#LocalResistance

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

1 month ago

Photo: About 200 people at this point line the sidewalk from the driveway to The Ambassador Building at KCI (which houses the offices of U. S. Representative Sam Grave (MO 6th District–R (MAGA)) and U. S. Senator Eric Schmitt (MO–R(MAGA)) south for what would pass for a city block (if this were in a proper city) to the intersection of N Ambassador Drive & NW MidContinent Trafficway. The crowd would soon grow to an estimated 250, chanting, "He doesn't give a schmitt about you!"

Countless people gathered for #ICEout protests throughout the city and the day, including at the offices of the MAGA/GOP federal congress people in the late morning and early afternoon.

Multiple Locations in #KansasCity
30 January 2026
#LocalResistance #AbolishICE

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

1 month ago

Photo: David waves a substantial red, white and black flag, which flutters in the breeze, causing motion blue as the wind makes it vibrate. The red and white are in fairly broad vertical stripes.The black is in letters on a white field across the flag's center: "ABOLISH ICE" The flag is mostly backgrounded and backlit by twilight sky. On the photo's right, the tail lights of a red pick up truck are pulling away up Linwood Boulevard.

A new (to your reporter) flag.
#AlexPrettiVigil #KCVAMC
#KanasCity, #Missouri
1 February 2026
#LocalResistance #AbolishICE

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

1 month ago

Photo: Gary, a former active duty Marine, in a forest green hoodie and black Corps ball cap, holds a hand-made, torso-sized sign that reads, in multi colored lettering, "Renee Good | Say Her Name."

Photo: Tara holds a hand-made sign with a depiction of an Aladinesque lamp and red letters that read, "The Nursing Lamp of Life Shines for Renee & Alex." In the background, at the top of a hill, the mostly brick, 11 (or more) storied KCVA-MC catches the fading glow of the setting sun.

A couple of new (to your reporter) signs.
#AlexPrettiVigil #KCVAMC
#KanasCity, #Missouri
1 February 2026
#LocalResistance #AbolishICE

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

1 month ago

Photo: Six members of the KC Handmaid Army, in their red regalia, stand with a speaker before the rest of the vigil attendees. Four of them hold sign reading (l-r): "Trans Right are Human Rights" "Hey! News Flash! Trump and GOP | No Due Process Deportation Is Human Trafficking" "SHAME" and "Fight For Good" with an illustration of something similar to an old Slurpee[™] cup, except it's labelled "FUCK ICE."

The KC Handmaid Army was out in force at the …
#AlexPrettiVigil #KCVAMC
#KanasCity, #Missouri
1 February 2026
#LocalResistance #AbolishICE

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

1 month ago

Photo: People, probably fewer than 100 at this point, have begun assembling along the sidewalk on the south side of Linwood Boulevard, at the foot of the hill below the Kansas City Veterans Administration Medical Center (KCVA-MC). There would be more than a hundred by the time your reporter crossed the street to get close-ups. There's a flag at the left and a little further to the right the first four of the Kansas City Handmaid's Army have gathered, in their red regalia. On top of the hill behind them the mostly brick, 11 (or more) storied KCVA-MC and its auxiliary structures (an in-patient substance-abuse facility on the left and a large parking lot with solar-panel roofing on the right) are catching the fading glow of the setting sun.

1 February 2026: More than a hundred people attended this twilight vigil for Alex Pretti and Renee Good at the Kansas City Veterans Administration Medical Center.
#LocalResistance #AbolishICE

Erika

@conjugo.bsky.social

1 month ago

History doesn’t break with chaos.

It breaks with misalignment.

When local authorities say “not here, not like this,” power shifts.

That’s the signal. Watch closely.

#Politics #Democracy #CivilRights #ICEwatch #AlexPretti #FuckICE #CivilWar #LocalResistance

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

1 month ago

Photo: Looking to the northeast from the southwest, about 23 (of 200 or so) protesters are in frame, with their backs to the camera, facing the office building that houses Platform Ventures, an "Entrepreneurial Investment Firm." Signs with legible messages include: "Only You Can Prevent Fascism" "'Make Good Trouble' – John Lewis" "Justice for Renee Good" and "Arrest Jonathan Ross for Murder NOW!" The office building is limestone on its first two floors, with faux window arches featuring crest-like shields and faux rod-iron balcony railings decorating the windows on the second floor. Its exterior is more ordinary red brick from the third floor (where Platform Ventures is headquartered) upward. Platform Ventures: https://www.platformv.com/ Platform Ventures Contact Page: https://www.platformv.com/contact KCStar gift link: https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article314433588.html?giftCode=c8edb80cf90ef438628ca64c3ea3f061fd9fe31e6d0e0368af68d261a83df7d6 KMBC: https://www.kmbc.com/article/port-kc-facility-documents-plan-to-sell-detention-center/70114251 KSHB: https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/port-kc-agenda-details-developers-plan-to-sell-kansas-city-warehouse-to-ice

Photo: Looking to the southeast from the northwest, about 60 (of 200 or so) protesters are distinguishable in frame, with their backs to the camera, facing the office building that houses Platform Ventures, an investment firm that reportedly intends to sell ICE a roughly 1 million square-foot warehouse in their portion of an industrial park off I-49 near the old Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base. Platform Ventures: https://www.platformv.com/ Platform Ventures Contact Page: https://www.platformv.com/contact KCStar gift link: https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article314433588.html?giftCode=c8edb80cf90ef438628ca64c3ea3f061fd9fe31e6d0e0368af68d261a83df7d6 KMBC: https://www.kmbc.com/article/port-kc-facility-documents-plan-to-sell-detention-center/70114251 KSHB: https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/port-kc-agenda-details-developers-plan-to-sell-kansas-city-warehouse-to-ice

According to their web site, Platform Ventures manages "$3.6B [in] Assets," including, according to reporting (see all text), a warehouse that PV intends to sell to ICE "for use as a detention facility."

KC Stands with #Minnesota
#KansasCity, #Missouri
23 January 2023
#LocalResistance
4/5

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

1 month ago

Photo with Added Text: On the west side of Walnut, south of 12th Street in Kansas City, Missouri: An "older" man (but probably not as old as me) wearing a black, hooded, zippered sweatshirt over insulated overalls emerges on a sidewalk from beneath a lot of aluminum scaffolding. His demeanor is stern. He's walking towards the camera, holding a hand-made sign with black, blue and white letters on white poster board. The sign reads, "STOP ICE MURDERS | JUSTICE FOR RENEE." There are a lot more people behind him, also carrying signs. In the first row behind him, two young girls bundled in snow gear. The first carries a sign reading, "Fund Schools | Not ICE." Behind, a smaller girls lifts a colorful hand-made sign reading, "ICE OUT." A woman right behind the girls, in a knit cap, carries her own sign reading, "KC Schools | Not ICE." A middle-aged man beside them carries a sign that is only partially visible, but it reads, in full, "ICE OUT FOR GOOD." The signs behind the front row of demonstrators are blocked by intervening marchers or beyond the photograph's depth of field and not in focus. To the right, another photographer, wearing a parka, carries a shoulder bag and camera. The demonstration was promoted by the Missouri Workers Center. 23 January 2023

At least 200 demonstrators marched through downtown #KansasCity today (23 January '26) in 5℉ (don't laugh, Minnesotans; we consider that quite cold down here) to show their solidarity with Minnesota at large and Minneapolis in particular.
#LocalResistance #IceOutForGood #MissouriWorkersCenter

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

1 month ago

Photo with added text: Members of the United Auto Workers union stand along an ornate railing that lines a circular balcony near the oculus within a dome. They hold a red banner decorated with the UAW logo and the words, "They Say Give Back / We Say Fight Back." Other demonstrators line the railing on either side. One of them a bearded man holding a smaller, blue sign, reading, "Stand Up / Fight Back." The oculus above them is brightly lit white stone illuminated by the sun and decorated with a mural and architectural flourishes. A darker interior dome within the dome supports the balcony where they stand. It is decorated with more flourishes and murals (in what looks to me like an Art Nouveau style) by Frank Brangwyn, lots of foliage and figures without much detail in the figures. Test added to photograph: Upper left quadrant: "Stand Up / Fight Back" Lower right quadrant: "Rotunda of the State Capitol "Jefferson City, Missouri "21 January 2026" Re: Frank Brangwyn See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Brangwyn Re: MO-GOP MAGA efforts to reverse and undermine Missouri's citizens' initiative process See (gift article): https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/readers-opinion/guest-commentary/article312497598.html?giftCode=c2e8157978b6cedd605582fd3f3e3dfd8f0ad8f2051bc95526a3eb6a0a94b50d

Members & supporters of 17 organizations across the state filled the Rotunda of the state capitol to register their objection to the state legislators' attempts to reverse citizen-approved initiatives and undermine the initiative process.
#JeffersonCity, #Missouri
21 January 2026
#LocalResistance

Beema 🇨🇦

@cindyouellette-57.bsky.social

1 month ago

"Hours after confirmation that federal agents toured the warehouse, city council members swiftly approved a moratorium on all city approvals for nonmunicipal detention facilities." The vote was 12-1...

#localresistance #uspoli

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

1 month ago

#LocalResistance #Kansas & #Missouri

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

2 months ago

Photo: Corliss, with short steel grey hair being blown by the wind and glasses and smile, in a navy blue puff jacket, holds a white poster board sign affixed to a wooden dowel and steadied by a white-gloved hand and its lower corner. She is standing at the curb of a very busy street clogged with traffic controlled by the signals that rise over her right-hand shoulder (on our left). Office buildings provide the background for the other half of the photo (on our right). Her sign reads "BAN ICE (in red) AND PROJECT 2025 (in black)" in block letters. She leans out from behind it to share a resolute smile.

Anywho. It all comes down to this.
As our favorite Pope Hat ( @kenwhite.bsky.social ) observes, "ICE should be ripped out and woodchippered root and branch."
ICE Out for Good
Stand with Minneapolis Vigil
Mill Creek Park, #KanasCity, #Missouri
10 January 2026
#LocalResistance, #DefundICE (8 of 9)

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

2 months ago

Photo: The back side of a substantial sign composed of white poster board duct taped to a yardstick and reinforced with a smaller rectangle of recovered and repurposed brown corrugated cardboard box affixed with two strips of duct tape and several more strips of clear packing tape. Printed on the cardboard reinforcement is the declaration: "This box is now | Made With | Less Material" with an additional message encouraging anyone who saw the box to scan a code to go to "[WebRetailerWhoCapitulatedToFascism].com/thisbox" to read a self-serving message from that retailer. The construction is lifted aloft over the heads of a large crowd of capped heads, also seen from behind, and a backdrop of trees, hillside, a hospital complex and some apartment buildings. The person lifting the sign is Jeanne, who laughs but also wants you to know that she is "not an Amazon customer, not a Prime customer, NONE of that. It's just a piece of cardboard I found." I don't know why, really, but this eco-friendly sign and Jeanne absolutely cracked me up. Thank you, Jeanne.

Photo: Two brunettes, one in a dark jacket in sunglasses and one in a tan jacket without eyewear (Dani and Lisa) pause to to pose, smile, and offer, from a white cardboard box they're carrying, "FREE * Stickers * Buttons * Magnets [RESIST]." The box has a few more stickers, buttons, and magnets left, but it's running low. They've been offering them to other demonstrators as they've walked through the crowd that surrounds them. The box is balanced on a larger foamcore poster board sign that reads, across its visible bottom half, "ICE IN MY STREETS?" next to a big red no-vote "X." How can that not lift your spirits? Thank you, Dani and Lisa.

So, there are, in times of community action, spirit-lifting moments.
ICE Out for Good
Stand with Minneapolis Vigil
Mill Creek Park, #KanasCity, #Missouri
10 January 2026
#LocalResistance, #DefundICE,
#HumansOfBlueSky (7 of 9)

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

2 months ago

Photo: Brown-haired Heather stands with a friend and holds in gloved hands a large hand-lettered sign, blue letters on white poster board with black musical notes, She looks over the top edge of the sign and smiles. The sign reads, "Anybody here seen my old friend John Renee | Can you tell me where she's gone?" (The name "John" has been struck through and replaced with Renee.) It's an lyric excerpt from the song "Abraham, Martin and John" by Marvin Gaye that laments the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln; John F. Kennedy; Martin Luther King, Jr.; and Robert F. Kennedy, written in 1968, following the murders of the latter two. The last line of the song is, " I just looked around and they were gone." Behind the pair, four or five more demonstrators are partially in view. Across the street, the eastern elevation of a two-story Country Club Plaza mixed-use (shops on the first floor and offices above) tan stucco building meant to evoke Spanish architecture provides a backdrop.

Photo: Bearded Todd (wearing two hats: a beanie under a ball cap) and Smiling Diane (wearing a thermal headband) (both of them in sunglasses), both hold signs: hand-made, simple and tidy graphics and text. Todd's sign reads, "NO HUMAN | IS ILLEGAL" and the two lines of text are separated by the word "ICE" is overlaid with the international symbol for NOT HERE (circle with a slash through it). Dianne's sign reads, "NO ICE | RESIST | FASCISM" and is decorated with a melting blue ice cube. I complimented Todd on pulling off the two-hat look effortlessly (it's not easy.) He said he had to do it to "keep his bald head warm," and he bared his head to prove it. While it's true you wouldn't expect a hairless top on a head with that beard, I would have taken your word for this, Todd. That's not something I've ever heard a man lie about. Diane's shirt features the deadhead logo and reads, in the deadhead font of a generation that preceded hers, probably by some decades, "MAKE AMERICA GRATEFUL (AGAIN)." (The word "again" is hidden by her sign in the photo. Just trust me. It's there. I did not know, when I took the picture, that Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, passed away this same day. I don't know if Diane knew either. But anyway … "Sleep In the stars "Don't you cry "Dry your eyes on the wind" – Robert Hunter

Sad Songs Remembered
Other demonstrators reminded me of music.
ICE Out for Good
Stand with Minneapolis Vigil
Mill Creek Park, #KanasCity, #Missouri
10 January 2026
#LocalResistance, #DefundICE,
#HumansOfBlueSky (6 of 9)

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

2 months ago

Photo: Christina and Linh stand against a backdrop of buildings on the east edge of the Country Club Plaza with other demonstrators walking about around and behind them. She wears a brown knit cap and he is bare-headed. Both wear sunglasses and each holds a sign that has been lettered by hand in black ink on white poster board. Christina's sign displays the words "Insecure," "Coward," and "Executioner," stacked so the initial large cap letters of each, outlined in red, spell out "ICE" vertically. Linh's sign displays in serif letters a quotation from George Orwell's dystopian /1984/ that has seen a lot of use since the murder of Renee Nicole Good and the MAGA regimes bizarre insistence that the several videos of her final moments show things that simply are not visible in any of those videos: "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." Several more demonstrators are visible standing around them.

Photo: Sarah – with long auburn hair escaping a black knit cap, glasses, and a black N90 mask – holds a hand-lettered sign, black & red ink on white posterboard. It quotes Margaret Atwood's dystopian /The Handmaid's Tale/: "Don't let the Bastards Get you down," with the word "Bastards" in red and the others in black. (The flip side of sign reads, "Nolite te Bastardes Carborundum," also from Atwood's novel, in which Atwood used it as a sort of inside joke, revived from her high school Latin class, faux Latin that, with a bit of a stretch reaches toward meaning, "don’t let the bastards grind you down.)

Dystopian Reflections
Recent events reminded these demonstrators of dystopian novels.
ICE Out for Good
Stand with Minneapolis Vigil
Mill Creek Park, #KanasCity, #Missouri
10 January 2026
#LocalResistance, #DefundICE,
#HumansOfBlueSky (5 of n)

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

2 months ago

Photo: Jacques – of the salt'n'pepper beard and rolled, polar fleece beanie cap – peers out from behind a hand-lettered, repurposed cardboard sign that reads, "DEFUND ICE." The stripes of a frayed U.S. flag are visible behind his left shoulder. Other demonstrators are visible behind his right.

Photo: Joe, in shades and a Navy Seals ballcap, looks over the top of the hand lettered on white poster board sign that he carries, which reads, "TRUMP MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN | MOVE TO NORTH KOREA." I mean," he says, "since he likes dictators like Kim Jong Un so much." Kim Jong Un is the "the third supreme leader of North Korea, and also serves as the president of the State Affairs Commission and the chairman of the Central Military Commission (per Wikipedia)" and he and Trump have exchanged, in Trump's own words, "love letters." Presumably not as romantic as the birthday card Trump famously sent to Jeffrey Epstein, but still. Other protesters and a bit of an LGBQT+ flag are visible immediately behind Joe, and apartment buildings populate the horizon.

🎼 "People Try To Put Us Down" 🎵
But Jacques and Joe represented my generation admirably.
ICE Out for Good
Stand with Minneapolis Vigil
Mill Creek Park, #KanasCity, #Missouri
10 January 2026
#LocalResistance, #DefundICE,
#HumansOfBlueSky (4 of n)

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

2 months ago

Photo: Walt makes, by hand, very nice signs, lettered in white (usually) block letters with drop shadows on repurposed brown cardboard. The sign he holds today atypically contains an image: the face and upper torso of an ICE agent, all masked up and ready for another day on the streets of Fallujah (or Belton). The sign's text reads, "FASCISM | STARING YOU IN THE FACE." Walt has long light grey hair that is usually topped with a wide-brimmed leather hat ("That's my trademark," he says.), but he's not wearing that today ("It's too windy," he says.).

Photo: Dan (but always going to be Danny, to me) has been showing up since last March. He is the only person in this trio that I can guarantee you fully appreciates the Usual Suspects reference. His sign includes a picture we've all seen by now of Renee Nicole Good, pregnant, on a beach, in a ruby red dress, smiling. The text on the sign reads "Renee was Good" across the top and "ICE is BAD" across the bottom.

Photo: The perpetually effervescent John McCrae of Respect Missouri Voters smiles for the camera. He's used to me taking his picture by now. He and other Respect Missouri Voter volunteers were in attendance soliciting signatures for their petition to get an initiative on the ballot for a state constitutional amendment that will BAN politicians from: Overturning initiatives that voters have already passed. Attacking citizens' ability to use the initiative process. Deceiving voters with confusing ballot language. Find more information here: https://respectmovoters.org/

Familiar Faces (aka, the Usual Suspects)
ICE Out for Good
Stand with Minneapolis Vigil
Mill Creek Park, #KanasCity, #Missouri
10 January 2026
#LocalResistance, #DefundICE (3 of n)

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

2 months ago

Photo: The red-headed Jan wears reflective sunglasses and holds a sign as she stands against a backdrop of buildings on the east edge of the Country Club Plaza. The neatly hand-lettered sign reads: "Renee Nicole Good | Murdered by ICE | was NOT a | "domestic terrorist!" | Arrest the Ice agent Shooter NOW!" Other demonstrators mill about behind her.

The #KansasCity area hosts 7 to 10 #LocalResistance events every weekend, each of them drawing dozens of protesters. This one was extra, and larger, because #ReneeGood was murdered by an ICE agent.
ICE Out for Good
Mill Creek Park, Kansas City, #Missouri
10 January 2026 (2 of n)

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

2 months ago

Photo: Angela, in a checkered knit cap, stands backlit by the sun in a park across the street from a collection of buildings of Moorish architecture. She carries a variation on the U.S. Flag, with black and grey stripes and black stars on a grey field and "RESIST." (including that period) emblazoned across it. Behind her, a hundred-plus other demonstrators tarry as the protest disperses and the low-hanging sun glows brightly through her flag.

At least 1,000 Kansas Citians turned out this sunny but breezy and cool Saturday to protest the murder of #ReneeNicoleGood in Minneapolis this past week.
ICE Out for Good
Stand with Minneapolis Vigil
Mill Creek Park, #KanasCity, #Missouri
10 January 2026
#LocalResistance, #DefundICE (1 o n)

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

2 months ago

Photo: Ellen, with long brown hair, wearing a knitted jacket, holds two signs. In her left hand, held just below her chin, is a length of white cardboard with the hand-lettered message: "First They Came," invoking the poem by Niemöller. In her right hand, held at waist level and off to one side, a sign depicts the iconic Rosie the Riveter (made famous in the war against fascism), with the words "We Can Do It" above Rosie's head and the words "Organize! Organize! Testify! Testify! Resist! Resist!" emblazoned down the sign's right-hand side. "They took my family in January," she says. "They were high school sweethearts. They were illegally returned to a war zone." She is angry and she is hurt.

Photo: Mariah – a green-eyed brunette in a green, hooded rain jacket (hood down) – and Elijah – red headed, with moustache and goatee in a black, hooded rain jacket (hood up) smile at the camera, They didn't bring a sign, but still showed up with a message, implied in their smiles and articulated by Mariah: "Too many Americans are viewing themselves in relation to a power system, instead of seeing each other as fellow Americans."

Photo: A protester, (Macy, not visible in the frame) kindly lets their rainbow-colored umbrella rest on their shoulder (facilitating the taking of the photograph), to reveal the message, "PEASANTS REVOLT," hand applied (in an unknown medium) to the umbrella's brightly colored fabric. The office lighting in the office building across the street illuminates the umbrella from its underside (to nice effect).

Photo: Mitch Schiller, of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (one of the demonstration's organizing groups), speaks during the protest's press conference segment. He sports a moustache, wears glasses, a keffiyeh, and a red sweatshirt that reads (on the back, not shown), "Socialism is the Future." He holds a mic in one hand and gestures with the other. The movement of the gesture is blurred. He is one of several speakers during the press conference, all of whom condemned the murder of Renee Good. Schiller also stressed the importance of looking beyond the immediate tragedy. "The horizon goal," he said, "is to solve problems at the root." On the right, a tent pole is visible. Around him, at 17 other protesters are immediately visible. One of them holds a U.S. flag aloft. Another lifts a phone to record his remarks. Another holds a phone up to his remarks with one hand while the other holds a yellow cardboard sign with the handlettered message: "Resist | Persist."

Bringing the Message
Everyone there, with or without a sign, brought a message to the demonstration and shared it, via one medium or another. Here are just a few.
8 January 2026
Stop ICE Terror Rally
City Hall
#KansasCity, #Missouri
#LocalResistance #StopICE (4 of 4)

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

2 months ago

Photo: Looking eastward: A view of demonstrators who have gathered at an anti-ICE Protest following the murder of Renee Good with an office building that is still mostly lit from within. In the foreground, a protester wearing a jacket over a dark blue "Missouri Workers Center" t-shirt. Beyond that protester, a row of several more protesters holding signs provided by the protest's organizer (the Party for Socialism and Liberation - Kansas City) that read "Justice for Renee Good;" "ICE Out of Our Communities;" and "STOP ICE TERROR NOW."

Photo: Looking Northward through the back of a group of demonstrators who have gathered at an anti-ICE Protest following the murder of Renee Good with the Charles E Whitaker U.S. District Courthouse and Ozark National Life Insurance offices in the background. A tower crane rises above the courthouse. A protester to the right holds a sign reading, "ICE our of our Communities." In the center of the frame, another protester holds a sign reading "From Kansas to Minneapolis | STOP ICE TERROR;" and beyond that, a red tent is visible next to a bright red light source. A press conference is in progress at the tent.

Crowd size estimates varied from "dozens" (the #KCStar), through "more than 100" (Fox4), to 200 or more (myself, KSHB 41, and Spectrum News).
8 January 2026
Stop ICE Terror Rally
City Hall
#KansasCity, #Missouri
#LocalResistance #StopICE (3 of 4)

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

2 months ago

Photo: Early in the evening on a drizzle-slickened downtown street, Isabella Ledonne, in khaki-colored coat, and a videographer, working a camera on a tripod, from KSHB 41 television news interview a smiling young protester who holds a sign reading "ICE MURDERED RENEE GOOD." Several other protesters are visible behind the trio. One is older and mustachioed, wearing a red jacket and holding a sign that reads, "From Kansas to Minneapolis | STOP ICE TERROR." Next to that protester stands another, bearded, in a black rain slicker. The light is low, the shutter is slow, and movement is blurred in the sign and on another protester in the background. Beyond the news crew and protesters, a few lights remain on in the emptying office buildings and the street lights have come on outdoors. 8 January 2026 Stop ICE Terror Rally City Hall Kansas City, Missouri

Photo: Videographers from Spectrum News interviews an older bespeckled protester n in a bright orange hat, jacket and pants who holds aloft a U.S. flag against a dark blue sky. The interviewer has dark curly hair and wears a turquoise sweater under their backpack. The camera technician wears a khaki sweatshirt with the hood up. The right half of the background is occupied by other demonstrators, the left half by vehicular traffic on 11th Street. 8 January 2026 Stop ICE Terror Rally City Hall Kansas City, Missouri

Press coverage included at least four local TV news crews (Channels 4, 5, 9, & 41), Spectrum News, the #KCStar, & RooNews (student news outlet for the University of Missouri - Kansas City).
8 January 2026
Stop ICE Terror Rally
City Hall
#KansasCity, #Missouri
#LocalResistance #StopICE (2 of 4)

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

2 months ago

Photo with Text: An Art Deco midwestern City Hall, lit in blue and white and topped with a U.S. flag, rises against a cloudy grey sky behind a crowd of a crowd of (probably) 200 to 300 (maybe more) protesters. The top of a red pavilion-style tent, from which the event's organizers (The Party for Socialism and Liberation - Kansas City). Text added to the photograph reads: Stop ICE Terror Rally City Hall 8 January 2026 / Kansas City, MO

A couple hundred, maybe more, people showed up in the drizzle and rain across the street from City Hall in Kansas City, Missouri, tonight to demand an end to the ICE raids, violence and abuse.
8 January 2026
Stop ICE Terror Rally
City Hall
#KansasCity, #Missouri
#LocalResistance #StopICE

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

2 months ago

Photo: Barry, in silhouette, carries a large "Veterans for Trump" flag (partially back lit) on a steel pole. In a conversation with Barry at the Musk-Rat Resister Protest the previous week, he told me, "I'm as MAGA as it gets, but I'm not crazy," while nodding towards his colleagues, who were screaming a few feet away: "Fuck all the Democrats!" and "All Democrats are pedophiles!" and "Democrats are Satanic!" (I was shown a video this week that one of his colleagues had also lifted his shirt to brandish a pistol, and, according to the person who recorded it, then threatened, "I'll fucking kill you." And yes, I'm told that video has been shared with the police.) "I try to talk to people," he said, last week. "I do talk to people. You can ask her!" And he pointed towards a person he said he had talked to several times. "You can ask her!" This week, Barry followed one of the Musk-Rat Resisters around, from one end of the line of protesters to the other, shouting at him about his license plate: "Where'd you park? Where'd you park? I want to get a picture of your license plate! That's illegal! I want to get a picture of it and show it to the police!" The Resister ignored him. At another point, he walked through the protesters where they stood and, bumping into one, began shouting, "She blocked my way! She can't do that!" Someone, maybe a Safety Person, said, loud enough to be heard, "She was standing still. You chose to walk into her." Later, he strode along the curb, yelling, repeatedly, "TAKE YOUR FUCKING MASK OFF!" Perhaps Barry felt that, being the only MAGA on site this week, he had to step up his game. Represent.

Only one pro-MAGA regime counter-protester showed up in opposition to this week's pro-democracy demonstration.
#MuskRatResisters
103rd Street and State Line Road
#Leawood, #Kansas
03 January 2026
#LocalResistance #IndivisibleKC (5 of 5)

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

2 months ago

Photo: Sasha, with flaming red hair flowing out from under a scarf reminiscent of Eastern European fashion, wears a black coat, a black surgical mask and amazing large round amber sunglasses. Sasha carries a Ukrainian flag and proudly supports a free Ukraine. And Sasha doesn't back down.

Photo: A member of the Kansas City Handmaid Army, in red hood with white cowl and a simple sign on a string around her neck: "#KCHandmaidArmy." Her face is covered with a black scarf and sunglasses. "We support reproductive freedom … and all the freedoms," she says.

Photo: Rasta wears the Guy Fawkes mask often associated with Anonymous. He's decorated it with the word "Antifa," the international symbol for Nazis not permitted here, and the circled A for Anarchy. He holds aloft a cardboard and duct tape sign with the words "Epstein List" above the blacked out (as if poorly redacted) name "Trump," and the words "Antifa" and "America" both beginning with the circled "A," and a brief message: "Release the FILES!!!" A light gray Dodge Ram pickup truck is driving by.

Signs and Wonders No. 3
#MuskRatResisters
103rd Street and State Line Road
#Leawood, #Kansas
03 January 2026
#LocalResistance #IndivisibleKC (4 of 5)

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

2 months ago

Photo: Regina (L) in a red windbreaker and Lynn (R) in a black windbreaker, both of them in heavy knit caps start their walk back to their car still carrying the sign they made this morning: "Bombing Venezuela is Criminal." "It's as simple as that," says Lynn. "We just found out this morning," Regina adds. "We knew we had to do something." "We try to get out here every week," Lynn continues.

Photo: Ron, in a dark green field jacket, carries a simple and direct message in black, serif-free text: "No Kings."

Photo: Wendy, in a turquoise down jacket, stands near the curb and raises a black-gloved hand in a wave towards the traffic. In her other hand is a large sign reminding the drivers and passengers in that traffic that the "USA [was] FOUNDED ON SEPARATION OF CHURCH & STATE." The flip side of her sign follows up with a warning that "WHITE CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS ARE TAKING OVER THE USA."

Signs and Wonders No. 2
#MuskRatResisters
103rd Street and State Line Road
#Leawood, #Kansas
03 January 2026
#LocalResistance #IndivisibleKC (3 of 5)

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

2 months ago

Photo: The bearded Nevin stands on the corner, holding his U.S. flag on a light white pole in his left hand and his "Fuck Trump" sign in his right. There is Taco Bell signage behind him.

Photo: Pam, wearing her hooded scarf with small mammal ears, smiles and holds a small orange bullhorn and a sign that appears to have been crafted with crayons in her right hand and waves her black-gloved left hand. Rarely, but occasionally, someone in a passing car yells an obscenity at her. When that happens, she uses her bullhorn to reply, "I love you anyway! That's why I'm here!"

Photo: Tim, in a canvas work jacket and glasses, holds his sign of the day, while the wind messes with his hair. Today's sign bears a picture of Trump as a sad clown, with puff-topped dunce cap, red tie, and a button, reading, "The Great Prezo." Above the picture, in Tim's sign, are the words, "No Crown for this Clown." Tim prints his own signs. They're something to look forward to at every resistance event. (He comes to them all.) Behind Tim, more Resisters mill about. And beyond them, a Casey's gas station and convenience store and a McDonald's franchise can be seen.

Photo: Paige stands on the corner holding a sign bearing my favorite message on this on which an undeclared imperialist war has begun. It reads, "ONLY EVERYBODY CAN SAVE US NOW." A shadow cast by Pam's indefatigable waving hand falls across the word "NOW" (though Pam is out of frame) and another shadow of unknown origin falls across the foreground suggesting that even the Tin Man of Oz is stepping up at this crucial moment in history. Paige wears a red cowl. You can't see Nevin, but his flag pokes up behind Paige (and is probably responsible for that part of the foreground shadow that creates the Tin Man's head).

Signs and Wonders No. 1
#MuskRatResisters
103rd Street and State Line Road
#Leawood, #Kansas
03 January 2026
#LocalResistance #IndivisibleKC (2 of 5)

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

2 months ago

Photo with text: Looking down the curb northward along the east side of State Line Road toward 103rd Street, in the foreground, a placard mounted in the grass features a drawing reminiscent of an early 20th Century U.S. Army recruiting poster, with Uncle Sam pointing his finger at us over the text: "I WANT YOU TO RESIST." In the background, two members of the KC Handmaid Army chat with a Safety Person from Indivisible Kansas City; there is another, larger sign with text reading, "HONK 4 DEMOCRACY;" and quite a few Musk-Rat Resisters mingle. Traffic signals, mounted on tubular steel booms extending from large steel masts, hover over the intersection. Things are just getting started. Text added to the photograph reads: "Musk-Rat Resisters Protest 103rd Street & State Line Road Leawood, Kansas 3 January 2026" A large black Honda SUV is driving by to the left of the Uncle Sam placard. (And if you look real close, you might notice that the license plate number has been replaced in post production, from whatever to "NO2ICE.")

Despite the cold at the start, more than three dozen #MuskRatResisters showed up for their weekly Musk-Rat Resisters Protest at
103rd Street and State Line Road
#Leawood, #Kansas
03 January 2026
#LocalResistance #IndivisibleKC (1 of 5)

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

2 months ago

Photo: Protest Girl and another Musk-Rat Resister stand between a MAGA/QAnon cult personality (Stephen) and the main body of pro-democracy demonstrators at a Musk-Rat Resisters Protest and use small bullhorns of their own to counter the deranged dreck coming from Stphen's big, black megaphone. Protest Girl is dressed in black and carries a rainbow-colored umbrella, her own bullhorn with mic, and a hand-made sign (likely fashioned just for this occasion) featuring large white letters and an arrow on a black background. It reads, "FUCKS TRUMP," with the arrow pointing squarely at the counter-protester. Her colleague wears blue jeans, a black sweater and gloves, sunglasses, and light purple bandanas over face and hair, and also carries a bullhorn and mic. Stephen appears to have dressed himself as a parody of a MAGA/QAnon cult member; but, really, he aspires to someday become a MAGA/QAnon Cult Influencer. To this end, Stephen wraps himself (literally) in American flags and shows up, literally wrapped in an American flag, at pro-Democracy demonstrations to stage counter-demonstrations that he promotes to his 1300-plus followers as "Deport Democrats Protest[s]" with the slogan: "GET THE FUCK OUT OF OUR STATE SATANIC DEMOCRAT TRAITOR MFR'S." On this occasion, he's wearing an American-flag hooded jacket and a black, "autographed" Donald J. Trump hat. He holds to his mouth in his right hand a microphone for the large black megaphone slung over his right shoulder. The megaphone is decorated with two white crosses and a Punisher[™] skull head popular with MAGA militias, except this one wears a blonde pompadour wig just like the MAGA cult's leader. In his left hand, he holds his cellphone, in selfie mode, to record videos of himself shouting, "Shut the fuck up you fucking Democrat retard motherfuckers." (His feed also has a lot of AI Crusaders wielding swords and dripping in blood. So. Whew.)

Six-to-eight MAGA/QAnon counter-protesters succeeded at being crude but probably failed to make themselves noticeable to the drivers and passengers of passing vehicles.
#MuskRatResisters
103rd Street and State Line Road
#Leawood, #Kansas
27 December 2025
#LocalResistance #IndivisibleKC (3 of 3)

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

2 months ago

Photo: Lamar wears a Chiefs sweatshirt and smiles at the camera as he holds a sign with the message "FACTS DEFEND TRUTH," hand-lettered on brown box cardboard. He stands near the curb of a street at a busy intersection, Traffic lights behind him show green and their boom bears a sign reading "103rd Street." A second set of lights, facing cross traffic, bears a sign reading, "State Line Rd." Around him stand quite a few other Musk-Rat Resisters: Jo Ann, Uncle Sam, Anonymous (holding his own hand-lettered sign, reading "FUCK TRUMP'), Chrissy. Niven, in the background, is walking towards his motorcycle with his outsized U.S. flag and a corner of an LGBTQ+ flag appears somewhere not too far from him. Nearer to Lamar, someone out of frame lifts a red, white and dark blue flag above and behind the crowd. This is a counter protester, that is: an anti-pro-democracy protester. There were 6 to 8 of these at the event, but they might not have been noticeable to the passing traffic, except insofar as they made the pro-democracy demonstration appear to be slightly larger (and much louder) than it actually was. The counter-protesters I saw who bothered to bring anything to the corner at all brought flags, either U.S. flags (irony?) or "Veterans for TRUMP" flags in red, white, and dark blue, always mounted on steel poles (like the ones the rioters used at the Capitol on January 6, or perhaps stouter). At least one brought both flags, mounted on the same pole. The Musk-Rat Resisters and pro-democracy demonstrators in general are ardent patriots who have been carrying the U.S. flag and wearing colorful pro-American costumes from the outset. So, a couple or three more red, white and blue flags at a pro-democracy demonstration just kind of blend in. It is much easier to distinguish the proto-fascists from the democracy advocates by their visible hatred and raw anger than by their haute couture.

Photo: Chrissy holds a printed sign reading, "We are a nation of proud immigrants," that features a close up of the Statue of Liberty with her torch ablaze. She stands near the curb of northbound State Line Road at 103rd Street. She's got a great grin and is wearing a dark gray jacket over and light gray Chiefs hoodie (and looks like she might still be a little bit cold). Behind her, other Musk-Rat Resister hold: * a hand-made sign reading, "Billionaires vs You & Me" * a printed sign reading, "Honk 4 Democracy" * a hand-made sign reading, "Freedom / Democracy / Truth" * a hand-made sign only partially visible with the visible portion sayings simply, "FUCK." Another Musk-Rat Resister standing further up the road is dressed as Uncle Same and he holds a bullhorn. The stoplight at the corner is green and its boom bears a sign reading "103rd Street." A traffic sign at the corner reads, "Right Lane MUST Turn Right."

Photo: Shelley, in a green sweatshirt and glasses with long brown hair held in a pony tail with a dark gray scrunchy, stands by the side of the road facing traffic holding aloft a hand-made sign, the back side of which reads, "Report ICE Misconduct 833 4ICE OPR | 800-323-8603 (OIG)." – 833 4ICE OPR (833-442-3677) is the phone number for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) 800-323-8603 is the toll free number for reaching the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General (OIG).

Photo: Claire stands on the corner facing traffic, wearing black: black beanie, black cap (with shiny steel eyelets, black fingerless gloves, black leather wrist bands (with shiny steel spikes). She has very bright red hair. She waves with her left hand held high and holds in her right hand a large LGBTQ+ flag on a light weight pole.

The Musk-Rat Resisters carried the message calmly, with determination and in good spirits.
#MuskRatResisters
103rd Street and State Line Road
#Leawood, #Kansas
27 December 2025
#LocalResistance #IndivisibleKC (2 of 3)