• Protesters gathered outside a Columbus-area hotel to disrupt U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials staying there.
• Police were called to the Embassy Suites on Dec. 19 due to noise complaints from the demonstration.
• The protest, which included loud music, followed several days of reported ICE activity in the Columbus area.
• A hotel employee confirmed ICE officials were guests and that some other guests received refunds due to the disturbance.

Dozens of people gathered in below freezing temperatures Friday night, Dec. 19, to protest U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement officials’ presence in Columbus.

Protesters discovered where ICE officials were staying locally and showed up outside their hotel to blast music and disrupt their sleep, according to reports from social media, a witness, police and a hotel employee.

The music, mostly electronic dance music with heavy beats, began around 9 p.m. and didn’t cease for hours, said Brandon Baker, 36, who happened upon the scene after hearing and seeing activity.

He took a video and posted it on Facebook as he stood outside the Embassy Suites hotel on Corporate Exchange Drive on the Northeast Side near Westerville around 9:30 p.m.

“It’s important to recognize that Columbus is a melting pot and we’re not going to tolerate this kind of intolerance,” Baker said, of why he posted the video. He was also hoping more people might come.

In the nearly hour he was on scene, Baker said he saw approximately 50 people gathered outside grow to a group closer to 150. There were also people in parked cars honking their horns and five to seven police cars there, though he said police weren’t interacting with protesters. He also witnessed people leaving the hotel.

Columbus police said they were called around 9:20 p.m. on Dec. 19 due to noise complaints, but said there was no further information.

The protest followed several reports of increased ICE activity and arrests Dec. 17, 18 and 19 in Columbus, as well as a small group protest outside the Westerville ICE office earlier on Friday.

ICE activity continues in Columbus. Community members, leaders respond

The increased ICE activity prompted responses from city officials, advocates and more earlier in the week. The response included Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther and Columbus police Chief Elaine Bryant saying no city resources would be used to help federal agents in immigration enforcement operations.

“It was a good symbol and a good thing to see Columbus kind of fighting back against this group of indivdiuals who have pretty much taken it upon themselves to terrorize people,” Baker said of the protest. “If we’re so anti-terrorism in the United States, why are we allowing something like this to even happen?”

On Dec. 18, an ICE spokesperson said in a prepared release: “ICE officers continue to arrest criminal illegal aliens and immigration violators in the city of Columbus, across Ohio, and throughout the United States.”

“These enforcement actions are part of ongoing efforts to uphold public safety and enforce federal immigration laws,” the statement said.

Some advocates said they feared the increased activity in Columbus in the past few days – including an estimated 15 to 20 arrests each day on Dec. 17 and Dec. 18 – might be the beginning of raids in other U.S. cities. In Chicago, ICE’s “Operation Midway Blitz” ended with 1,600 to 1,900 people arrested beginning in September, according to news reports.

The hotel had to refund at least a few guests, a hotel employee said. He confirmed ICE was staying at the hotel, but emphasized they are open to the public and do not have control over who stays there.

Baker’s video pans as someone states that people are blaring music outside the hotel to keep ICE awake.

Advocates, attorneys say ICE activity escalated this week in Columbus

“Everyone was doing everything they could to make noise,” Baker said. “The idea is to play the music and stuff as loud as possible to keep them from sleeping.”

It appeared that the music was coming from a bus with speakers attached, Baker said, but people were also playing trombones and trumpets and ringing cow bells.

People Baker spoke to said they were trying to “drown” out ICE and get them to leave.

“Columbus is done with this,” Baker said.

Underserved Communities Reporter Danae King can be reached at dking@dispatch.com or on X at @DanaeKing.

South Dakota’s weak open records law gives police agencies full discretion on whether to release footage from body or dashboard cameras, and in most cases, the videos of officer conduct are never shown to the public.

South Dakota News Watch made formal public records requests to obtain video footage of use of deadly force incidents from eight separate law enforcement agencies in November, and all of the requests were quickly denied.

On a few occasions, South Dakota law enforcement agencies have released video footage of their own accord but not necessarily in cases where officer conduct is in question.

The Watertown Police Department released a video on Facebook in early November showing officers responding to a possible break-in with their guns drawn only to find a whitetail buck that had made it into a bedroom.

In 2016, the Rapid City Police Department posted a dash cam video to its public Facebook page showing the chief’s nephew proposing to his girlfriend in a mock traffic stop. “This one is too good not to share,” the Facebook post noted.

The Rapid City Police Department rejected News Watch’s request for videos of a May 30, 2023, incident in which an officer fatally shot 25-year-old Kyle Whiting, who brandished a fake gun during a foot chase. A bystander inside a nearby home was also shot in the abdomen by the officer and survived. The state ruled the

shooting was justified

.

Some police agencies will occasionally release still images from body or dashboard camera videos, typically when the screenshots show an officer facing a clear threat that appears to justify use of deadly force.

In August, the state released an image from video of a July 5, chase in which a Sioux Falls police officer shot and wounded 24-year-old Deondre Gene Black Hawk in the 100 block of Garfield Avenue.

One still image released to the public shows the gun Black Hawk fired at police. Another image shows Black Hawk pointing the gun toward a pursuing officer prior to the shooting, which

was ruled justified

by state investigators.

In a move that appeared to have political overtones, videos were released in 2021 showing former South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg being pulled over by officers for suspected traffic violations. The videos and audio showed Ravnsborg informing officers of his status as attorney general during the traffic stops, some of which did not result in tickets.

The videos were released during a period when Ravnsborg was facing possible removal from office for striking and killing a pedestrian in September 2020.

Ravnsborg was eventually impeached, an action supported by then-Gov. Kristi Noem, whose office also made the unprecedented move of releasing videos of Ravnsborg being interviewed by detectives during the investigation into the 2020 fatal accident.

(Screenshot of 2021 state video)

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Video of a June 2023 police-involved shooting in South Dakota was released by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. In that incident, 39-year-old James Schneider of Watauga fired a weapon and then led authorities on a vehicle chase that ended at the Bullhead Community Center parking lot.

According to the dashboard video, Schneider was waving his arms and holding a handgun in an area where people were present. After he turned to flee into a residential neighborhood, he was shot in the back by an officer. Schneider was found guilty in August of assault and weapons charges after a jury trial and is awaiting sentencing.

In releasing

the video

, the BIA said it was doing so to be transparent in its operations. To protect the privacy of all involved, faces were blurred in the video.

McPherson County Sheriff David Ackerman, president of the South Dakota Sheriff’s Association, said body and dash cameras are important tools for police agencies in both urban and rural areas, even though his camera program costs about $60,000 a year, roughly 10% of the overall departmental budget.

“These are very valuable tools, and it’s something that in this day and age, every office and agency needs to have,” Ackerman said. “I’m glad where we are today because they’re for the protection of the public as well as the officers.”

Monty Rothenberger, assistant police chief in Yankton, said he supports the use of dash and body cameras as a way to increase accountability for officers and to aid in resolving public complaints.

“I wouldn’t do this job without a body camera, and I enjoy wearing it,” Rothenberger said. “I don’t have anything to hide. And because everything is on video, I feel like Big Brother is watching and I support that.”

— This story was originally published on southdakotanewswatch.org.