It’s an oblique reference to German Pastor Martin Niemoller’s post-World War statement about Nazis coming first for the socialists, then the trade unionists, then the Jews, and Niemoller’s failure to speak out, because he was not one of those — but it concludes with, “Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.”

Like Good, Jackson is a 37-year-old mother with a 6-year-old daughter, the same middle name and the same activist practices, but unlike Niemoller, Jackson has not held back from speaking out against government policies she finds objectionable, even when they haven’t applied to her directly, she said.

“As a white, straight woman (who is not an immigrant), I understand there’s not a lot of threats to my rights in this country,” Jackson said Sunday in a phone conversation. “But for a lot of people I love and care about, there are (threats), and they matter to me: none of us are free till all of us are free.”

In speaking out against the policies of President Donald Trump since 2016, Jackson has placed a target on herself — regularly receiving death threats, she said.

A sign protests ICE during a demonstration Saturday in downtown Altoona. Mirror photo by William Kibler

“I’ve fully accepted the fact that I could be hurt for having an opinion and speaking out,” she stated.

It was inevitable that something like Wednesday’s shooting would happen, she said. “(But) I’m not going to let it scare me,” she said.

About 65 people attended the protest, which was planned at an Indivisible Blair County committee meeting the day after the shooting, and which began on the 13th Street crossover, then moved to the 10th Avenue Expressway sidewalk below, to provide better exposure to passing motorists.

Many of those motorists honked in friendly fashion or flashed a thumbs up or peace sign, although a handful gunned their engines in contempt or gave protesters the finger, as the protesters stood in intermittent light rain, with temperatures around 40 degrees.

Protester Janei Forbes of Altoona also identified with the situation that took place in Minneapolis, which included ICE agents refusing to let a person at the scene who said they were a doctor help the bloodied Good as she sat in her wrecked car after the shooting. The ICE agent told the doctor that an ambulance was on the way.

She’s a registered nurse, Forbes said.

“If I ran up and checked (her) pulse, would I have gotten shot?” Forbes asked. “I took an oath to save lives, and she (Good) needed medical attention.”

Protester Jay Eiman of Altoona identifies with the immigrants that are the target of ICE raids in many parts of the country.

Eiman is the son of immigrants, both now deceased, who were post-World War II refugees from Poland. Both were Jews.

“I’m here to protest the injustice of the murder of Renee Good,” Eiman said. “Also the permissive use of ICE as (the administration’s) private militia.”

There was one counter-protester Saturday who stood along the one-way expressway, on the same side as the main group, but across 13th Street.

Paul Lockard carried a sign that read: “I support ICE: ICE, ICE, Baby.”

“If they (immigrants) have plans to come and kill us, why would we open up the door,” Lockard asked.

He spoke about young children being murdered and “how open (former President Joe) Biden left our borders.”

While he was demonstrating, a person said to him, “someone should throw a brick at your head,” Lockard said.

He felt scared and threatened, he said.

He replied by saying he “open carried,” which was merely a bluff, he said.

The person walked away, Lockard said.

“For anyone to stand up for their own beliefs, it’s very nerve-wracking,” Lockard said. “Especially when you’re by yourself.”

Two protesters with whom the Mirror spoke declined to give their names.

“You see a lot of backlash,” said one, a woman. She has protested in Philipsburg “and people came around taking pictures and videos,” she said, suggesting that doing so was an implied threat.

The woman was disturbed by the videos she saw from Minneapolis, she said.

“There was no offense (by Good) that was punishable by death,” she said.

The other protester who declined to give his name feared losing friends and the good opinion of family members.

“(But) somebody’s got to stand up,” he said.

The people of the country who object to the way things are going need to keep pressure on the Trump administration, said Jack Barlow of Huntingdon, a political science professor at Juniata College.

“Congress (also) needs to step up,” Barlow said. “And not just surrender to the president.”

Still, coherent, measured responses to problematic behavior by the administration are difficult, “because things are happening so fast,” Barlow said.

In just the last few weeks, the Epstein files, the situation in Venezuela, the situation in Minneapolis and a shooting in Portland have swallowed attention, he said.

Asked whether protesters run the risk of giving the administration cause to ramp up the very practices the protesters find objectionable, Barlow’s wife Kathleen said, “That’s why it’s critical to protest peacefully.”

Protester Bill Kelley of Tyrone is a frequent presence at Indivisible events.

ICE is “a paramilitary organization funded by the government,” Kelley said. “They don’t seem to have any accountability,” he said. “They’re being sent out to harass people in this country, citizens or not.”

The ICE officer in Minneapolis “overreacted and escalated,” Kelley said.

No local law enforcement officers would behave that way, he predicted.

Indivisible President Carol Taylor was asked whether Good’s apparent attempt to interfere with ICE operations tended to justify the shooter’s reaction, as administration officials have argued.

That argument doesn’t make sense, given that ICE basically wanted Good to get her car away from where it was stopped, perpendicular to a lane of travel on a two-lane, one-way street, according to Taylor.

In the very act of trying to leave, she was shot, Taylor said.

“Any one of us could just be in the wrong place at the wrong time and be arrested, detained, injured or murdered,” Taylor said.

“Trump and his goon squad need to go,” said protester Bruce Daugherty of Altoona.

“(We need) to stand up against the fascism that is sweeping our nation,” said protester Casey Miller of Tyrone.

“I don’t like the way the country is going,” said protester Bob Decker.

Indivisible has scheduled a protest vigil in front of U.S. Rep. John Joyce’s Altoona office at 5414 Sixth Ave. starting at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Taylor said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.