As discontent grows over federal immigration enforcement, some La Plata County residents are brushing up on the philosophy and practice of civil disobedience.
About 60 residents met Jan. 24 – the day after U.S. Border Patrol agents shot and killed Minneapolis man Alex Pretti, 37 – in Durango for a civil disobedience workshop led by JoAnn Smotherman and hosted by Durango Friends Meeting, the resident Quakers group.
Examining the ideas of philosopher Henry David Thoreau, civil rights champion Martin Luther King Jr. and other thought leaders, attendees talked about what civil disobedience looks like, the risks it entails and the purpose it serves.
Merriam-Webster defines civil disobedience as “refusal to obey governmental demands or commands especially as a nonviolent and usually collective means of forcing concessions from the government.”
Smotherman described it as “the responsibility under conditions of failure.”
Thoreau treated the responsibility of civil disobedience as a “personal withdrawal” from cooperation with a government, Smotherman said, that has “forfeited its moral authority,” as described in reading materials offered before the workshop.
She said the Society of Friends treats that responsibility as “lived discipline over time”; King adapted it into “collective pressure”; and the Sanctuary Movement – a faith-based movement in the United States to shelter refugees fleeing violence in Central America that began in the 1980s – considers that responsibility to be “immediate protection.”
Civil disobedience is not “self-expression,” “moral theater” or “ideological sorting,” she said.
“Riots happen when we lose sight of the strategy and are overwhelmed by our own need to express our anger,” she said. “Civil disobedience is rarely violent or even aggressive. When riots result from civil disobedience, it almost always is toward and not from the participants.”
Smotherman told attendees to ask themselves, “When is obedience no longer moral?” and “What is the value of law when power refuses to honor it?”
She said successful civil disobedience movements are not monoliths and are instead composed of different organizations with different philosophies that share the same urgency.
The goal in collective action is not uniformity, she said, but solidarity even without uniformity.
A discussion point that surfaced and resurfaced throughout the workshop was the reality that civil disobedience inherently involves choices, risks and responsibilities.
Harrison Wendt, a Minneapolis man, former Durango resident and constitutional observer – someone who observes law enforcements’ actions to document violations of people’s rights – attended the workshop virtually and shared what’s happening on the ground in Minneapolis.
At that time, about 2,800 federal officers were stationed in the City of Lakes, according to the BBC, which cited the Trump administration’s “border czar” Tom Homan.
Wendt said federal officers’ killings of Minneapolis residents Pretti and Renée Good, 37, two weeks apart last month are evidence the risks of civil disobedience may stack up to and include death.
“If you’re going out and you’re trying to resist, you have to understand the risks of what that could mean. In Minneapolis, it means death for two people,” he said.
He said he lives just blocks away from where Pretti was shot and killed and whatever impression one has about the unrest stirred by federal officers on the streets of Minneapolis, it’s “10 times worse” in person.
Schools in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, closed temporarily in the days after Good was shot dead, he said. More than 800 businesses closed in Minneapolis during a general strike the day Pretti was killed.
Observers patrol school areas throughout the Twin Cities on the lookout for U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents, who are waiting for children outside of schools, he said.
“You really have to be brave. There is such a scary feeling right now,” he said.
Wendt said he has witnessed federal officers “abduct” more than 25 people in Minneapolis. He has not successfully intervened in any incident – stopping or preventing someone’s arrest is unlikely. His process is to record arrests and collect the names and emergency contacts of people being arrested.
He offered observer training to workshop attendees in Durango. The basics are to observe and record, and to make noise and blow whistles to alert others of federal officers’ presence.
One attendee asked how people can resist federal officers without physically fighting back.
Wendt said fighting back isn’t a practical option – it would only give authorities an excuse to ramp up violence. Documenting violations of people’s rights lays the groundwork for prosecutions and accountability when power changes hands.
He said he went to the scene of Pretti’s death the day after it occurred. He wants to make sure every community is ready for when the federal government brings violence to them.
Attendees brainstormed where civil disobedience is likely to occur – locations called “action sites” – and how to plan and assign roles that fit everyone’s individual risk comfort level.
Parks, streets, churches, restaurants, grocery stores, school parking lots and ICE facilities. All were examples of possible action sites where questionable law enforcement could be met by passive resistance, participants said.
People said a coordinated movement could benefit from a variety of roles both inside and outside of action sites. On scene, people can de-escalate, provide first-aid, offer emotional support, record and document, and lead singing and chanting, for example.
Other roles can be served outside an action site. Participants said those could include education, recruitment, broadcasting and record-keeping; parking coordination; liaisons to police and journalists; and cleaning up after events.
Smotherman said figuring out where one belongs is important
“We’re collaborating on ideas of things that you can consider and see where you fit,” she said. “If you sit with your butt on that ground, then great. You will get pepper sprayed, you will get rubber bulleted, you will get thrown across the street – and as we know, you could get killed.”
cburney@duranogherald.com
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