While many are taking long weekends to celebrate Independence Day, others are using their vacation time to speak out against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with the recent separation of children from their parents acting as a catalyst for protests nationwide. Monday’s action in Hartford, beginning during morning rush hour, brought hundreds of people out to protest immigrant detentions and family separations. Chanting from outside the Federal Building on Main Street could be heard by the carousel in Bushnell Park. Horns, including that of a City of Hartford garbage truck, were honked in support. There was a lone heckler, yelling something incoherent about drugs from across the street.

Who is on the roof across the street?

 

 

 

When civil disobedience is planned, those consenting to be arrested are trained; the Hartford police, in recent years anyway, give ample warning to those protesting so that only the folks agreeing to arrest are taken to one of the City’s several cop vans. There is something unnerving about watching elders in particular get led away and frisked by police before being loaded in. Still, getting arrested to draw attention to a political message was a choice made by activists.

 

 

 

 

Chants of “Who do you protect? Who do you serve?” were directed at the Hartford Police as 35 people blocking the entrance to the Federal Building were arrested. Dozens of HPD were on site, including Community Service Officers who would typically be assigned to the city’s neighborhoods. Police vehicles idled while blocking Main Street for the duration of their presence at the action. This allocation of resources was a choice made by the police department.

 

 

 

After the last arrest is made, people usually disperse. An hour later, the chanting was still going strong.