Hyperlocal and highly visible: the power of freeway overpass protests amid Trump 2.0

[babylonsister]

Hyperlocal and highly visible: the power of freeway overpass protests amid Trump 2.0
Since Trump retook office, protesters across the US are sending messages that are hard for drivers to miss
Iris Kim
Tue 13 Jan 2026 07.00 EST


Bonnie Connery was horrified when she read the news about the death of ICE observer Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on 7 January. Within minutes, she and her local Missoula Visibility Brigade were messaging each other. By 3.30pm, the group of 20 was standing on the South Reserve Street Pedestrian Bridge, arranging letters cut out of craft paper and glued onto black foam and hanging them across the bridge using bungee cords. Thousands of cars driving by during rush hour passed under their messages: “ICE THUGS KILL CITIZEN” and “DHS LIES.”

The idea was to grab drivers’ attention quickly, which often means using a short, shocking message. When asked why the group chose this location, Connery said: “These cars are driving out of Missoula, which is blue, into the very red areas outside of the city.”

After Good’s killing, other Visibility Brigades across the country were assembling, too. In Paramus, New Jersey, protesters hung signs that read “ICE MURDERS WOMAN IN MN” over state highway Route 4. In Palo Alto, California, in St Paul, Minnesota, and in Louisville, Kentucky, protesters gathered in a matter of hours with their quickly assembled signs on their local overpasses.

Though these protests may seem spontaneous, they are the result of months of grassroots organizing. Unlike large national mobilizations such as the No Kings protests, these local brigades are focused on immediate, hyperlocal and high-visibility actions. Dana H Glazer, a national leader at the Visibility Brigade, said their goal is to disrupt passerbys’ veneer of normalcy. “People only act accordingly when they’re constantly faced with the fact that there’s a huge problem,” Glazer said.

Groups like the Visibility Brigade and 50501, one of the lead organizations of the No Kings protests, are encouraging action beyond the national level to include smaller, repeated actions denouncing Donald Trump’s policies. Since March 2025, more than 250 Visibility Brigades have formed all over the country, across urban, rural, blue and red cities.

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/13/highway-ice-protests-visibility-brigade