Sheriff: Protests are dangerous
Demonstrators target Hodgson’s home during Thanksgiving
Faced with a Thanksgiving Day protest outside his home, Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson says he took it graciously — but he’s concerned that political harassment that gets personal is becoming “dangerous” across the country.
A Rhode Island group, FANG Collective, demonstrated outside Hodgson’s home Thursday morning to oppose his cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with an agreement that lets his deputies carry out immigration-related functions that are normally reserved for ICE agents.
“I wished them a happy Thanksgiving and told them it was so nice of them to stop by,” Hodgson told the Herald, adding that he would have made more turkey if he knew the group of 20 protesters was coming.
But Nick Katkevich, a member of FANG Collective, claimed Hodgson “didn’t say a word to us.”
“They have a right to protest,” Hodgson said. But he said he is concerned about other targeted demonstrations across the nation that he said could become “dangerous.”
“Any time you get groups of people together things can quickly shift into a mob mentality,” Hodgson said. “America is better than this.”
Katkevich countered, “I think to interrupt his holiday for 30 minutes is definitely appropriate because he is disrupting people’s lives every day.” He added Hodgson is “violating human rights” by “separating families every day.”
Katkevich said the group read a letter written by ICE detainees over a bullhorn outside Hodgson’s home. He said FANG Collective wants Bristol County to cancel its agreement with ICE.
Conservative political figures have been the recent subjects of a string of personal attacks since June, when White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was confronted at a restaurant in Virginia and asked to leave.
The same month, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was heckled out of a Mexican restaurant and White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller was called a fascist while dining in a different Mexican restaurant.
In September, Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake was confronted in an elevator by two protesters during Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearings. Earlier this month, Fox News host Tucker Carlson was threatened by protesters who chanted threats outside his home in Washington, D.C.
Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies with the Center for Immigration Studies, said it is “never appropriate” for demonstrators to show up at one’s home.
She said the immigration policy in question serves to keep the community safe, and added that those opposed to it should “try to get information about the program and how it operates and ask if they can observe how it works.”
“The people who do this are so self-righteous and sure of their own opinions that they think everyone who disagrees with them is evil and needs to be confronted or harassed,” Vaughan said.
“It doesn’t happen to liberals, even though many of them are just as outspoken,” she said.