Cold doesn’t deter Norwoodians to protest

About 100 residents braved the cold, windy and clear afternoon on Tuesday for the Progress Norwood iteration of the Free America Walkout at the intersection of Washington Street and Nahatan Street.

Organizer Katie Neal Rizzo said the protest, one of many across the state, was in reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump’s seeming wish to take Greenland, a semi-autonomous region, from Denmark, as well as protest the machinations of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions of the last few weeks.

“We just want to show support for our fellow Norwoodians who are feeling threatened, scared or not welcome,” she said. “We want to continue to show dissent in this country for the illegal ways that ICE is removing people from their homes and the street.”

Neal-Rizzo said the turnout had fewer participants than past events, but the weather and time were factors.

“It’s a good turnout; I think there were 900 different protests across the country at this time, so people are walking out of wherever they are working,” she said. “So if they’re working in town they can join one of the protests in Boston. I work from home, so I’m walking out of my house.”

The national Walk Out campaign had more than 1,200 events across the country, everywhere from Florida to Alaska, and adopted the language of a general strike against the federal government.

“One year into Trump’s second regime, we face an escalating fascist threat: ICE raids on our communities, troops occupying our cities, families torn apart, attacks on our trans siblings, mass surveillance, and terror used to keep us silent,” the group wrote on its website. “It is time for our communities to escalate as well. On January 20 at 2 PM local time, we will walk out of work, school, and commerce. We will withhold our labor, our participation, and our consent. A free America begins the moment we refuse to cooperate. This is not a request. This is a rupture. This is a protest and a promise. In the face of fascism, we will be ungovernable.”

Resident Brenda Fraser said she wanted to get out and be heard.

“I want to exercise my right to free speech,” she said. “I’ve been to many of these. I don’t like what’s happening to the country; it’s terrifying. And I feel like too many politicians aren’t doing anything while we’re losing out rights in many different ways. The opposition isn’t even on the news anymore. They never show us coming out, and so I’m concerned about a lot of things, and this is the one thing I can do.”

Several residents said they did not want to give their names for fear of retribution.

“Why isn’t this administration following the law? How is this making America great again?” one resident said. “ICE put chemical agents into minivans with six-month-old babies. How is that right?”

Resident Jonathan Cardoni said he felt the country has changed.

“I think most everybody they’re attacking is innocent, and people who are citizens are being abducted and detained, even if they’re citizens, just because of the color of their skin,” he said. “We’re in danger of losing our democracy. It’s that simple. We’re going to be in an authoritarian country, and our freedoms are being chipped away in chunks.”

According to TracReports – https://tinyurl.com/nhuy55wc – about 70 percent or so of people ICE has detained since the beginning of 2025 have had no criminal conviction, and the site points out that ICE classifies any minor offense as a criminal conviction.

Cardoni said he felt while these are serious issues and Trump is playing with fire, there is a core issue at play not many people are talking about, at least right now.

“What’s Europe doing? They’re sending NATO troops to Greenland, because this guy wants Greenland, for some reason,” he said. “We’ve got military bases there. Why would he do that? Distract and deflect, that’s what he’s doing. Where are the Epstein files? They released like 1 percent of them.”

One resident said she was also concerned about Greenland and the implications of attacking a NATO ally would have on the globe.

“He’s out of control and he needs to stop,” she said. “He’s alienating all our allies and I think he’s going to get us to a place we don’t want to be.”

“Resistance melts ice!” one resident said.

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“Given how cold it is, and on a weekday, I think it’s a good showing,” another said.

Norwood resident Mike Roehr said he’s been to 19 such protests here in Norwood and beyond.

“I’ve been to the Common, here, I was at Walpole and Brookline on Saturday,” he said, while holding up a large United States flag. “I carry this because it’s our flag and it represents everybody.”

Drivers honked their horns all throughout the day as the protest went on. Roehr and Newton resident Sharon Pywell said the atmosphere is usually very friendly, despite the occasional angry reaction from drivers.

“It really is community, everybody’s friendly usually, but we do get a few hecklers,” he said. “But just a few.”

“I got screamed at in Needham, but it was generally friendly,” said Pywell. “If there are 100 people driving by you, generally someone’s going to disagree with you. But they just seem so mean, and the tone is so aggressively hostile. It’s not just, ‘I disagree with you,’ it’s ‘I hate you.’”

Roehr said in Norwood at least, apparent opponents stare straight ahead and don’t react.

The national Walkout campaign was organized by the Women’s March. Go to https://tinyurl.com/29jf7c47 for more information.