Protesters march in Indianapolis against deadly ICE terror after the murder of Renee Nicole Good. Photo: PSL Indianapolis
Amid a crowd of hundreds of Hoosiers who took to the streets Thursday, January 8, to demonstrate their outrage at the political murder of Renee Nicole Good at the hands of ICE agent Jonathan Ross, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation challenged Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett to act, as he and the hundreds in the crowd had by assembling: “Will you publicly oppose ICE operations in Indianapolis communities? Will you refuse to let this city become a staging ground for terror? Or will your silence tell us exactly where you stand?”
Hogsett was forced to answer. “To the extent that the federal government feels the need to place ICE officers in Indianapolis, that’s somebody else’s decision,” Hogsett told Peter Blanchard with Mirror Indy, “but it’s not something that I’m requesting, and it’s not something that I think there there’s any kind of immediate need in the city of Indianapolis. People are frightened and I’m aware of that.”
Hogsett’s response shows how he and the Democratic Party are not prepared, nor do they desire, to provide the leadership that working and oppressed people need in the fight against Trump and far-right police terror.
Hogsett passed blame for the presence of ICE officers in Indianapolis, shirking responsibility for public safety and consigning city officials to adhere to a policy of silence and inaction in the face of right-wing aggression. Even worse, he opened the door to future full-throated cooperation, only mustering the courage to say that there is no “immediate need” for ICE to murder people in Indy.
This is a pattern for Hogsett’s approach to ICE. He previously stated the contract between ICE and the Marion County Sheriff’s Office that pays MCSO to imprison those arrested by ICE is the Sheriff’s problem, not his. But Hogsett is responsible for the City-County budget, including the Sheriff’s Office, and he ignored protests during last year’s budget session demanding the City-County withhold millions of dollars from MCSO as long as they lock up our neighbors for ICE.
When Hogsett said that “people are frightened,” he should have been honest—he and other Democratic Party politicians are frightened, and they have no leadership to inspire people to understand that they can organize together and lose their fear. The people should expect leaders to take accountability and provide protection and solutions when our rights and lives are under attack. Hogsett and the Marion County Democratic Party hold all the tools of power in the city, so they have no excuse to refuse to use that power to actually help the people.
While the spineless statement of Hogsett clearly illustrates an endemic strain of cowardice, his paralysis is not reflected in the working and oppressed people of Indianapolis and the rest of the country. Thousands upon thousands of people across the United States, including thousands of Hoosiers, have taken to the streets, clearly showing that we are all fed up, fired up, and demand an end to ICE and all right-wing and police terror.
Regular working people took to the streets in the hundreds to stand against ICE in Indianapolis, pushing through fear and apprehension to stand together. When elected officials refuse to protect us, we can and we must organize together to defend ourselves and our neighbors! While so-called “leaders” cower in the shadows, refusing to boldly defend the people, we can continue to mobilize to make it clear that we want ICE out of Indianapolis and all our communities!
That’s why on January 20, we’re calling upon the people to do what Hogsett and his administration refuse to do. On the anniversary of Trump’s inauguration, the Party for Socialism and Liberation is raising the call for a National Day of Action where we workers shut down business as usual to fight against Trump and the right-wing billionaires’ agenda!
Join us in the streets to show that we will not cower as the right-wing billionaires and their terrorist footsoldiers wage war upon our neighborhoods. While the Democrats will remain silent until the midterms, the working-class people of Indianapolis will stand courageously united, demanding an end to right-wing terror and committing ourselves to build a better world.