again Action and oth­ers from local immi­gra­tion advo­ca­cy groups, gath­ered at the deten­tion cen­ter on Wednesday. They tried to deliv­er a let­ter to the war­den demand­ing more trans­paren­cy at the facil­i­ty. When no one came out to meet with them, Lerner said the group decid­ed to “shut down Wyatt,” first by block­ing the entrance to the facil­i­ty and then by block­ing the staff park­ing lot. 
“We were send­ing the mes­sage that if folks in immi­grant deten­tion can’t get home to see their fam­i­lies, peo­ple who are aid­ing and abet­ting that can’t go home to see their fam­i­lies,” she said.

The indi­vid­u­als who sat on the ground at the park­ing lot entrance had will­ing­ly signed up to risk arrest dur­ing an act of civ­il dis­obe­di­ence, accord­ing to Lerner, who helped lead train­ing for the demon­stra­tion. She said pro­test­ers were giv­en guid­ance on what to do if police used force dur­ing an arrest and how to deesca­late the sit­u­a­tion if a bystander tried to start a fight. People who weren’t will­ing to risk arrest were told to stay back and not inter­act with police. But Lerner said none of the activists expect­ed they would be fac­ing down a mov­ing vehi­cle. “Having some­thing like a car bar­rel­ing towards you and not stop­ping when you’re peace­ful­ly protest­ing is a total­ly ter­ri­fy­ing expe­ri­ence,” Lerner said. “We were not antic­i­pat­ing real­ly any­body, but espe­cial­ly an employ­ee of the Wyatt, to dri­ve a car through the protest.” Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) expressed “out­rage” about the inci­dent on Thursday. She said Rhode Island’s state police will inves­ti­gate the inci­dent. “President Trump’s immi­gra­tion poli­cies are immoral, and these Rhode Islanders were exer­cis­ing their con­sti­tu­tion­al right to protest,’’ the gov­er­nor said. 

Gina Raimondo@GovRaimondoI share the out­rage Rhode Islanders are feel­ing about the inci­dent depict­ed in the video at the Wyatt Detention Center. Our state and our nation were built on the idea that every­one has a right to express their opin­ion pub­licly and peacefully. 

The Rhode Island attor­ney gen­er­al’s office has also said it is inves­ti­gat­ing the inci­dent. “Peaceful protest is a fun­da­men­tal right of all Americans; it is unfor­tu­nate last night’s sit­u­a­tion unfold­ed as it did. We urge all to exer­cise restraint as our inves­ti­ga­tion pro­ceeds,” the office said in a state­ment on Thursday. The con­fronta­tion has left Never Again Action even more deter­mined to stand up against ICE, Lerner said. “It was total­ly unac­cept­able what hap­pened, and it’s pret­ty clear to me that we will con­tin­ue protest­ing Wyatt and con­tin­ue protest­ing what ICE is doing here in Rhode Island and beyond,” Lerner said. https://​www​.huff​post​.com/​e​n​t​r​y​/​p​i​c​k​u​p​-​t​r​u​c​k​-​n​e​v​e​r​-​a​g​a​i​n​-​i​c​e​-​r​h​o​d​e​-​i​s​l​a​n​d​_​n​_​5​d​5​5​7​4​f​d​e​4​b​0​e​b​8​7​5​f​2​0​4​4f0