For weeks, the media have claimed that the protests against federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis and other cities are peaceful and that protesters are not interfering with law enforcement operations.
Hailey West, an independent journalist covering the protests, found something different.
“Interference is constant,” she told Public. “It’s like a badge of honor out there.” She described the “physical pushing of officers” by protesters who are “trying to break through a [police] line. They’ll send people who are mentally ill or disabled in a wheelchair to the front of the line.”
West expressed horror at the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. “We don’t want to see what happened to Renee or Alex to continue,” she said. “We should want to protect our citizens.”
West described a situation of rising violence. In one instance, protesters threw tear gas at ICE agents, but hit the van that she and other reporters were sitting in instead.
“You have this massive group of protestors following all the vehicles,” she said. “They were throwing tear gas canisters, and one of them ended up being thrown on top of our vehicle, bounced off, went underneath the vehicle, and started filling the car up with tear gas.”
When asked if it was her only time being tear-gassed, West said, “No, I’ve been tear-gassed multiple times. Usually, I’ll have a gas mask, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take one on the plane. You get used to it after a certain point.”
West said that the protesters are “instructed to cause as much chaos so they can.”
