Overview:

Nearly 170 people protested in Orange against the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis. The demonstration was organized by Indivisible North Quabbin. The protesters criticized the government's handling of the incident and called for accountability and justice for Good's death. While some protesters supported the demonstration, others disagreed with interfering with federal law enforcement.

ORANGE – Nearly 170 people lined South Main Street in Orange Saturday to express their anger over the shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good, who was killed on by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.

The demonstration was organized by Indivisible North Quabbin, which has been holding weekly protests against the administration of President Donald Trump. While an occasional thumbs down could be seen from passing motorists, and not everyone downtown agreed with the protesters, there was a steady honking of horns from those supporting the event.

“That is full-on ‘1984’; the government is telling you what to think and what to believe. It’s like the old joke, ‘Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?’”

Joe Lauer

Deb Vondal, one of Indivisible NQ’s organizers, said while turnout for the weekly protests has been “very good,” the number of people who turned out Saturday was “pretty impressive given we only had two or three days to organize and publicize it.”

Joe Lauer of Wendell said this was his first appearance at a protest in Orange, while also noting his activism dates back to the 1960s. One of his most memorable protests, he said, was joining with members of the NAACP to protest during a speech given by independent presidential candidate George Wallace in 1968. He was 16 at the time.

Lauer said it was the Minneapolis shooting that motivated him to show up in Orange Saturday.

“It broke my heart,” he said. “It seems like a real line has been crossed. Suddenly, innocent American citizens can be killed with impunity, and it looks like a cover-up is going on. The FBI won’t let the state of Minnesota and Hennepin County police authorities participate in the investigation [into the shooting].”

Lauer also criticized comments by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem labeling Good a “domestic terrorist” and Vice President JD Vance saying her death was “a tragedy of her own making.”

“That is full-on ‘1984’; the government is telling you what to think and what to believe,” Lauer said. “It’s like the old joke, ‘Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?’”

Linda Gelinas of Orange was also on hand, saying it had been a number of weeks since she had last joined the Indivisible NQ protests. The shooting, she said, is what motivated her to rejoin the protests.

She described her reaction to last Wednesday’s events as being, “Horror. Horror and disgust. There is no reason for her to have died. It was unconscionable, absolutely unconscionable. There was no reason for it.”

In an email announcing Saturday’s protest, Indivisible NQ leader Pat Larson said, “This killing is part of a broader pattern of unchecked violence, impunity, and abuse carried out by federal immigration enforcement agencies against members of our communities.”

She said Saturday’s event was “to demand accountability, honor the life lost, and make visible the human cost of ICE’s actions.”

Other protests were held that Saturday in Belchertown, Hadley, Westfield and Wilbraham. Protests also were held Sunday in Greenfield, Amherst, Easthampton, Northampton and West Springfield.