The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview located outside of Chicago has become a focal point for protesters who want to resist the agency. A viral photo of an ICE agent at the site pepper spraying a pastor in the face has come to exemplify the aggressive and violent tactics federal officers are using to corral the demonstrations.
The Rev. Quincy Worthington was there the night his friend, the Rev. David Black, was shot in the back of the head with a pepper bullet and pepper-sprayed in the face, and has returned every weekend since. He’s seen ICE agents hit protesters with batons, shoot pepper balls and rubber bullets, and deploy flash-bangs into the crowd. Worthington says his faith is what keeps him going back after some of the scariest nights of his life.
Below is a conversation between Worthington and Today, Explained host Noel King. Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full podcast, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.
Where did this start for you?
At the beginning of September, I went to a Faith Over Fear rally and press conference in Daley Plaza [in downtown Chicago] that was about Operation Midway Blitz ramping up and about a faithful response to that. David was there and he spoke, and through conversation of asking him what was going on and what he was doing, he told me about Broadview and the things that were going on there. And he said that it would be really great to have more clergy presence there, because we provide a sense of calm and can help deescalate things sometimes if it needs to be deescalated. I told him I would be happy to join him at those and went that Friday.
That night when the picture was taken, he and I had actually just arrived there together. And I was checking in with people at a supply table, finding out who the medics are, because [the ICE agents had] been releasing chemical munitions on us before. One of the things I’ve been trying to help do is get protesters safely away from the chemical munitions and to get the medical treatment if they need it; helping flush out eyes. While I was connecting there, David went up front as he usually does to pray, to plead to the humanity of the officers. He had finished doing that and was turning around to walk away, and the agent on the roof shot him in the top of the head with a pepper ball.
Were you surprised that this happened?
(Sigh) I think by that time, no. I mean, I guess you’re surprised every time it happens. I wasn’t shocked. ICE has been escalating their response to protesters every time we’ve gone. So I think I was a little taken back in the moment that it was just a random pot shot that they took at him,