Winchester holds candlelight vigil for victims of ICE

On a cold, icy Saturday night in late January, about 40 peo­ple gath­ered on the steps of the Clark County Courthouse to show sup­port for Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and oth­ers harmed by what many see as ICE’s overreach.

Adam Johnson, a Winchester employ­ment attor­ney, orga­nized the event, along with his wife. He spoke to the crowd at the start of the event. Ryan Bloyd-Wiseman, Priest in Charge of Emmanuel Episcopal Church, also offered remarks and a prayer.

Attendees brought signs, can­dles, and tea lights. One sign list­ed the names of peo­ple who died in ICE cus­tody over the past two years. Music played, a few orga­niz­ers offered brief remarks, and for most of the hour-long gath­er­ing, the crowd stood in qui­et, respect­ful reflec­tion — a small cir­cle of light against the win­ter dark.

In an inter­view with Adam Johnson on Monday, he told WinCity Voices that he and his wife felt com­pelled to cre­ate a space for locals to express both their sup­port for the vic­tims and their con­cern about the tac­tics being used by ICE agents around the country.

“It was one of those sit­u­a­tions where we did it on the spur,” Adam said. “And we were amazed at the turnout. It was one of those events that gives you a lit­tle bit of hope that you’re not alone out here.”

He spoke about how deeply the recent killing of Renee Good in Minnesota affect­ed them. “We had already sched­uled the vig­il right after that, and then Alex Pretti hap­pened a week or so after­ward. That shocked our con­science quite a lit­tle bit. We had gone up to Lexington for one of the protests after Renee Goode’s death, and we thought, ‘Why can’t this hap­pen here in Winchester?’”

Why indeed. Winchester hasn’t seen any orga­nized protests that I am aware of in the past year, unlike oth­er towns and cities. But Saturday’s gath­er­ing sug­gest­ed that our com­mu­ni­ty may be more ready to speak up than many realize.

“There are peo­ple who have sim­i­lar views,” Adam said. “People who also think what’s going on is wrong. They are out there, and it’s very much a ‘Field of Dreams’ sit­u­a­tion: build it, and they will come.”

Adam described the event as peace­ful and free of disruptions.

“That’s hon­est­ly one of the rea­sons I liked it so much,” he said. “We all agreed we didn’t like what was hap­pen­ing and spoke out against it. All we did was shel­ter from the wind on the cour­t­house steps and talk to one anoth­er. It was a real­ly great experience.”

One attendee, a life­long Winchester res­i­dent who asked us to use only her first name, Jessica, shared her thoughts by phone on Monday.

“The words that come to my mind are just a sense of com­mu­ni­ty,” she said. “It made my heart feel so much relief and sup­port just to see oth­er peo­ple who feel sim­i­lar­ly… this recent turn of events and the sup­port for lives lost to state vio­lence that is not being held account­able. I’m thank­ful for the orga­niz­er of the event. I think it was much need­ed in our community.”

A read­er, Taylor de Villiers, reached out via email. He also attend­ed the vigil.

“I was so appre­cia­tive of both the orga­niz­ers and mem­bers of our com­mu­ni­ty who braved the weath­er to attend,” he wrote. “I was encour­aged by the turnout.”

Taylor added, “It was com­fort­ing to be able to gath­er with oth­ers who also believe that what is hap­pen­ing is wrong. The impor­tance of hav­ing a safe space to pub­licly grieve those we have lost due to the actions of our gov­ern­ment can­not be overstated.”

Tara York also con­tact­ed us via email. 

“I attend­ed the can­dle­light vig­il in hon­or of the lives lost to ICE and this admin­is­tra­tion,” she wrote. “The vig­il felt like a rare moment of peace in a world that too often feels heavy with vio­lence. I didn’t speak — I stood qui­et­ly in the back — but even in my silence, I felt seen. There was some­thing deeply com­fort­ing about being in a space where grief, anger, and com­pas­sion were all allowed to exist togeth­er. For a lit­tle while, I wasn’t car­ry­ing every­thing by myself. Being there remind­ed me that even when we feel iso­lat­ed, there are still peo­ple who care enough to show up and stand together.”

With the suc­cess of the January vig­il, Adam Johnson believes Winchester is ready to take anoth­er step. A nation­wide “No Kings” ral­ly is planned for March 28, and Winchester will par­tic­i­pate this time.

“Yes, we’re going to shoot for that,” Adam said. “We’ve already got some peo­ple who are inter­est­ed. We’re going to make a Facebook group and do all that.”

I believe there is more con­cern in our com­mu­ni­ty than many peo­ple real­ize — more neigh­bors who sup­port the rights of mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties fac­ing pres­sure from the Trump admin­is­tra­tion. From Pride fes­ti­vals that affirm gen­der and sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion equal­i­ty, to events sup­port­ing the Black com­mu­ni­ty, and now, final­ly, some push­back against the dehu­man­iza­tion of undoc­u­ment­ed immi­grants — and even, as the Minnesota killings show, against harm done to peo­ple sim­ply try­ing to speak out.

I’ve always known Winchester is full of com­pas­sion­ate, car­ing peo­ple. But some of that com­pas­sion has been selec­tive­ly applied. Some seem to believe not every­one is enti­tled to empa­thy and equal pro­tec­tion under the law.

I remain hope­ful that this is chang­ing. Last week’s cour­t­house vig­il was a small step. More steps will follow.