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Profiles in Courage

ByToby Sackton

At Lexington Alarm we have a theory of resistance. When people have courage to take small actions they generate a response. No action is too small or insignificant not to count. Sometimes the responses strengthen the resistance in surprising ways. This creates a snowball effect, and the resistance to abuses and attacks on our constitutional rights grows stronger.

We have two really important examples from the past two weeks.

First, Bearing Witness. The weekly demonstrations outside of ICE headquarters in Burlington have grown, and even in the winter regularly pull 700 to 800 people. In response the Burlington police and the local real-estate powers who rent to ICE have begun trying to suppress the turnout. The police encouraged the mall to ban parking by those attending the standouts. National Development, a major real estate company that owns virtually all the property on District Ave, cracked down on parking and began an aggressive policy of towing. Some felt vulnerable because we were standing on grass which was private property of National Development; if we angered them they could force us to leave.

But Jared and Laurie Berezin, founders of Bearing Witness, had noticed that National Development cracked down on demonstrator’s cars, but ignored dozens of ICE vehicles parked in lots owned by National Development. We were being targeted, but ICE was not.

Business complicity with ICE is a huge problem, and this appeared to be a clear example. We are in a national emergency where hundreds of thousands of our neighbors are being swept up and disappeared regardless of the legality of their immigration status. This is pure evil. Resisting this massive roundup is the fight that will determine if our constitution and our democracy lives or dies. There is no middle ground.

So the Berezins, along with MA 5051, Newton Indivisible, and Lexington Alarm, planned a demonstration outside the Headquarters of National Development in Newton. But once this demonstration was scheduled and people began writing letters, a funny thing happened. National Development wanted to meet. The meeting resulted in an agreement. National Development wrote to ICE telling them their vehicles would be subject to towing like any others if parked outside of their own parking lots. And more importantly, we developed an ongoing relationship with National Development.

This paid off after the snow storm the following week, when the Burlington police shut down our shovel brigade that clears out the area where we stand after snow storms this winter. They claimed National Development told them to. We immediately reached out to the company, and sure enough, they had not told this to the police. The next day we went and shoveled. This week our standouts are continuing as usual.

It was this act of courage and moral witness, of being willing to publicly call out a business for complicity with ICE, even one that had power to hurt us, that won the day. This is what a profile in courage looks like. Our witness against ICE in Burlington is even more firmly entrenched, and we have a communication channel with National Development completely separate from the Burlington police. We are much stronger.

Then, it happened again. The Lexington Chamber of Commerce had scheduled a casino night at the Cafe Escadrille in March. Why would the Chamber, which represents many businesses in Lexington who support fair treatment of immigrants and standing up for our constitutional rights, choose a venue owned by the same man who leases the Burlington Headquarters to ICE, who gets $2.2 million in rent from those who abuse detainees with no food, no beds, open toilets, 24 hour lights, and in general torture them for days in hopes they will give up and stop demanding their due process.

Many people wrote to the Chamber individually, and Lexington Alarm prepared a letter officially, asking they reconsider the venue. The Chamber’s board and staff had not realized the strong connection between the Cafe Escadrille owned by the same property owner refusing to cooperate with Burlington zoning enforcement at the ICE Headquarters.. At a considerable financial cost, and after a lively debate, the board agreed and moved the event.

It will be an important precedent to convince others not to hold events at a restaurant so tainted by complicity with ICE. And like other acts of courage, we will not only praise it, but try and do everything in our power to make the Chamber’s rescheduled event a success. What the Chamber did, at a considerable cost, was to bring our community together rather than divide it.

Out of such public actions is victory built. We will end the ICE reign of terror on our communities, and nationwide, and replace it with a lawful and humane immigration system that does not tear apart families, or deport 5 year old children, or throw people out of this country who were brought here as young children and have known no other home.

We are honored to stand with those who exhibit such courage.

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